What is Microsoft Fabric?

As the manufacturer indicates, Microsoft Fabric is an all-in-one analytics service based on the fundamentals of programming as a service (SaaS).

It meets the needs of any analyst looking for a tool to optimise data-driven operations. 

What does Microsoft Fabric enable?

• Transfer and integration of data.
• Development of collected material.
• Business analysis.

It's an integrated, intelligent system for handling datasets, so you don't have to search for software to work with. You have it all in one place - in the Microsoft Fabric backbone service.

Microsoft Fabric versus Power BI services

You know Power BI well as a tool for business analysis, visualisation, or sharing interactive reports. It's a comprehensive service for working on, segmenting, and developing data sets. 

What does Microsoft Fabric have in common with Power BI? We mentioned that Microsoft Fabric is a comprehensive service, so it combines the following:

• elements of the Power BI service,
• Azure Synapse,
• Azure Data Explorer.

All elements are integrated so you can use your favourite analytics tools in one place. 

You have the following analytics categories available to you:

• Data Engineering - here, you work with the Spark platform to collect and process large datasets using Lakehouse services.
• Data Factory - you'll connect to data sources, transform the material you've acquired and send it to data flows. 
• Data Science, a space where you will learn to work with collections of information, transform them and design machine learning models. 
• Data Warehouse, which is an environment for storing data. It has a high computational capacity.
• Real-time Analytics, or Real-time Analysis, is used to analyse interactive data. It is a simplified service that retains high performance and advanced computing capabilities. It provides quick access to information and simplifies data integration.
• Power BI, a tool for analysing data sets to help you make better business decisions. 

The above services are primarily available on a familiarisation basis.

Microsoft Fabric is a way to work with data faster and more efficiently using your favourite tools. And all in one place! 

Benefit from a framework including Microsoft Fabric, Power BI, and Azure services

With Microsoft Fabric, everyone in your organisation can work from within Microsoft 365 applications (e.g., Excel or Teams) by sharing content. 

What do you need to be able to share and develop data? You need an organisational licence and a minimum of one individual licence.  You acquire an organisational licence per capacity or per user.

On the other hand, individual licenses are divided into free and Pro variants. Free includes the creation and sharing of data on the Fabric backbone network. Pro comes in trial and paid versions.

The Pro variant allows Power BI data to be shared with other users. Each organisation must have at least one licence of this type to work with the Power BI tool. 

If you want to experience working in the Microsoft Fabric environment, you can use the familiarisation version to learn about the service's capabilities.