Fabric Conference 2024 – Ep. 308
In this episode of the Explicit Measures podcast, Mike discuss Fabric Conference 2024 - Ep.308 - Power BI tips.
News & Announcements
- Announcements from the Microsoft Fabric Community Conference | Microsoft Fabric Blog — Learn more about the exciting announcements from the Microsoft Fabric Community Conference. Including Microsoft data, AI, and security products.
- PowerBI.tips Podcast — Subscribe and listen to the Explicit Measures podcast episodes and related content.
- Power BI Theme Generator — Create and download Power BI report themes using the PowerBI.tips theme generator.
Main Discussion
Mike recaps the Microsoft Fabric Community Conference announcements and what they signal about the platform’s direction. Instead of just listing features, the discussion focuses on what’s actually actionable for teams building on Fabric today.
Key points from the conversation:
- What stood out from the announcements and why certain items matter more than others in real deployments.
- Platform direction: how the Fabric story is evolving across engineering, self-service, and governance.
- Adoption reality: which features feel ready to use now vs. which need more time (or more guardrails) before you bet a project on them.
- Team impact: what report developers, data engineers, and admins should pay attention to after the conference.
- Next steps: turning conference excitement into a concrete rollout plan with pilots and measurable outcomes.
Looking Forward
Keep an eye on upcoming updates in Fabric and Power BI, and let us know what topics you want us to cover next.
Episode Transcript
0:30 n good morning everyone and welcome back to the explicit measures podcast with Tommy Seth and Mike morning everybody good morning all right there we go someone’s gonna say something I we go someone’s gonna say something you were hesitating there Tommy I mean you were hesitating there Tommy I just I left the space open for you we I forgot it’s Thursday so we don’t get the nice little jingle we don’t have a jingle for at least some of us remember that we don’t have a jingle we have a whole intro busy it’s been a busy week man you got how are your weeks been mine’s been aw the hook well and
1:01 mine’s been aw the hook well and that’s majorly probably because I was on vacation the previous right so it’s always like that but I I feel like the work while you’re gone happens and it like compresses and then all of a sudden Monday comes and you’re like it like Voom and then like you’re like behind and catching up yeah every time I go on any conference trip I come back and I’m like the first three days are like intense because I’m like catching up and things happen when got to figure out what’s going on I think that’s more important I think it actually happens more when you are have a team like around you because the team sometimes
1:32 around you because the team sometimes the team’s doing things and then they’re like okay I’ll just wait till Seth comes back and then and to have then they’re like ah like ah questions I was waiting to ask you no you should have just gone and done the thing well not necessarily that it’s more like I did this thing I just wanted to just need to just need to double check like the direction or something was going on man it’s like by Tuesday I think I’ve already done the same amount of work that I would typically do in an entire week but
2:03 typically do in an entire week but anyway so it means you’re done right it means Wednesday Thursday Friday is complete well when Wednesday yesterday was one of those like I was really excited after the day days where I everything fell in a whole bunch of things fell into place I was crushing through my to-do list going into today like it’s it’s a quarter to the side like it’s going to be a good day nice awesome yes Tommy man anytime I have a full day training that’s when my week is
2:34 full day training that’s when my week is is is put to waste so do doing a lot of dashboard in a days still even though Fabric’s a thing I’m I’m wondering if they’re gonna have a fabric in a day they have it it’s out we’ll see how much that you can get through in one day yeah let’s let’s increase the size of the things you’re going to build on the number of things you’re going to build and let’s still shove it into a single day like that’s there’s no way you can be able we’re build a full full leg house and everything else and get you to build reports on top of it
3:05 you to build reports on top of it additionally there’s brain drain from Power query in the first right before lunch in powerbi so hey now pipeline yeah yeah let’s talk about Medallion and mesh data mesh let’s let’s add these things because your brain wasn’t motion enough already model is so I think I think you’re right on that one I it probably would make more sense to start aligning like okay it’s going to be bi developers in a day it’s going to be data engineer in a day it’s going to be data science in a day like the personas I think make more sense to be
3:36 personas I think make more sense to be like maybe a single day activity around what their workflow may look like that may be something more a bit more of like the space so we’re going through there’s really no major agenda here there’s a couple announcements that have been coming across the Microsoft blog so today will probably be another let’s call it a all up news day as well because we’re just catching all the news and announcements that came out from fabric looking at any blog post that came out either from the powerbi blog or the fabric blog
4:07 the powerbi blog or the fabric blog there’s a couple announcements that have been made over the last couple days since the fabric conference has been produced so we’ll do that one and we’ll jump into let’s see what else we have here yeah I think that’s prob there’s there was there was so much that we didn’t get to on on Tuesday that we wanted to do it Justice and keep keep on plugging plugging away excellent so anyway with that you picked up something on something
4:38 you picked up something on something interesting SE so there’s inside the the there’s A’s a Blog from aroon which I’ll put in the link here as well so I’ll put this link down here in the bottom so this is the link for the this is the blog post from aroon really talking through many of the main features of what happened at the fabric conference but there’s a couple sections here in the very beginning start talking join the Microsoft fabric thriving Community you had some observations around their set that you wanted to to point out well yeah I think
5:08 to to point out well yeah I think the the first one that is a byproduct of I think a lot of the success that we saw with the launch of powerbi and just how there there’s fantastic stories of the the change that in careers that people can make and how big of a deal is by individuals adopting a lot of the the new innovation that Microsoft is putting out yeah I I think what
5:39 is putting out yeah I I think what anecdotally whether it’s not like right or wrong I’m I’m seeing like they have an entire page with one of my favorite people in the world right at the top Shannon Shannon Lindsay with her description of exactly that her journey from I think medicine right like nothing to do with data to someone who’s leading a lot of the initiatives around The Learning Centers so there’s an entire page part of this fabric Community all focused on Career
6:10 Community all focused on Career Development so it’s like rather than Microsoft offering up these certification exams like there’s Cloud skills challenges there’s learn together exam cram practice test like all of the things that I think are very welcoming for people to come in and learn a lot within the fact fac ecosystem and I think it’s a great play rather than just having technical documentation that describe the different parts of things like that there’s much more of a leanin
6:40 like that there’s much more of a leanin with fabric to bring as many people along for the ride and it’ll be interesting to see how the the Dynamics of this change because they’re even describing the roles of individuals so at least like when we talk about those roles right like even stay in in her little video is like the powerbi engineer what this focus is on what they’re calling an analytics analytics engineer at like I think they missed the
