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Image Courtesy: Microsoft
As Artificial Intelligence (AI) continues to transform industries, data is evolving from merely an asset to the crucial competitive edge organizations need. The demand for quick data access, accelerated insights, and frictionless iterative processes drives this change. However, many enterprises face challenges from fragmented data estates and outdated legacy systems. Addressing these needs, Microsoft introduced Microsoft Fabric, aiming to unify data across platforms, simplify architectural complexity, and expedite the journey toward AI-led operations.
Remarkable Growth and Industry Adoption
Since its launch two years ago, Microsoft Fabric has experienced rapid growth, outpacing all other data and analytics platforms in the market. Today, over 28,000 customers, including 80% of the Fortune 500, leverage Fabric’s unified ecosystem, with expanding partnerships addressing complex data challenges seamlessly.
Enhancing the Database Core for AI Readiness
Microsoft continues to fortify the database foundation critical to Fabric’s data estate, emphasizing scale, performance, and AI integration. The comprehensive Microsoft database portfolio has been expanded and deeply integrated into Fabric with several major announcements:
SQL Server 2025 is now generally available, offering developer-first AI enhancements such as semantic search, AI model management within T-SQL, improved query performance, and fortified security compliant with modern enterprise standards. Over 10,000 organizations have already adopted SQL Server 2025, marking it as the most significant SQL release in a decade.
Azure DocumentDB, a fully managed, MongoDB-compatible NoSQL service optimized for hybrid and multi-cloud scenarios, is also generally available. It supports AI-ready features like vector and hybrid search, autoscaling, and robust security, making it suitable for modern cloud-first applications.
Azure HorizonDB, currently in early preview, is Microsoft’s managed PostgreSQL-compatible database designed for mission-critical workloads with autoscaling storage, scale-out compute up to 3,072 vCores, sub-millisecond commit latencies, built-in vector search, and integrated AI model management to power next-generation AI applications.
Fabric SaaS Databases, including SQL Database and Cosmos DB within Fabric, are now available as enterprise-grade, secure, and natively integrated database services simplifying application development by eliminating the need for granular configuration or deep database expertise.
Unified Data Management with Microsoft OneLake
Microsoft OneLake offers a breakthrough in unifying data across clouds and on-premises environments by eliminating traditional ETL pipelines through zero-copy shortcuts and mirroring. New preview features enable the integration of unstructured data from SharePoint and OneDrive directly into OneLake, enhancing data discoverability across Microsoft tools such as Power BI, Teams, Excel, Copilot Studio, and Microsoft Foundry.
Semantic Intelligence with Fabric IQ
Fabric IQ is a new semantic intelligence layer that elevates Microsoft Fabric from a data platform to a unified intelligence platform. It builds a shared semantic model of business entities, relationships, and rules, enabling agents to understand and reason about data in a manner aligned with real-world operations. This semantic backbone fosters sophisticated retrieval and contextual insights for AI-driven decision-making and operational automation, exemplified by the new operations agents capable of real-time monitoring and proactive action.
Empowering Intelligent Agents Across Data Workflows
Microsoft Fabric integrates advanced AI experiences including Copilot in Power BI, Fabric data agents, and operations agents that bring deeper analysis and automated real-time responses. These capabilities extend into Microsoft 365 Copilot, facilitating secure, context-rich AI interactions directly within productivity suites. Data agents can now reason across both structured and unstructured data, supported by Azure AI Search integration, enhancing the breadth and accuracy of AI-powered insights.
Microsoft Fabric, together with its advanced database innovations and AI-driven features, positions organizations to unlock the full potential of their data estates, driving seamless transitions from data insight to actionable intelligence in their AI journeys.