Microsoft Fabric: Seamless Data Management Under One Roof

Marketing keeps their campaign metrics in one system. Finance has their own data warehouse. And your data science team is off building models using another platform entirely.  

This data sprawl isn’t just frustrating; it’s costing you time, money, and valuable insights. Reports take ages to compile and nobody trusts the numbers. Getting a full picture of your business is like building a jigsaw with pieces from different puzzles. 

Microsoft Fabric promises to end this data silo chaos.  

Ryan, our Head of Technical Operations, recently put Microsoft Fabric through its paces. Watch his video breakdown below, or read on to find out more about this game-changing all-in-one data platform. 

Microsoft Fabric is Microsoft’s all-in-one data platform that brings together your entire data ecosystem under a single cloud interface. It is one interface, one data layer, and one billing model—whether you’re building pipelines, creating dashboards, or doing complex data science. 

Microsoft Fabric gives you one place to do it all, powered by OneLake, your organisation’s centralised data lake. 

The Microsoft Fabric architecture is designed around this unified approach, eliminating the need to juggle multiple environments. If you’re working in Azure or Microsoft 365, this could genuinely transform how your team makes use of all your data. 

Many businesses today are stuck with siloed data tools. You’ve probably chosen different products for different tasks—maybe the best available tool at the time or just the ones your team were most familiar with. 

For data ingestion, you might be using Data Factory. For processing, you’re turning to Synapse. Then for consumption, you’ve got Power BI dashboards alongside data science tools and real-time analytics. But where do you store all this data, and how do these tools interact? 

This scenario can get pretty messy: your Data Factory stores information in one data lake, which is then processed by Synapse and stored in a data warehouse, which feeds into a lake house, and finally reaches your analytics platforms. Your data gets duplicated across different systems, making governance nearly impossible. Workflows become disjointed, and your efficiency takes a nosedive. 

What magic solution could fix all these problems? Fabric, of course! 

Fabric pulls everything that might be siloed in different places and unifies it under one SaaS wrapper. It brings together data engineering, integration, science, warehousing, BI analytics, and Synapse with one shared data foundation. This includes the Microsoft Fabric data warehouse capabilities, which combine the best elements of traditional data warehousing with modern cloud architecture. 

OneLake: the heart of Fabric 

At the core of Fabric is OneLake—think of it as OneDrive, but for all your company data. It’s a central lake where all your data lives, and every tool in Fabric can use it without having to copy anything, so there’s no need for duplication. 

That’s not to say you lose control of your data structure. There are lots of options available, so you can still organise things in warehouses or lakes as needed—but it’s all in one place, accessible by every tool. 

One experience for everything 

Fabric brings together the big three: Power BI for dashboards, Synapse for analytics, and Data Factory for pipelines. But instead of bouncing between different portals, you get one workspace to do it all. It’s a SaaS-style experience you can access easily from the cloud. 

While Microsoft Fabric vs Power BI isn’t an either/or choice (you’ll need a Power BI license to use Fabric anyway), knowing the difference is important. Similarly, Microsoft Fabric vs Synapse or Microsoft Fabric vs Data Factory comparisons miss the point—Fabric enhances these tools by unifying them rather than replacing them. 

Using these all together under one roof means you’ll spend less time syncing tools, and duplicating data. It’s fast, and like most other things in the cloud, scales with your needs

The governance aspects of Fabric can’t be ignored—they’re super useful for keeping things safe. Microsoft Purview comes as part of the whole Fabric package, allowing you to have one security policy for all your data. 

We’ve covered this great DSPM (Data Security Posture Management) tool in an article specifically focusing on AI. In it, we explain how Purview shows you how your company data is being fed into AI tools like ChatGPT. It also highlights risk areas and shows where sensitive data is flowing. 

With Purview on hand, your compliance and governance can be controlled from one secure product. This eliminates the separate policies you might currently have depending on region, storage type, or which team owns the data. Unified governance is a massive benefit for any modern organisation—don’t miss out. 

Engineers, scientists, analysts, finance folks, and even local Excel gurus—Fabric is designed for everyone who deals with data. Everyone in the data pipeline can work together without silos or barriers, creating one source of truth. 

If you’re already using Synapse, Data Factory, or Power BI, Fabric is the logical next step. For new projects, start them in Fabric. For existing ones, you can run them alongside Fabric as you transition. 

Want to build a pipeline, train a model, or visualise trends? You can do it all in one place. Fabric means faster turnaround, less mess, and better outcomes for your business. 