7:10 engineer at like I think they missed the opportunity of just taking the fabricator but ultimately a a ton of investment I think in helping the community learn as a whole or bring people from one state where they know powerbi and stre start to stretch their their skills into all of the other things that are fabric that we’ve talked about a lot I think this is a really good observation zth and I think this aligns very well with my mental model of like who’s coming to
7:40 my mental model of like who’s coming to fabric MH it’s it’s not a lot of data Engineers or data scientists that have other tools other places they may look at it or dabble in it initially but I think what you have is you have a huge user base of Citizen bi developers or people who have been able to just get started with powerbi and to Microsoft’s credit here there’s no way you don’t drive more adoption unless people understand how to use your tools period like if you want people to be
8:10 like if you want people to be comfortable in it and you want people to build things that are If You Think You’re Building something that’s going to help people do their job better faster more efficiently teach them how it’s teach them how it works teach them teach them why this makes things more efficient so without a centered effort around understanding and creating and being able with it and knowing all the things that you need to know you have to have an army of people that are going to be able to go through training and understand how the technology works so you can inform so you can use inside
8:40 you can inform so you can use inside your organization there’s going to be decisions that have to be made that I think this stuff helps do that and I think a lot of this is I like a lot of this part here where it’s like hack together right join a community people and figure out a problem and work with other people to figure out a solution to a thing if anything I’ve learned I guess from the fabric pieces there’s going to be so many different ways let me say this way it’s not so many different ways we have let me say it this way we
9:10 ways we have let me say it this way we have pipelines we have data flows we have spark we have so we have more different compute layers that we can use how do which one to use where’s the best opportunity for the compute that you need granted it all talks and can write the data down into the Delta format inside your one like which which is great but that that’s a larger skill set I wouldn’t expect someone to come in and say I know all three skill sets right away there you may know two and you may not know the third so how can I
9:42 you may not know the third so how can I use the third and I think business users are going to show up and be like oh yeah Power query yep 100% we’re right we’re right there we’ll we’ll use we’ll use data flows all day long and then they’re going to run into a wall and they say oh actually I could use pipelines pipelines are pretty interesting here’s a use case for pipelines and then they start using pipelines and then you potentially run into a problem where you’re using pipelines to go get data and you have random semi-structured data like oh well let’s try this thing called python notebooks so let’s start there and so you becomes this progression of
10:12 you becomes this progression of like you get you get into the tool with
10:14 like you get you get into the tool with what feels comfortable but then you grow into these other areas yeah and I I hope they expand more on the page too when it comes to the different roles right at the very bottom to your point the analytics engineer and then the low lead data analyst what we all used to be hopefully they exp analyst yeah don’t don’t talk for me I’m just saying what’s on the page man I’m just reading just reading the words oh oh yeah yeah just reading the words you said we were all
10:44 reading the words you said we were all data analysts I said no Tommy this is a point of contention I’m making sorry cont this cont this is I I yes but there’s these four roles and I think for a lot lot of people they probably can’t do all four and if they want to learn more about okay where does where do I fit in this what do I want to do like like what is that expectation for an analytics engineer not just the
11:14 analytics engineer not just the product they’re going to be working but what what is that expectation for them both from the tooling the process their own career growth right not just working with the product but moving the future CompTIA does certific ations for it and they do a great job for all the certifications they do talking about the whole career path if you get into security or networking and I think fabric is really expanding now where again analytics
11:44 expanding now where again analytics engineer data analyst data engineer data scientist these are all full-time jobs already that exist out there in our industries that are now in fabric so I I really do love that they have they’re putting everything together but I really think this could be a really great hub for just people learning or if they want to transition either from one data space to another or someone’s coming from the from the outside I disagree with some of their their words on here so they put
12:16 their their words on here so they put the data analyst and the and the analytics engineer if I look at those two different roles they read almost the same to me there’s really there’s to me there’s almost no distinction an Analytics enger builds reusable analytical assets like data sets reports pipelines and notebooks and then it takes it consumes the curated layer they ingest data using shortcuts pipelines or data flows again they’re doing some data engineering already light data
12:46 engineering already light data engineering already so that’s interesting to me the analytics engineer is doing that there’s less emphasize on talking to the business speaking you talking to the business speaking building reports building know building reports building actionable reports I think that would be the Analytics person I would put more towards that the data data analyst well that was the analytics engineer but again I don’t think analytics engineer has a role here I think it’s data engineer and it’s like analyst and then you look at the analyst role it’s like maximize the value of data through visualization reporting but then it says exposing data through Power
13:17 then it says exposing data through Power Bay report sematic models and SQL endpoints transform data with data flows and procedures yeah I me they very similar to me well you I had the same I had the same thoughts I was like I don’t you got to you have to draw you have to draw like listen you have to draw the line in the sand somewhere of saying like Okay we we have these roles what do we call them in the ecosystem there are data Engineers that everybody knows what a data engineer does more traditional Ro yes what what I would
13:48 traditional Ro yes what what I would what I think you’re scratching on is the same itch I had which is well like Tech the this this is a mix of what I would call a bi developer role you have the the technical skills that Branch into Data engineering that you can do in in like the very Technical Systems all the way up to right develop working with the business and developing reporting an analyst typically lives further closer to the business to refine requirements
14:19 to the business to refine requirements work with data that’s more curated and pre for them but I also get where they want to throw in some of the the pipeline transformation stuff because that’s what data pipelines and flows and all the things that powerbi introduced to them in a generic fashion that allows them to automate some of the things that they were doing manually before so that’s an that’s actually a really interesting point because looking at that data analyst role and just the two bullet points Microsoft has literally
