Who We Serve
IRON IT Group | Microsoft Fabric
One data platform. Endless possibilities.
Your organisation generates valuable information every day. But when that information is scattered across different applications, databases and spreadsheets, uncovering meaningful insights can be difficult.
Microsoft Fabric brings data integration, engineering, analytics and business intelligence together in a unified cloud platform.
IRON IT Group helps businesses explore Microsoft Fabric, connect relevant data sources, modernise reporting and build a stronger foundation for data-driven decisions and intelligent technologies.
Connected Data. Clearer Decisions.
Bring business information together and turn it into useful intelligence.
Data. Analytics. Intelligence.
Explore a connected approach to your data, reporting and analytics requirements.
01
Unify business data
Reduce fragmentation across systems.
02
Improve reporting
Connect data with business intelligence.
03
Explore deeper insights
Support analytics and data science.
04
Build for growth
Plan scalable data foundations.
A More Connected Data Strategy
Stop working with disconnected information.
Many organisations rely on multiple software platforms to manage finance, operations, customers, employees and business services.
While these systems support important activities, the information they contain can be difficult to combine and analyse.
Reporting teams may need to extract data from several applications, clean spreadsheets or manually reconcile figures before creating useful reports.
Microsoft Fabric offers integrated experiences for data ingestion, engineering, warehousing, real-time analysis and reporting, supported by a shared data foundation.
A well-planned implementation can help businesses create a more consistent approach to organising information and making it available to authorised teams.
Explore Your Data Strategy →
Information that works together.
Help your teams move from disconnected systems towards more useful business intelligence.
Microsoft Fabric Capabilities
Connect the entire data journey.
Microsoft Fabric brings together specialised experiences for collecting, preparing, analysing and presenting business information.
01
Microsoft OneLake
Explore Fabric's unified logical data lake, providing shared storage foundations for supported analytical workloads.
02
Data Factory
Connect supported sources and build data ingestion and transformation workflows through pipelines and other integration features.
03
Data Engineering
Prepare and transform data using supported engineering experiences, including lakehouses, notebooks and Apache Spark.
04
Data Warehouse
Explore scalable analytical warehousing with SQL-based data modelling and querying capabilities.
05
Real-Time Intelligence
Analyse supported event and streaming data to investigate changing business activity and operational conditions.
06
Data Science
Explore suitable analytical and machine-learning workflows using supported Fabric data science capabilities.
07
Microsoft Power BI
Develop interactive reports and business intelligence experiences based on appropriate analytical information.
08
Governance & Administration
Review workspace access, data permissions, capacity, security and governance requirements across the environment.
Microsoft Fabric Architecture
Bring your information into a connected analytics environment.
Microsoft Fabric is designed to support different analytics experiences within a common platform.
Data may originate from databases, business applications, files or other supported sources, then be ingested or accessed through appropriate integration methods.
OneLake provides a unified logical storage foundation, while specialised Fabric experiences can be used for transformation, analytical processing and business intelligence.
Depending on the solution, organisations may use data pipelines, lakehouses, warehouses, real-time analytics and Power BI reports to meet their reporting needs.
The correct architecture depends on the source systems, workload, data quality, security and cost requirements.
Discuss Fabric Architecture →
Connected Data Architecture
ILLUSTRATIVE
One connected data journey.
A simplified example of how Microsoft Fabric components can work together.
Business Apps
Databases
Cloud Files
Microsoft Data Factory
Ingestion, pipelines and data transformation
Microsoft OneLake
Unified logical data lake
Lakehouse
Warehouse
Analytics
Power BI & Business Insights
Reports, visual analytics and decision support
Conceptual diagram only. Fabric supports additional data paths, including shortcuts and direct access patterns, that may not require this exact sequence.
Data Engineering & Integration
Prepare the data your business depends on.
Business information often arrives in different structures, formats and levels of quality.
A data engineering strategy considers how information should be collected, cleaned, transformed and organised before it is used for reporting or analysis.
Microsoft Fabric provides capabilities for data pipelines, engineering notebooks, lakehouses and other workflows that help prepare suitable analytical datasets.
IRON IT Group can discuss integration and engineering requirements that fit your existing systems and planned analytical outcomes.
- Business data source discovery
- Data ingestion planning
- Microsoft Data Factory pipelines
- Data transformation requirements
- Lakehouse architecture considerations
- Notebook and Spark options
- Data validation and quality
- Operational monitoring and maintenance
Data Engineering Foundations
Useful analytics begin with the right data.
