Question 1

How do you handle security and governance during a Fabric migration, especially for regulated industries?

Accepted Answer

Security and governance are built into every phase of our Fabric engagements—not bolted on at the end. We start with a comprehensive assessment of your existing security posture, including Entra ID configuration, network isolation, and data classification. During migration, we implement Microsoft Purview governance from the outset—sensitivity labels, data classification, lineage tracking, and policy enforcement. Access controls are designed using RBAC, row-level security (RLS), and object-level security (OLS) mapped to your organizational roles. Workspace hierarchy and naming conventions are designed to enforce data domain boundaries. For regulated industries, we configure private endpoints, network isolation, and audit logging to meet compliance requirements before any production data moves.

Question 2

What kind of ROI can we expect from consolidating onto Microsoft Fabric?

Accepted Answer

The ROI comes from multiple sources. Infrastructure cost savings are often the most immediate win. Beyond cost reduction, organizations typically see significant improvement in Power BI report render times through DirectLake optimization, dramatic reductions in operational complexity (from managing five or more separate Azure services to a single governed platform), and the ability to enable self-service analytics and production AI capabilities that were impossible on the fragmented estate. Our phased approach means you start seeing returns on high-value workloads early—not just at the end of a multi-year project.

Question 3

We have hundreds of SSIS packages and Synapse stored procedures. How complex is the migration to Fabric?

Accepted Answer

This is the hardest part of any Fabric migration—and the part most firms underestimate. SSIS packages can't be lifted and shifted into Fabric. They require fundamental re-architecture from procedural ETL to ELT patterns using Fabric Pipelines, Dataflow Gen2, or Spark Notebooks. Each package needs to be assessed for complexity, dependencies, and the optimal Fabric-native replacement. Synapse dedicated SQL pool workloads require DDL refactoring (distribution keys, indexes, and workload management settings don't exist in Fabric Warehouse), data extraction via CETAS to staging, and T-SQL compatibility remediation. Azure Data Factory pipeline migrations need a feature-parity gap assessment since Fabric Data Factory differs from ADF in key ways—no SSIS Integration Runtime, different connection handling, and no datasets concept. Pythian has done this work across complex, multi-workload environments and understands where the hidden compatibility gaps live.

Question 4

Is Microsoft Fabric mature enough for enterprise-scale production workloads?

Accepted Answer

Fabric has matured significantly since its general availability in November 2023. As of mid-2025, over 28,000 paying organizations use it, including 80 percent of the Fortune 500. Microsoft is treating Fabric as its flagship data and analytics platform with monthly feature updates, and is actively steering customers from legacy services—retiring Power BI Premium P-SKUs, feature-freezing Synapse dedicated SQL pools, and migrating ADF users toward Fabric Data Factory. That said, features still move between preview and GA, and capacity-based pricing requires careful management to avoid unexpected costs. This is exactly where Pythian adds value. We know where the sharp edges are—which features are production-ready, which need workarounds, and how to architect around current limitations. We've helped dozens of organizations take Fabric from prototype to production, and we design every implementation with the operational discipline to handle enterprise-scale workloads reliably.

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