14:50 bullet points Microsoft has literally created careers jobs and teams with powerbi as the business intelligence user not necessarily to your point SE the just a normal data analyst you’re right like there’s so much that just in powerbi interesting to they talk about the salary I won’t go into this but I I think their role for the data analyst here is not the standard powerbi role that we’re we’re used to it can’t be
15:20 that we’re we’re used to it can’t be well here let me let me give you the flavor of what I think should be the roles right I think there are four roles but I think I would describe them differently and and here’s how I would describe them the data engineer is focused on artifacts that are not semantic models it’s Lakehouse it’s pipelines it’s it’s more of the movement of data elements across the different artifacts that are in a workspace data scientists sure we can clearly that’s that that’s that’s the one on here that I agree with I think it’s the clearest
15:50 I agree with I think it’s the clearest one the data scientists I think I also agree with right they’re using specific Technologies around aim ml they’re consuming a lot of the things that come from the PL the platform but they’re working on experiments and models to me that role back in enhanced data exactly right those two I feel comfortable with the data analyst and analytics engineer I think they’re trying to say is the analytics engineer is the data modeler is what I’m think they’re trying to say that is the data modeler expertise right you understand Dax you understand semantic models you
16:21 Dax you understand semantic models you Dax you understand semantic models how to consume all the things from know how to consume all the things from Upstream elements and you work very closely with a data engineer and you may even have some overlapping roles with the data engineer so to me the analytics engineer feels like the technical expert to build models and then the data analyst feels like the report Builder now I don’t I know you can’t say like model builder report Builder but that to me those are where I would draw the lines there and so I I think that’s where I’m shaking out the
16:51 think that’s where I’m shaking out the different roles and when I talk to an organization this makes more sense because when you look at the people in your organization this is how it very much aligns to how I see the the company and again this may be a person that wears many of the same hats right typically you’ll find smaller businesses the data analyst and analytics engineer is the same person and potentially even the data engineer is also that same person so I think there’s a role there for that but you just better be ready to pay more because that’s now three people’s role in
17:22 three people’s role in one anyways that’s my thoughts on those would you agree do you feel like know that’s what they’re trying to get to I got hung up on the part where you were like they they’re completely completely glossing over the semantic model layer in here but I suppose you could bury that in the Lakehouse data warehouse part but it’s not really a a store right there’s there’s so much shaping that has to happen for the for powerbi now is It ultimately going to be
17:53 powerbi now is It ultimately going to be a table that is in the B yes it is but that doesn’t mean that that entire body of work is not there and that’s where a high level of expertise is required to make all those other things work and I think like I think that’s an overstep or a Miss because it also creates the same challenges that I have had in all of the organizations I’ve ever worked in which is well we have data Engineers what do you do it’s like oh my God there is so much more like we’re not just developing
18:24 much more like we’re not just developing power powerbi is the infrastructure as well as the reports it’s all of the the heavy data work that we have to do the real time calculation building that you get in all of your reports and you just see this other 5% right and I think that’s what’s gloss over here and you that’s what’s gloss over here and when you look at when I look at the know when you look at when I look at the analytics engineer versus the data engineer to me those descriptions read very similar like I’m trying to figure out what is the distinction between the
18:54 out what is the distinction between the analytics engineer because the analytics engineer is saying hey you’re building data sets pipelines and notebooks okay you look over at the data engineer you’re looking at the same thing yeah integrate transform and like you’re working on the same tools to me there’s a lot of overlap in what those two rules would be doing so I I think you could get a very well a very well educated analytics engineer and most of your data engineer problems are getting solved by that analytics engineer in my opinion yeah I I would yeah whatever think we
19:24 yeah I I would yeah whatever think we killed it maybe maybe semantics on that one on top of it love the career page love the video that shanon Lindsay did and I think it highlights the opportunities for people by the way if you want to cram it in we were talking business people ramping up but for others that already know these these Services a quick way to get the certification if you’re interested it and it’s free there’s 100% discount on it through April 19th go to this page and and just it Mike to
19:55 to this page and and just it Mike to your point it’s things that they know but it’s it’s going to be a different environment so clicking through things and getting acclimated with it it’s a a great thing the other thing that I I don’t maybe I haven’t noticed but I believe they’ve shifted now is the Community page actually lands on a page that directs you into the different services so can’t so Community you’re saying you’re talking about like community. fab. com fab. com Community community. fabric. microsoft. com so the switching yep
20:26 microsoft. com so the switching yep Switching gears here a little bit so there’s a great landing page now it points out the different services that have come together because there there have been long-standing communities around each of these things data activator is a new one but I’m glad that they they pointed this out in the announcements because there is a huge robust set of communities that are coming together that that will be you coming together that that will be going along the Journey of of know going along the Journey of of question answer and all that
20:56 question answer and all that things as I’m saying that it’s going to be really interesting is like you look at the powerbi community and you go into that and it’s a different flavor whatever but you’re you’re looking at seven years of questions and answers and like how much that is now changed with like people going like wait a minute what what I’m new to this whole fabric Thing I just want to learn some powerbi a response three years ago told me I could do this there’s a lot of that in these communities that and fabric I think just
21:26 communities that and fabric I think just throws that in a tizzy so as you go in here pay attention to like when people answered and like what the dates were because I think there’s going to be another big evolution and this isn’t new fabric isn’t the only thing that’s going to do this to a community there have been huge feature announcements throughout that radically change how the tool works but I I I just chuckled as I was thinking through that and I I want to point out something here too also on this homepage for the faite community you have powerbi
21:56 for the faite community you have powerbi you have synapse data Factory data activator from my knowledge synapse and data Factory pre-existed in their own Azure based platforms right you had you could go buy synapse right from Azure it had its own flavor and a lot of the synapse elements for data engineering data science data engineer those roles that they brought to fabric came right from synapse a lot of the tooling that was there pre-existed they they freshened it up they’ve made it better they’re making it better and it’s coming into the fabric