Ingest
Connect supported business sources and establish suitable data ingestion methods.
Transform
Prepare information so it meets agreed quality, structure and analytical requirements.
Store
Select suitable lakehouse, warehouse or other storage approaches for the intended workload.
Maintain
Plan refresh processes, error handling, data ownership and ongoing quality reviews.
Microsoft OneLake
A shared foundation for your analytical workloads.
Unified Storage
Use a shared logical data lake across supported Microsoft Fabric experiences.
Connected Analytics
Support different analytical workloads that use relevant shared data.
OneLake Shortcuts
Evaluate supported ways to reference data from other locations without necessarily copying it.
Governance Considerations
Review relevant permissions, data management controls and organisational responsibilities.
A More Unified Data Foundation
Reduce unnecessary fragmentation in your data environment.
Traditional analytics environments can involve several separate data platforms, each with different storage and management requirements.
OneLake provides a shared logical data lake for Microsoft Fabric, helping supported workloads access and work with data within a connected architecture.
Depending on the source and supported features, OneLake shortcuts can provide an alternative to copying certain datasets into a new storage location.
These capabilities should be considered alongside data security, source compatibility, performance, governance and commercial requirements.
Discuss Microsoft OneLake →
Analytics & Business Intelligence
Turn connected data into clearer reporting.
Microsoft Fabric can provide the analytical foundations needed to support business intelligence across different departments.
Power BI enables organisations to create reports and visual experiences based on supported Fabric data models and analytical sources.
A suitable implementation can help teams explore performance indicators, investigate changes and understand business information more consistently.
The aim is to make data easier to interpret while retaining appropriate definitions, quality checks and access controls.
- Executive business reporting
- Sales and financial analytics
- Operational performance reporting
- Customer activity insights
- Power BI semantic models
- Interactive visual reports
- Approved report sharing
- Reporting governance and maintenance
Business Intelligence Overview
DEMO DATA
Connected Business Performance
Illustrative reporting metrics showing how information can be presented.
Revenue
$285K
Transactions
1,482
Completion
96%
Monthly Performance
Illustrative data only. This is not a functioning Power BI or Fabric dashboard and does not contain real customer or IRON IT Group performance figures.
Jan
Feb
Mar
Apr
May
Jun
Real-Time Intelligence
Understand business activity as new information arrives.
Some business decisions depend on information that changes throughout the working day.
Microsoft Fabric Real-Time Intelligence provides capabilities for ingesting, processing and analysing supported event and streaming data.
Depending on the architecture, these capabilities can support operational monitoring, event analysis and appropriate alerting scenarios.
Not every organisation requires real-time infrastructure, so the business value, data frequency, complexity and cost should be assessed before implementation.
- Event-streaming requirements
- Operational monitoring use cases
- Supported streaming data sources
- Real-time analytical processing
- Event-based alerts where supported
- Time-sensitive reporting
- Data quality and availability
- Capacity and performance planning
Event-Driven Analytics
Explore insights from changing business activity.
Operational Events
Analyse suitable events generated by business processes or connected systems.
Service Performance
Consider near-real-time operational measures where technically appropriate.
Trend Identification
Explore how changing data patterns may inform operational decisions.
Alerts & Responses
Evaluate supported rules and processes for responding to relevant events.
People & Data
Better data is most valuable when people can use it.
A successful data platform is not just about infrastructure, storage or technology.
It is about providing the right information to the right people in ways that support real business decisions.
A people-focused Microsoft Fabric strategy considers the needs of business leaders, analysts, technical teams and the employees who rely on accurate reporting every day.
Discuss Your Analytics Goals →
Microsoft Fabric in Practice
Better insight across your business.
Microsoft Fabric can support different analytical requirements depending on the organisation, source systems and information available.
01 / FINANCE
Financial Performance
Bring together suitable financial datasets to investigate budgets, costs, revenue and selected performance indicators.
02 / SALES
Sales & Customer Analytics
Explore sales information, customer activity and trends using appropriately connected and governed data.
03 / OPERATIONS
Operational Reporting
Analyse process performance, relevant service measures and information from supported operational systems.
04 / MANAGEMENT
Executive Intelligence
Provide leaders with consistent reporting based on relevant metrics and reliable analytical models.
05 / IT SERVICES
Technology Analytics
Review suitable infrastructure, support and service information to understand trends and operational activity.
06 / DATA SCIENCE
Advanced Analytics
Explore approved predictive and machine-learning use cases supported by suitable data quality, modelling and validation.
