Microsoft Fabric has launched, and with it comes a big question: Is Power BI going away?
Here’s what you need to know about the relationship between Fabric and Power BI, and whether or not Fabric is replacing Power BI (spoilers: it’s not).
Fabric is a unified analytics platform that brings together a number of Azure-based tools used for data warehousing, data analytics, and data science (machine learning and AI). These tools cover several functional areas which Fabric refers to as “experiences.”
Fabric supports seven experiences. Here is a brief description of each experience and some of the pre-existing tools Fabric harnesses to create these experiences:
| Experience | Tools |
| Data Factory – Ingest data into your Fabric environment and transform it to the desired format for analytics. |
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| Data Engineering – Cleanse and transform data for large-scale analytics and machine learning. |
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| Data Science - Train, evaluate, and deploy machine learning algorithms to create predictive insights. |
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Data Warehouse – Combine data from across the enterprise and beyond to create a single source of truth. |
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Real-Time Analytics – Stream, store, and analyze large volumes of data in real-time. |
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Power BI – Explore, analyze and share data through data exploration, dashboards, and reports. |
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Data Activator – Trigger automatic actions based on thresholds set for key performance indicators. |
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What makes Fabric unique and innovative is the way these tools come together. The combination of these tools within Fabric results in the following advantages:
Simplified Licensing – A single licensing fee covers your use of all of the Fabric tools.
Unified Storage – All data is stored in a single location called OneLake. This data lake serves as your “OneDrive for data.”
Single User Interface – All of the tools are accessed through a single user-friendly user interface. Fabric can be used by both technical and non-technical individuals spreading data analytics across your organization.
Managed by Microsoft – Fabric is a Software-as-a-Service offering. That means Microsoft takes care of the performance tuning, updating, and overall management of the infrastructure. Your team is freed up to concentrate on finding answers within your data.
The short answer is no - Power BI is not replaced by Fabric. Power BI is a part of the Fabric environment. You can continue to license and utilize Power BI exactly as you have been, or you can add the power and innovation of Fabric to your reporting and analytics. The choice is up to you. So, the better question: “Is my organization better served by using Power BI as part of a Fabric environment?”
To help answer that better question, we recommend watching our recent overview of the features and advantages Fabric - or just contacting us directly. Our data experts can provide insight into your specific use case.
Filmed: 12/12/23
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Superior Consulting Services (SCS) is a Microsoft-centric technology firm providing innovative solutions that enable our clients to solve business problems.
Contained within your data is the story of your organization. Effectively unlocking that story is the key to the success of any modern enterprise. We create a well-designed, appropriately scaled data analytics environment to reveal that story to personnel throughout the organization for faster, more informed decision making.
Superior Consulting Services (SCS) is a Microsoft-centric technology firm providing innovative solutions that enable our clients to solve business problems. We offer full-scale data modeling, analytics and custom app development.