22:26 better and it’s coming into the fabric ecosystem again data Factory similar right it’s not the exact same data Factor there are some feature gaps between the current pipeline experience today in fabric versus what’s actually in Azure data Factory inside Azure so again there’s some there’s some feature caps but it’s very quickly closing and again I would I would argue a lot of the workloads you could do previously can still just work inside fabric pipelines no issue so those two understand one I don’t understand is data activator so
22:57 don’t understand is data activator so data activator is like a new name for something they just there was I don’t my from my awareness there was no equivalent data activator inside of azure at that point like now it’s using tools like it’s using like event hubs and it’s using technology that existed but they’ve changed a whole new name and they just basically made up a new product and said okay this is what we’re going to do this is going to be real actionable data event basing event-based data collection and
23:27 event-based data collection and event-based actions through data activator is that your impression as well did you hear of anything else before am I missing something here no it’s it’s brand new and you can tell because you go to the Community page and there’s 290 posts or so yeah it’s now we know where we need to contribute let’s contribute there because it’s wide open hey for for people right who want to get engaged in the community that’s what I’m saying this is the perfect time like get engaged in what data activator is all
23:57 engaged in what data activator is all the things about it and answer all the questions like be you can EAS this is how powerbi started right when powerbi came out there were a handful of people that dove in I was one Mike you were one I think that dove in and were just the only ones answering questions and you’re like it you you it opens doors you can start to become part of the super users program and all these things like so very early open products like data activator and that community
24:29 activator and that community like perfect opportunity for you to dive in and and get engaged with community and you’d be the first one to submit a post in 20 24 I’m spitting one right now now there go listen to this podcast when we talk about dat activator it’s great it’s good though I I I agree and I think mean I I I agree and I think as us so for those of who who for those of you who want to become MVPs or want to get more involved in the community in general we would highly encourage you go
25:01 general we would highly encourage you go find things that Microsoft’s building that are new because typically there’s not a community around it yet and they’re looking for experts in that area go learn those things figure out what works best for you and talk about them be vocal about it go to the Microsoft build a webinar around these things like do specific actions around these topics because again Microsoft is going to want to push these new products and these new features for people to get involved and get engaged with and so becoming an early investor in that content that really be let’s
25:32 content that really be let’s say it this way it’s less competitive well right if you want to become a Microsoft MVP for powerbi it’s going to be way more competitive now just because there’s so many more people already aware there’s people been doing this for years you’re not competing with people who have very wellestablished Brands and websites that have a lot of domain knowledge in this so you have to quickly get up to speed to compete with those or you can find an area that is newer and need some assistance there as well so I think Microsoft would very much reward users to help out in new areas as
26:03 users to help out in new areas as well excellent other thoughts around the community community piece I think the only thing I will add here would be is if you go into the fabric user groups so there’s an area on the community site where you have fabric user groups it feels like now all user groups Microsoft had a little bit of a self-identity issue around okay is it am I a Power Platform User Group am I powerbi User Group what User Group am I and I think they’ve kind User Group am I and I think they’ve finally merged everything into like
26:34 of finally merged everything into like the same thing like doesn’t matter if you’re powerbi fabric it really doesn’t matter like you’re going to talk about things of fabric whether it’s powerbi power all the things Power Platform pieces may be slightly different still but like they I feel like they’ve now lumped everything into the fabric environment so I think that’s pretty good does that mean I have to change my logo now it totally does and I don’t know if it’s it’s the same for you guys guys but it’s Geo aware so the first the first groups that pop up
27:04 the first the first groups that pop up Clos to you Chicago powerbi User Group Milwaukee brewce City Power Platform because they made us change right like it was a shift to Power Platform groups now we fabric GRS with new icons so that the The Brew City is is the the fabric we should have just stuck with this stink stinking bre Brew mug the whole time we should have we should have just we should just rocked it just stay with it Well Done Madison fabric User Group
27:34 it Well Done Madison fabric User Group you’re you’re ahead of everybody else we should just update our name so now we can be the Milwaukee Bruce City fabric Power Platform data activator user grp no what we should be is the Milwaukee Bru City Bru City Fabricators yes I like it I’m GNA see if I can go modify the name now anyway that sounds like a local bar Bureau there you go I know the fabri
28:04 oura what was that special IPA yeah but anyway yeah we should do that that should should fabricator that should be special IPA if we if we don’t have one we should have a we should have a local custom IPA for our user group that that would be great user groups a big way to learn if you have any local in your area or a lot of them are online now doing sessions and teaching you different things you can always find great video content I know you guys put together a bunch of fabric sessions that that is on the tips Channel we got
28:35 that that is on the tips Channel we got 22 22 with a couple more FR 22 videos with another like three that Steve and I put together about like what is Delta Lake and how’s that work and how does how does a delta table work but yeah that’s again we tried to really focus on like education and learning from a new user perspective yeah so content always there what’s really nice that I see growing a lot more now is trying to get back to some in-person User Group things which is which is great we just in our area we got to find a new
29:05 just in our area we got to find a new office because things were shut down well and the Microsoft Office in our Milwaukee area has not opened up or they I think they closed on the office and it’s no longer here so we’d have to find a business in the Milwaukee area so if you are a business in the Milwaukee area and you are listening to the podcast and you’d like to host a parbi user group that we will show up and do things for we we’re also interested in doing that one thing that came out of the conference that I would be really useful the Microsoft fabric comment was very exciting very focused on data people MH I’m going to float the
29:35 on data people MH I’m going to float the idea here and I’m looking for interest from the community here on this one what about a Midwest mini fabricon right what if we what if we did a single day at a couple major cities one day in maybe a business around Milwaukee one day in Chicago I know Alex Powers might even be able to get in on this and we could do I think St Louis is where he’s from so maybe one day down there literally just hitting Microsoft offices and doing a morning