Fabric Security & Governance
Your analytical data needs appropriate protection.
As organisations bring information together, they must consider who can access the data and how it should be governed.
Microsoft Fabric offers security and administration capabilities, but these controls must be selected and configured according to the organisation's requirements.
Governance planning should consider workspaces, user identities, data source access, sharing arrangements and responsibilities for maintaining analytical assets.
Microsoft Purview may also provide complementary data governance and information protection capabilities in supported scenarios.
- Microsoft Entra ID considerations
- Workspace permissions and roles
- Data access and sharing controls
- Data classification requirements
- Data governance and ownership
- Microsoft Purview integration considerations
- Development and production separation
- Operational audit and review requirements
Responsible Data Management
Keep your data environment controlled and manageable.
Identity
Establish appropriate user and administrative identities for analytical environments.
Access
Manage who can access workspaces, data sources and relevant business reporting.
Governance
Assign responsibilities for important data assets, definitions and operational processes.
Operations
Plan administration, change management, monitoring and issue response.
Our Implementation Approach
From disconnected information to a clearer data strategy.
A Microsoft Fabric implementation should begin with clearly defined business goals and a realistic assessment of the technology and information involved.
STEP 01
Discover
Identify the intended business outcomes, existing systems, stakeholders and reporting challenges.
STEP 02
Assess
Review data quality, integration requirements, licensing, capacity and security considerations.
STEP 03
Design
Plan suitable storage, ingestion, transformation, analytics and governance arrangements.
STEP 04
Implement
Develop and test the agreed data workflows, analytical components and reporting experiences.
STEP 05
Improve
Review performance, costs, user adoption and opportunities to enhance the data environment.
Fabric Capacity & Licensing
Plan the right capacity for your data workloads.
Microsoft Fabric uses capacity-based licensing for many of its analytical workloads, alongside individual user licensing considerations for relevant Power BI capabilities.
Fabric capacity is generally offered through F SKUs, with different sizes intended for different workload and performance requirements.
Power BI content creation and sharing can require additional user licences. In qualifying F64-or-higher capacity scenarios, users with free licences and suitable viewer permissions can consume certain Power BI content.
The most appropriate commercial arrangement depends on workloads, expected usage, report sharing, capacity size and any additional services involved.
- Fabric capacity planning
- F SKU selection
- Power BI Pro requirements
- Power BI Premium Per User considerations
- Free viewer eligibility
- Capacity utilisation and performance
- Storage and workload costs
- Operational budgeting
Capacity Planning
Match your investment to your analytical needs.
Workload Requirements
Consider the data engineering, warehousing, reporting and analytical processing the environment needs.
Capacity Selection
Review suitable Fabric capacity sizes according to expected usage and performance needs.
Report Distribution
Confirm Power BI user licensing and sharing requirements for the intended consumers.
Cost Management
Review workload utilisation, capacity administration, storage and ongoing operational costs.
Why Microsoft Fabric?
Build a stronger foundation for business intelligence.
Microsoft Fabric can help organisations adopt a more connected approach to data and analytics, with different capabilities available to technical teams and business users.
01 / CONNECTIVITY
Bring Data Together
Explore ways to reduce fragmentation between supported business data sources.
02 / ANALYTICS
Improve Business Insight
Develop more useful reporting and analysis based on appropriate analytical data.
03 / PRODUCTIVITY
Reduce Manual Reporting
Review data integration and processing methods that may reduce repetitive preparation.
04 / INNOVATION
Support Advanced Analytics
Explore data science and AI-assisted scenarios where business value and technical readiness justify them.
05 / GOVERNANCE
Improve Data Management
Establish clearer ownership, permissions and operational practices for analytical information.
06 / GROWTH
Plan for Future Requirements
Build an architecture that can be reviewed and expanded as workloads and business needs evolve.
Frequently Asked Questions
Microsoft Fabric FAQs.
Answers to common questions about Microsoft Fabric, OneLake, data warehousing, integration, analytics, licensing and governance.
What is Microsoft Fabric?
Microsoft Fabric is an integrated analytics platform that supports data ingestion, transformation, engineering, warehousing, data science, real-time intelligence and business intelligence within a shared environment.
What is Microsoft Fabric used for?
Fabric can be used to connect supported data sources, prepare analytical information, create data models, run suitable analytics and support reporting through technologies including Power BI.
What is Microsoft OneLake?
