At One51, we have been working with Fabric and delivering Proof of Concept (POC) Projects for our clients, as well as developing our Fabric Framework.
Microsoft Fabric adds many new content items to the Power BI (now Fabric) ecosystem, which is creating fantastic opportunities for data teams, without the need to spin up additional Azure architecture.
Our clients have been super excited about Fabric too, and curious to test things out. In particular, our clients wish to take advantage of all the incredible new low-code or no-code content. We’ve noticed it can be difficult to make sense of the overwhelming number of new content items and terminology – Hopefully, we can help you there!
Loosely, Microsoft Fabric content can be divided into 5 classic categories of functionality, and many of the content items can be used for many purposes.
Data movement, storage, transformation, reporting & analytics and predictive analytics are all classic use cases that Fabric covers (in addition to many more). Below, you can see which use cases can be applied across all the content items.
So, we can use these different content items for overlapping purposes. Great to know, but which content item should we use in a given situation?
It’s difficult to know, and a lot of the time, we see users stick to what they know. For example, if I were familiar with Power Query, I’d be more likely to use a Dataflow to move data. How would I know if that was the best choice?
Below, we’ve tried to break down all these content items, what they can do, and what they are best for, which can hopefully help you make the choice. There are still some limitations on each (which you will likely learn as you go), such as Pipelines right now are only for moving cloud data but can do so with extreme efficiency.
You’ll notice quite a bit of overlap, and if you are familiar with Power BI, it is reasonably obvious on the classic Power BI Content as to the best content item to use in each situation. However, Microsoft Fabric is now offering quite a few new ways of storing data that you might not be familiar with, particularly if your focus has been more on the visualisation and analysis side.
So, what are the new options for storing data within the Power BI Ecosystem? What should be used and when?
Of the content that allows data storage within Fabric, we have broken them down below into their various specific use cases to help you choose better.
The One51 team is super excited about Microsoft Fabric and looking forward to sharing our knowledge with you further. Reach out if you would like to try our 10-day MS Fabric POC. Learn all about Fabric, what opportunities exist for your organisation, and build something tangible.