30:05 offices and doing a morning three-hour session around announcements and demos and things that came out of the fabric conference the new things and then maybe the afternoon another three-hour like mini Workshop around turning some things on or doing some specific things as well so I Tommy’s going Tommy looks like he’s like he’s in he’s in it I’ve been saying this for a while that we need to do a joint either competition between some of the local user user groups I’m just saying I’m not saying competition I’m saying a literally a
30:35 competition I’m saying a literally a mini fabric conference where we do a
30:37 mini fabric conference where we do a little like runaround here on so if you like this idea if you think this is something that we should pursue maybe work through this if you would attend or even we would need your help as a community to push and promote it a little bit as well because we we’d want to fill these things up and really make it fun and enjoyable for people let us know in the chat let us know if that’s something that you would be interested in either helping with or supporting or at least promoting if we were going to do a little mini mini Midwest area so I’m summoning all my Alex Powers Voodoo or what
31:09 Alex Powers Voodoo or what juice or whatever you want to call it so Alex if you’re on the internet you Alex if you’re on the internet let let us know if this is know let let us know if this is something that would be good and if you would be willing to participate so I’m just going to throw that one out there and see if anyone be willing to jump in that so let us know in the chat if that would be interesting to you if that would be something you’d be worth traveling to if there’s a city in our area that would be worthwhile taking a little visit to anyways that aside yeah so Chicago is like a great place because there’s a lot of people
31:39 place because there’s a lot of people there well actually I if you’re listening a few people emailed me last week and they were at the fabric conference and they were like hey we’d love to get the Chicago User Group started back locally again and they were saying they some people were thinking of some location so this is literally it’s going to happen it’s gonna happen all right well Tommy Tommy commits to it so I will reply to you so we’re gonna get Tommy to start making more slides now and more I got I got slides for days man slides for
32:12 got slides for days man slides for days because I I don’t I don’t I hope those are I hope those are powerbi Pages you mean not not slides he’s talking slides yeah oh oh he he Tommy does even I wouldn’t be surprised if Tommy doesn’t even use like PowerPoint anymore he found some random AI generator slide look look he’s already see I can just tell he’s already he’s already getting excited about it he’s already found some AI generative he literally just here’s what I want this slide to be and it just builds the slides for I got a GPT prompt don’t worry so there we go
32:44 a GPT prompt don’t worry so there we go write chat GPT write me a macro that builds the slides that do this and then it will just I would use PowerPoint if co-pilot could build all the slides for me that would be be great if they could that if that could happen then I’d be I’d be all in on that one excellent any other any other conversation pieces around here from arun’s post announcement here yeah I think there were several that we we glossed over right one was the managed
33:15 over right one was the managed private end points right yes so what is that let’s talk about what that is first and then we can go in maybe a bit more of what it why is that important to people so from a let me see manage private endpoint so this is basically allowing you to access all of your data sources behind firewalls right those secure sets that are not easily accessible in Azure man it’s been so long that it it I’ve I’ve lived in the
33:47 long that it it I’ve I’ve lived in the Azure ecosystem that just connecting to something’s been so easy I forget that like like entire are way locked behind things but this allows you to create secure connections to those data sources and pull them into the Microsoft fabric ecosystem so this is a lot of the idea of like when you when you do private endpoint or manage virtual networks inside Azure basically this is a no public IP address access to any those resources so you have to be you literally have to go into Azure like log in through like a a
34:18 Azure like log in through like a a virtual Network once you’re in that v-net then you can communicate with the different the assets or artifacts as opposed to right now now like powerbi. com has a public IP address you go to powerbi. com you log in you you go to powerbi. com you log in anyone in the world with any know anyone in the world with any computer technically can access the website pb. com but this is now letting you restrict that and say look actually we don’t want that we need a a virtual Network you need to be a part of first before you can access those resources yeah this is I think a very
34:48 resources yeah this is I think a very large requirement for some there’s some some organizations that are that this is like a strong like Financial some of the healthcare like this is a much more stringent requirement around what they’re doing in their ecosystems and I think well to extend that right like there are a lot of on premise or data sources that are that you want lockdown right with the proliferation of
35:18 the proliferation of ransomware or so many attacks happening on companies that the more you have security to a point where you can lock down certain areas of your environment or you’re only extracting information from the source system that’s insanely hard to touch this is this is what allows you to do that without opening the door too wide so this is something that I think is a really good thing that Microsoft’s doing is this is
35:49 thing that Microsoft’s doing is this is a part that’s just very friction filled right if you’re in Azure and you’re trying to build managed virtual networks it’s a pain there’s a lot of configuration set up and you got to make sure all the tools that you’re trying to use are able to be part of that virtual Network and be joint into that I feel like at the end of the day this should be really a very easy thing to set up literally like here’s the things in fabric I want these artifact I want this entire workspace to be pushed into the virtual Network like I don’t care about all the buttons to press like just make
36:20 all the buttons to press like just make it work like just literally a setting turn it on here’s the name of it just work and I feel like this is finally a place then synapse I think did this a little bit to some degree with some success but like this feels like the right way to go about it so you’re saying this is that much easier path to get yeah I’m say figured and set up yeah sorry if I was confusing about that yeah in Azure it was difficult to do this now seeing the new experience and again I put the blog post or the the the support
36:50 put the blog post or the the the support element around it just literally shows you how to add the item and you can literally just add artifacts right inside the network security and you’re just boom right there there create create create create create and it just creates artifacts boom all wrapped inside the the virtual Network so I think that’s that’s awesome now I believe is this a this is a fabric only capability Seth is that correct well the manag private endpoints are only supported in the fabric trial capacity and eventually the f64 so there higher I do want to be very clear about yes there’s a there’s a
37:22 clear about yes there’s a there’s a guard rail on there I’m not sure I really agree with the f64 layer to do this or not I don’t again I can’t make the decision for Microsoft I don’t know what added costs come come from a virtual Network across everything I don’t know if it’s very expensive I don’t know if it’s not very expensive but at the end of the day I feel like that barrier should come down lower in the F SKS I don’t think it should be a barrier at the f-64 level I feel like if you’re talking about security we want to say like hey we can
