What Microsoft Fabric is
Microsoft Fabric is an end-to-end, software-as-a-service (SaaS) data and AI platform. It unifies data integration, engineering, warehousing, data science, real-time analytics, and business intelligence into a single, governed experience.
Fabric brings all of this together on a single storage layer, which Microsoft calls OneLake. While it’s often mistaken for ‘just another’ data lake, it’s much more than that. The real advantage of Fabric comes down to simplicity.
Instead of copying data into a new tool every time someone needs it, Fabric enables you to have one copy of your data, one set of permissions, and one place where the work happens.
The platform follows your data through four areas:
Integrate
Bring data in, or read it where it lives, whatever shape it arrives in.
Store
Data is stored once and used many times in one governed storage layer.
Process
Clean, shape and prepare data so it’s ready for a person, a model or an agent.
Serve
Turn prepared data into reporting, analytics, AI models and agents – the part the business sees.
The problems that Microsoft Fabric solves
Microsoft Fabric is built to solve the underlying data problems that stall reporting and AI. Think of systems that don’t talk to each other, reports nobody trusts, and data that’s never quite ready for a model. You probably know the symptoms – the same metric means three different things depending on which dashboard you look at, and every AI conversation hits the exact same wall.
The five issues that our Microsoft Fabric consultants hear most often at Oakland are:
Constant maintenance
Engineers do the same work to keep the same reports running year after year, but the effort never compounds.
Dashboard sprawl
The case of having hundreds of reports, none of which you can trust because everyone builds their own version.
Lakes that don’t talk
Data sits in storage but never reaches a model, an agent or a report.
AI built on poor foundations
Copilots bolted onto data nobody has cleaned – it’s impressive in a demo, but it falls over in the real workflow. In our experience, most AI failures are data failures.
Specialist skills
just to keep the lights on
Fragmented platforms each need their own tooling and people, and that cost keeps climbing.
Two easy ways to start your Microsoft Fabric project
It doesn’t matter whether you’ve got a clear idea of where you need our support or don’t know where to start. Most engagements with our Microsoft Fabric consultants start with one of two options: our Microsoft Fabric Accelerator or our Lighthouse Project.
Microsoft Fabric Accelerator
A focused, 10-week programme that turns a stalled or unstarted Fabric investment into a live use case your business can see and trust.
How we deliver our Microsoft Fabric consulting services
Programmes succeed or fail on how they’re run far more than on which features they use. We hold ourselves accountable to the following principles, which underpin everything we do at Oakland Everything Data:
We start with the business question.
The most common Fabric mistake is standing up workspaces and then looking for something to do with them.
We prove value early
Through a first Lighthouse Project that’s specific enough so the value is obvious – and real enough to survive the demo.
We scale up early wins.
Each project builds on the last, getting faster and more confident. That’s how a programme escapes the pilot phase.
We implement governance from day one.
Fabric makes it easy to skip governance because the platform makes it easy to get started. So, we do it early – because if it’s done late, it’s painful.
We run Microsoft Fabric implementations in five phases, starting with mapping your estate and ending with a fully embedded operating model. Our Fabric Accelerator applies this as a focused 10-week programme.
Fabric in production: Our work for a UK transport operator
A major UK transport organisation needed trusted reporting across a complex estate spanning ticketing, revenue, timetabling, and operations.
Oakland and Softcat built the Fabric platform from scratch:
- 20 data sources integrated
- 15 manual processes replaced
- Reporting is centralised, automated and governed
The organisation is now building advanced analytics and AI on the same foundation
“Oakland did well to apply their knowledge of data warehousing to that of our business, helping build a modern, scalable data platform in Fabric.”
Client Programme Lead
UK transport operator
From our
Microsoft Fabric specialists
Rajan Chavda, one of Oakland’s Fabric specialists, sees the same mistake repeatedly: Organisations stand up workspaces before agreeing the business problem they need Fabric to solve.
The secret? Start with the outcome, then build the platform around it.
Discover more about our Microsoft Fabric consulting expertise
Explore practical guidance about Microsoft technologies from Oakland’s data and AI specialists.
Fabric Case Studies
See how organisations across transport, utilities and government have put Fabric to work.
Fabric Guide
A practical guide to planning your Fabric investment.
Fabric Videos
Watch Oakland’s Fabric specialists talk through real programmes.
Frequently asked questions
What is Microsoft Fabric?
Microsoft Fabric is Microsoft’s data and analytics platform. It brings ingestion, engineering, analytics, AI and governance together on one storage layer known as ‘OneLake’, which stores data once for use multiple times. Head to our blog to find out whether you should adopt Microsoft Fabric as your data platform.
Microsoft Fabric vs Synapse: what’s the difference?
Microsoft Fabric brings together data engineering, data warehousing, real-time analytics and other capabilities in a single, integrated platform built around OneLake. Azure Synapse Analytics remains available, but Fabric offers a different approach to managing and analysing data. We help organisations assess whether moving from Synapse to Fabric makes sense, and plan and deliver the migration where it’s the right choice.
How long does a Fabric implementation take?
It depends on the scope. Our Fabric Accelerator runs over 10 weeks from start to finish. A smaller, tightly-scoped Lighthouse Project can move faster, and we can also provide bespoke projects that are tailored to your needs.
Contact us to learn more about your options.
Do we need Microsoft Purview alongside Fabric?
MS Fabric includes native governance capability. Many organisations still pair it with Microsoft Purview for enterprise-wide data governance, cataloguing, and compliance, depending on what they need to track.
Let’s get your data working
Whether you’re planning a Fabric build, migrating from Synapse, or getting value from Fabric you’ve already bought, we’d like to hear from you.