Let’s consider an e-commerce business selling products online. They record sales data, which is straightforward enough. But what if they want to discover patterns—like whether specific products sell better at certain times of year? 

With Fabric, they can find this out using one data pipeline: 

• Data ingestion from sales platforms 

• Processing and cleaning through Synapse 

• Visualisation through analytics platforms 

• Real-time monitoring of emerging trends 

This unified approach could reveal that sales of a particular product spike around Easter each year—valuable information. But what if an unexpected trend emerges, with sales increasing 30% daily for a week? With real-time analytics linked to the same data foundation, the warehousing team would know to restock immediately when the trend begins, not after the shelves are empty. 

That’s the power of having all your data in one place—no waiting for someone to run a report on Monday morning. Everything happens under one roof, in real time. 

Fabric isn’t the only all-in-one data analytics platform on the market. Let’s look at how it stacks up against alternatives: 

Microsoft Fabric vs Databricks 

Databricks is available on Azure, AWS, and Google Cloud. However, unlike Fabric, Databricks isn’t truly SaaS—there’s significant setup involved in building your own compute objects. 

Microsoft Fabric vs Snowflake 

While Snowflake has a fantastic SQL warehouse and is known for its speed, independent studies have shown that Microsoft Fabric operates very close to Snowflake’s performance levels. Fabric is typically only about 15% slower, whereas some competitors can be 80% behind—impressive for a platform that prioritises ease of use. 

Microsoft Fabric vs other solutions 

When comparing Microsoft Fabric vs Alteryx, Dataverse, or other specialised tools, remember that Fabric’s strength lies in its unified approach rather than trying to be the best at any single function. Solutions like Alteryx excel at specific tasks but lack the seamless integration Fabric offers across the entire data lifecycle. 

Beyond raw performance, Fabric excels by putting everything under one roof. Your Power BI can be closely integrated with your Entra ID, making it simple to control groups and access within a single pane of glass. 

Fabric matches the raw speed and power of products that have been on the market for a decade, but adds remarkable ease of use on top. 

Fabric uses capacity-based pricing—a very straightforward model. While not granular, every tool within Fabric can use that capacity, and even the lowest tier offers impressive capabilities. 

Microsoft Fabric free vs paid options 

The Microsoft Fabric pricing structure will be familiar to Power BI Premium users, though the lowest tier of Fabric is similar to one of the more premium Power BI tiers. It doesn’t start cheap, but remember—it’s designed for big data, not small data. 

The Microsoft Fabric free trial is 60 days long—it’ll give you access to all its workloads and features, including up to 1TB of OneLake storage and a certain amount of compute units. As long as you’ve got a Power BI license (which is free), you’re good to go. 

The Microsoft Fabric free tier is different—you can use this as long as you like but with limited functionality. It’s intended as an entry point for individuals and organisations to familiarise themselves with its core data analytics capabilities. Some advanced features like Copilot and trusted workspace access aren’t available. 

For businesses serious about their data strategy, the paid options deliver a lot more value despite the initial investment. 

One brilliant feature is the ability to pause consumption. As long as Fabric is activated, you’re being charged (mid-tier is around £9,000 a month), but you can simply click “pause” when not in use. This is perfect if you only need the platform at specific times during the week, and you could even set up a workflow to automate this pausing. 

The model is flexible and simple: how many Capacity Units do you need? You can start small and scale up as required. 

If you’re already using Snowflake, Synapse, Power BI, or Microsoft’s Dataverse, there’s no need for a painful “rip and replace” migration. You can integrate your existing setup with Fabric, making everything better from day one. 

Fabric connects to external data sources, allowing you to start small, build gradually, and adopt what makes sense for your business. This incremental approach is especially valuable if you’re worried about disrupting existing workflows. 

Ready to give Microsoft Fabric a try? Head to app.fabric.microsoft.com to activate a free trial. 

You can get started with dummy data or integrate your existing pipelines and see the difference for yourself. 

Is Microsoft Fabric right for your business? 

At Synextra, we specialise in helping businesses make the most of their Azure environment. If you’re considering Microsoft Fabric and want to discuss how it might fit into your data strategy, we’d be delighted to have a chat. 

As a boutique cloud MSP, we pride ourselves on bringing that human touch to technology decisions—helping you cut through the marketing speak to find solutions that genuinely work for your business. Get in touch to find out more.