37:53 security we want to say like hey we can give you virtual networks Above This threshold or not it should just be there it should just be a we want to incentivize you to get out of P SKS and get into fabric SKS here’s what you need buy this bu the fabric skew get it and turn it on when you need it so I that my opinion there I don’t know if that if if Microsoft will change on that direction but I don’t really love the idea that they’re gating that feature to an f64 level just going to add confusion yeah I to me I struggle with
38:24 confusion yeah I to me I struggle with it I’m not going to I’m not going to die on this hill as far as in is concerned right like there’s a lot of infrastructure cost across the ecosystem right and the what what fabric is doing to your point is consolidating this and making it super easy to do all this stuff that’s what I’m hoping it’s doing yes well but but it’s it’s the configuration that’s super easy however underneath these were completely different independent services or or things you had to spool up and connect to and and all of the things that are
38:58 to and and all of the things that are just now going to work in fabric so if there is a gate there I’m okay with it and I would imagine they’re making strategic moves around like how much of this do we have to bury up into that level but at the same time I think the the same way there would be with premium there’s enough of features within premium that point to Enterprise level this is what we’re this if you want Enterprise analytics these features already push you well into like yep we need all of those things I’m fine with
39:28 need all of those things I’m fine with having a P1 in the same way it’s like yes we’re an Enterprise these are all all of these security things all of these things are things we already use or would want to yes there’s a minimum f64 capacity but to me like the feature sets across those dependencies alone are like push me in the I’m not going to really harp on the f64 limitation until I fully understand all the different points of
39:58 understand all the different points of it so I don’t know that’s just yeah at the same time you we’re talking about the Simplicity of doing it you like with the user interface but to cess Point all this has been available more or less in Azure in some capacity you got to buy the service the resource groups you had to have skill and experience working in Azure from an an admin point of view this is the weird conundrum that I I am we seeing with everything and from the security
40:28 with everything and from the security point of view we’re trying to make fabric as easy and enabled for every user but there’s a lot more than meets the eye there’s a lot more integration there’s obviously a lot more security risk and we can make things easy from the user interface point of view I’ll disagree with your point around security risk I think I
40:49 around security risk I think I think inherently Microsoft has one of the more compelling Solutions around Security in everything that we’re talking about cuz everything is managed ident ident arbat control access to things that you get access to so if you don’t have access to it you can’t see it so I do I do really think that that’s really strong and I I do really I what where I so here’s I agree to your point I understand what you’re saying if you’re a central bi team and you’re doing a big thing and you’re going to get to that level where you’re hitting
41:19 get to that level where you’re hitting f64 yes this makes sense but I’m also thinking about patterns where just because I have an f64 at the Cent Team level that doesn’t necessarily mean that the different business units I want to play with I’m not sure if I’m going to give them an f-64 all the time so I’m also thinking about in my mind I think there’s a pattern arriving here or a new pattern that’s appearing that what if I want a business unit to kind what if I want a business unit to own their own analytics if we’re of own their own analytics if we’re talking about self-service now I may want to delegate a smaller fcq to that
41:51 want to delegate a smaller fcq to that business unit and give them a a price point where they can still do what they need to they can still consume data from the main central place and one one one idea I have in my mind here is right so think about the central bi team making their gold layer of the lake housee hey we’re going to make a final Lake housee that’s going to have all the tables we care about that we’re going to distribute to the organization common Dimensions Master data management right there’s a single team that’s owning the output of those tables I may want to share those tables and so I there may be certain teams that I think that we’ve
42:23 certain teams that I think that we’ve skilled up enough that they are capable to get their own Lake housee now I’m not to give them my Lakehouse data from the central bi team instead what I’ll do is here’s your workspace here’s a shortcut in your Lakehouse to my data table and so now what that does is it shifts where the compute load comes from so Central bi team pays for that table to get from raw data to Gold data and when I move it to a new workspace the workspace that’s arriving in that location so like when I have a Lakehouse that Lakehouse compute
42:54 have a Lakehouse that Lakehouse compute in the new workspace its compute is being used to go back to the central bi team so I think there’s a pattern here where we don’t necessarily need one Mega large skew across many workspaces I think we may find the the ability here to tune and optimize more workspaces with smaller SKS designed for very specific teams or purposes across the business so I feel like there’s an opportunity here for us to be able to give various teams more control give
43:25 give various teams more control give them more access to certain things and and that’s where that’s that the reason why I’m thinking that pattern exists this is where I have the hard problem around okay if we’re talking v-ets well probably this should be more of a complete solution around v-ets across more the more of the lower end SKS because I’m not going to want to give the finance team their own workspace that’s smaller because they don’t need to do as much heavy lifting maybe but they do need a v-net around their their ecosystem so that’s I guess my hesitation here is
43:57 that’s I guess my hesitation here is is with fabric skews coming out and being more of a uniform experience on how premium Works premium things I feel like it would I I prefer that to be more feature full featured through all the fabric SKS and then I pay more on compute right so if you turn on the v-net and every day it consumes I don’t know a thousand cus every day fine so be it that’s on me to manage the cost right the cost of that of that compute unit don’t just give me the virtual Network for free charge my tenant some
44:29 for free charge my tenant some amount of compute units and if I run out I run out so throttle me like if that happens then I just know I need to go buy a bigger comp compute unit that will increase the price pay for the virtual the virtual Network and all the other things that are going on there so that’s that’s my perspective and how why I’m saying what I’m saying I don’t disagree with you I like I said let move on I win to to your point like it’ll be and this is where I’m not going to die on the hill right like I think you make
45:00 on the hill right like I think you make a really good argument from the standpoint that is could there be a centralized group that is doing other things on the higher capacities and then have other business units be able to run on Lower capacities yes or I or is it prohibitive is it prohibitive in such a way that if you’re going to be using a v-net all of the workspaces or all the things have to be in there and then have to abide by the higher skew and that’s why I just don’t know yet right like correct pattern of building an
