Microsoft has launched Fabric, a comprehensive data and analytics platform signifying a big move in the company’s efforts to simplify the modern data stack while also uniting a multi-cloud approach. Fabric is centered around Microsoft’s OneLake data lake, from which it can draw data from Amazon S3 and Google Cloud Platform. This platform also comes packaged with a collection of intuitive integration tools and plenty of empowering capabilities in its Power BI feature.
The goal with Fabric is to save users time and money by consolidating multiple vendors and reducing the need to pay “integration tax”; in other words, making it easier to get the most out of data without needing to pay different providers for multiple cloud solutions. To achieve this, Fabric is built with a unified compute infrastructure and a single data lake based on the open-source Apache Parquet file format.
In terms of user experience, Fabric includes a no-code developer experience which monitors data in real time and triggers actions and notifications based on potential changes, all within a single platform. It is also set up as a single-buy model, making it easier for enterprises to manage costs and save money on their data reliance. Fabric was tested with 100 of the Fortune 500, each with varying degrees of success, leading more people and businesses to embrace the value of the platform.
Microsoft is led by Arun Ulag, the Corporate VP for Azure Data, who is leading the innovative charge of Fabric. Ulag sees the need for a unified platform and oversees the development of Fabric from engineering and data science to integration, warehousing, real-time analytics, and business intelligence. With the help of Microsoft’s AI Copilot, Fabric is expected to be a revolutionary platform when it is released from its public preview on July 1.