OneLake is the unified logical data lake used by Microsoft Fabric. It provides shared storage capabilities for supported Fabric analytical workloads.
What is the difference between Microsoft Fabric and Power BI?
Power BI focuses on business intelligence, semantic models and reporting. Microsoft Fabric is a broader analytics platform that includes Power BI alongside data engineering, integration, warehousing and other analytical capabilities.
What is Microsoft Fabric Data Factory?
Data Factory provides data integration capabilities within Fabric, including supported pipelines and transformation methods used to ingest and prepare information.
What is a Fabric Lakehouse?
A lakehouse combines data lake storage with analytical capabilities and can support suitable engineering, transformation and querying workflows in Microsoft Fabric.
What is a Microsoft Fabric Data Warehouse?
Fabric Data Warehouse provides SQL-based analytical warehousing capabilities for suitable structured data, modelling and querying requirements.
Can Microsoft Fabric connect to existing databases?
Fabric supports various integration methods and connectors, but compatibility depends on the database, source system, network access, configuration and selected Fabric capabilities.
Can Fabric use data from Microsoft Azure?
Microsoft Fabric supports integration with various Azure data technologies and other compatible sources. The appropriate design depends on technical and commercial requirements.
What are OneLake shortcuts?
OneLake shortcuts provide supported ways to reference data stored in other locations without necessarily creating separate physical copies. Compatibility, performance and permissions should be assessed for each use case.
Does Microsoft Fabric provide real-time analytics?
Yes. Fabric includes Real-Time Intelligence capabilities for supported streaming and event-driven data scenarios. Actual data latency depends on the architecture, source systems and processing configuration.
Can Microsoft Fabric support artificial intelligence?
Fabric includes data science and AI-related capabilities that may support suitable analytical and machine-learning use cases. Advanced functionality is subject to technical requirements, service availability and licensing.
Can Microsoft Fabric improve reporting?
Fabric can provide integration, transformation and analytical foundations for Power BI reporting. Reporting quality still depends on reliable data, appropriate modelling and clear business definitions.
Is Microsoft Fabric suitable for small businesses?
It can be, particularly where a business has data integration or analytical requirements that justify the platform. Smaller organisations should compare complexity, licensing and capacity costs with simpler reporting alternatives.
Does Microsoft Fabric replace Azure data services?
Not necessarily. Fabric provides an integrated analytics approach, but existing Azure services may remain appropriate for certain workloads. Architecture decisions depend on compatibility, governance, performance and cost.
How secure is Microsoft Fabric?
Microsoft Fabric provides platform security and administrative capabilities. Organisations must still configure appropriate access permissions, identity controls, data governance and operational processes for their environment.
Can Microsoft Purview work with Fabric?
Microsoft Purview provides governance and information protection capabilities that may complement Fabric in supported scenarios. The available integration and features depend on the products, licences and configuration.
What is Microsoft Fabric capacity?
Fabric capacity provides compute resources used to run supported analytical workloads. F SKU sizes offer different processing capacities and commercial options.
Do all employees need a Power BI Pro licence?
Not necessarily. Viewer licensing depends on how reports are distributed and the capacity used. For qualifying F64-or-higher capacities, users with free licences and appropriate workspace viewer access may consume Power BI content. Content creators and other users may still need paid entitlements.
Can Microsoft Fabric be used without a paid capacity?
Microsoft offers trial options subject to eligibility and current terms. Production analytical workloads generally require appropriate Fabric capacity or other qualifying arrangements.
How long does a Microsoft Fabric project take?
The timeframe depends on data sources, architecture, integration complexity, data quality, governance, analytical requirements and testing.
How much does Microsoft Fabric cost?
Costs vary with capacity size, usage patterns, storage, licensing and implementation requirements. Contact IRON IT Group to discuss your intended workloads and project scope.
Explore More Data & AI Services
Connect Microsoft Fabric with your wider data strategy.
Explore related services for business intelligence, information governance and intelligent business technologies.
01 / BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE
Microsoft Power BI
Explore interactive reporting, analytics, data integration and business intelligence.
02 / DATA GOVERNANCE
Microsoft Purview
Explore information protection, classification, data governance and compliance capabilities.
03 / ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
AI Solutions
Explore AI readiness, Microsoft Copilot, intelligent agents and responsible AI adoption.
Ready to unlock the value of your business data?
Talk to IRON IT Group about Microsoft Fabric, OneLake, data integration, engineering, warehousing, business intelligence and developing a more connected data strategy.