45:30 correct pattern of building an ecosystem and then understanding how we have to leverage licensing to to support that is still something I haven’t fully gone end to end on I but I do feel like there’s a pattern here of like Central common workloads and then there’s like self-service workloads and self-service workloads are going to be more bursty they’re going to be on more on demand there’s going to be more abuse in those self-service modes because someone’s going to show up with an Excel document and produce a really unfiltered table in Excel and the queries will just Chew
46:01 Excel and the queries will just Chew Chew Chew Chew and they like hey this sucks it’s slow but it’s there’s a there’s a user education element here that needs to happen or hey did you can do the same thing in pagein reports did you could do the same thing in data Explorations like maybe maybe we just didn’t do a good enough job explaining to the users like hey you don’t always have to default back to excel to go get the data you care about there are other parts of the tool that still run at a performant level that still give you what you need yeah so one area I did want to cover and make sure we did was there was that one
46:32 make sure we did was there was that one section that was in the announcement where Microsoft was reimagining perview did you catch any sessions like or any any of the announcements or they demo any of that because essentially what I read through in the links was the the big shift is perview is a pass service platform as a service so it requires you standing up all the infrastructure Etc the the big shift is switching to assess and I think the interface
47:02 assess and I think the interface is going to be much more business friendly but it still seems like it’s going to live outside of fabric as its own own thing called the data catalog that that’s what I’m reading through here but it it would be a significant difference as it relates to like making it an easierto use tool for the business provide more reporting around your progress in data governance and it being something that is much easier
47:33 it being something that is much easier to stand up and get going with that’s a great point that you bring out there and it literally is like a oneliner right in the in the note there it’s literally at the end of it’s talks paragraph here’re we’re announcing deeper integration with perview I honestly my opinion here is perview has a lot of work cut out for it in general one perview took forever to get out the door for one right I’ve wanted I’ve always wanted perview to give me that complete lineage story that other tools already have and
48:03 story that other tools already have and and one one of the things I’ll point out here that was interesting Microsoft announced inside their main session they said hey by the way Unity catalog is going to get its own card inside fabric it’s going to have it’s going to have a uni catalog fabric integrated card for data bricks and when they brought out the the team lead from data bricks on the stage literally we got what perview should have been it was a little bit like whoa because it’s like we we captured data
48:33 because it’s like we we captured data lineage from from start to finish we have a catalog of all the things that you need we have all these things we have data governance we have data quality like a lot of the things that perview is is supposed to be doing like the datab breaks demo like demoed all of this and there were two hooks at the end one Hook was like okay cool you’ve built everything in data bricks it’s amazing oh and by the way you can get in powerbi here’s a button depress and you get a power report like that was like one ending of their whole demo I was like okay cool but then I was like Hey Microsoft take
49:04 but then I was like Hey Microsoft take note they’ve already like they literally have built everything that we need right now and they just talked about it so like great very excited about the integration between Unity catalog and fabric which is going to be wonderful that’s going to be a huge feature when it comes out I I will be very excited for it but then in addition to that then they started talking about the the unity catalog integrator and I think that’s really important but I do think there’s there’s this concept and I kept talking about this at the concept at the at the at the conference was there’s this concept of data gravity
49:35 was there’s this concept of data gravity where does your data live where is the gravity of that data pull you to right if you’ve already built a lot of things in other Solutions in cloud and you have data gravity in data bricks you’re not going to just want to just turn it all off and move it all over to fabric at one time it’s just not going to happen you’ve already built process you’ve already built things in that in that direction Okay the reason I bring all this up is because I think purview is trying to be a larger scope than just powerbi and fabric so yes we do a lot of
50:05 powerbi and fabric so yes we do a lot of things inside powerbi and fabric but purview is like scanning all your blob storage scanning your Cosmos database scanning all your SQL databases so purview is this idea of like hey we can scan any data anywhere in your data platform from Microsoft yeah and tell you like here’s where we found Social Security numbers here’s where we found phone numbers here’s where data is potentially leaving your organization or not I think that’s extremely valuable but what I really want is I just want to focus on controlling it inside powerbi that’s my challenge right now so a
50:37 that’s my challenge right now so a demo that ruie did this is going to tie in here I promise R ruy did a demo and he actually has a GitHub repo where he he talked about this one with the new Fabric apis and there’s now a new powerbi report format pbir PBS PB PB format where the report side is now going to be
51:02 side is now going to be simplified reporting schema and what ruy demoed is he demoed an API call to go access a report pull out the details all the way down to the visual level and get the visual definition of things from the report and doing everything programmatically through code so this yeah sorry Donald it’s not it’s not a beer it’s not a PBR it’s a PBI are so it’s it’s not a beer at this point but the demo was amazing that he was able to
51:32 the demo was amazing that he was able to go into the service pull out artifacts from reports and then see all the things in an individual visual so you could literally pull out all the objects you cared about on what the visual was doing its styled properties changing its title you could literally programmatically change visuals on pages in reports which was super cool but the reason why I think this ties in is I don’t think we’ve ever had this before that feature never existed PRI previously and so from a Unity catalog Unity catalog needs some API to go call okay I’m going to
52:03 API to go call okay I’m going to go scan all your reports and get all the details of your reports what I think we really want and I would be willing to understand what you what you think here Seth or Tommy as well we want to see Source system Landing files we want to see data lineage through all onon silver gold all the tables that are being created what column by column how are things linking together and then we want to go from there through the semantic model down to the reports and then into the visuals so I think there’s a full
52:34 the visuals so I think there’s a full lineage that we need at some point to be able to see all the things and when someone writes a measure total sales we should be able to scan everything and say where does all this exist and what are the definitions of all those things this is what Tommy’s been wanting he’s already putting his hands up this is a for those of you who are who are listening online Tommy’s throwing hands at this point he’s throwing Italian hands hands but that’s I think that’s what we want and I think that’s what they’re trying to communicate with this purview announcement and if they can do it yes
53:05 announcement and if they can do it yes that’s what I want yep sorry a lot of talking points around that one Tommy what do you think the interesting thing in arun’s article he talks about data loss prevention Seth you just brought it up before or Mike you did how can we possibly manage all the different department if they’re running random Excel files we need something like purview to have a solution to say what data is coming in what’s that who’s
53:36 what data is coming in what’s that who’s working on what the scanner API barely worked for powerbi and that was just for reports and with not barely the scanner API is robust like I think the scanner API does a great job telling you all the artifacts that exist it’s the activity API that really I think provides the power cuz now you can see export to excel you can see what like the actions people are doing so the activities API I think is really powerful and that doesn’t necessarily correspond to like
54:06 doesn’t necessarily correspond to like what’s happening inside purview which it probably should the purview should probably be consuming the activity API at some level I think I I have a mix in my head right now of the Spider-Man quote where great power and I think with all the products and features that are getting enabled there is that responsibility side where it doesn’t have to NE be an easy UI but it needs to be robust I’m thinking about the quote of like ultimate power corrupts absolutely or was absolute power corrupt you’re thinking about Spider-Man I’m
54:36 you’re thinking about Spider-Man I’m thinking about Corruption of people with too much power and in fabric are there we’re so we’re we’re almost at time are there any last minute things that that we want to Ping from the article because we’re not going to pick it up again in in the next episode I don’t think so again what I will say is my I think my final thoughts here is fabric is looking very well invested in from Microsoft very pleased with the focus on development I wish there were a couple more blogs there’s
55:06 there were a couple more blogs there’s some features that I think I would like to see more detail about one of them being metrics there’s a metrics thing that was announced no demos on it I don’t have screenshots of it there’s nothing like there’s nothing tangible that I can go show talk to customers about why this thing is going to be really cool I think that would be a neat feature there’s also the task what is it called set the task task flow task flows look amazing and like again all I get is a very simple gif image of them clicking around task literally I had a
55:37 clicking around task literally I had a class yesterday and I was like taking that little GIF and trying to explain what I saw in the demo I to me there needs to be some more content around task flows and the metrics piece from semantic modeling I think those are really going to be very impactful and as us as the community leads I think we need to learn more about this where we can best fit this into our companies so very pleased about the Investments that have been made very happy where we’re going with things love the conference can’t wait to have another big conference and I’m looking forward to
56:07 conference and I’m looking forward to seeing all of you listeners here in the Midwest to show up at our mini fabricon tour as we Zoom around and try and go see people Tommy what are your final thoughts no I think we’re heading in the right direction and I think we’re releasing how complete fabric is from the career Hub which honest I think it’s just going to continue to grow Microsoft you need some help with some documentation just honestly I think that needs to really be expanded people are going to find new careers out of this but then we have this new balance of all
56:39 but then we have this new balance of all the things we can do in fabric how do we actually manage it there’s still some skills there’s still some it skills out there that are always going to be needed and it’s not going to be any different with fabric but I I love the announcements the same way I want to learn more about this metric metrics feature I Think You’re Gonna Love It Tommy I dude I I already love scorecards this sounds amazing it’s
57:09 amazing it’s gonna there’s a lot there’s a lot of implications for it but we I digress but no good things in now we just have the conference in May right the big conference there’s a there’s a build conference I believe coming up in May so I don’t know how much Focus that’s going to be on fabric that’s more of like Developers I believe yeah yeah Seth what else do you think what’s your final thoughts final thoughts are I I’m it’s I’m sad I missed the conference but once again can’t compete with my family family family vacations your family to
57:40 family family vacations your family to wait yeah right I do that a lot already great story great Direction I Lov Lov the announcement article and I think you all the links and directions that we’ve been able to talk about for the last two episodes just drive in to the meat right I think fabric is is definitely coming together I love how they’re focusing on the career of the community it’s very reminiscent of what made powerbi very successful and
58:10 of what made powerbi very successful and I’m I’m glad they’re investing it the the only thing I would say is there should be a banner on the the fabric blog like the blog. fabric. microsoft. com to with a link to this it’s very hard to hard to find yeah I would agree and and it’s it’s so jam-pack with all of the like the full story of what was not only put forward at fabrican but also that is very relevant to everybody wanting to learn more it’s a it’s a great link page to go learn
58:42 great link page to go learn more in all these different directions so i’ I would have I’d like to see you so i’ I would have I’d like to see that proliferated across the the know that proliferated across the the places that most are are landing because even in our conversations we were like what what what blog are you can you send me the link again I can’t find it yeah and for us who know it was we know where to find things usually it’s yeah I love the story I love I love the evolution and there’s some really exciting features I’m looking forward to learning more about get us some more demos get us some more we need some more blog posts we need
59:12 we need some more blog posts we need some more blog post about metrics I want to see a blog post about the announcement for task flows those those I think would be very relevant we need to see some more Vision what’s coming from those it was conveyed in the messages but we’re looking forward to those to also show up as blog post as well looking forward those anyways thank you so much for watching and listening to our episode hopefully this gave you some more insights of what’s coming down the pipeline what’s what we’re excited about in the Microsoft fabric conference that came out there’s a lot of great features get involved in the community again from this episode you’ll you
59:42 again from this episode you’ll you again from this episode you’ll data activator sounds like there’s know data activator sounds like there’s an opportunity there so if you want to get involved in the community and you want a little bit less competition to start adding support and talking about a subject matter area expert go hang out at data activator do some things over there start talking it up anyways with that our only ask is if you like this content if you like what we’re talking about here and felt that you this resonated with you please share with somebody else we think someone else might also like this content as well if you found it valuable anyways Tommy where else can you find the podcast you can find us on Apple Spotify wherever you get your podcast
60:14 Spotify wherever you get your podcast make sure to subscribe and leave a rating it helps us out a ton do you have a question an idea or a topic that you want us to talk about on a future episode well head over to powerbi tips podcast leave your name and a great question and finally join us live every Tuesday and Thursday a. m. Central and join the conversation on all of power. tips social media channels excellent love it thank you all and
60:44 excellent love it thank you all and we’ll see you next [Music] out
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