Fabric Direct Lake Simplifies OneLake Access for Traditional BI Users

• Fabric Direct Lake is a semantic data modeling option that helps traditional Microsoft BI customers use OneLake.
• It reduces a barrier to using OneLake-hosted data that has prevented some Power BI users from adopting Fabric.
• Direct Lake is not fully compatible with Microsoft’s other BI solutions and has limits that may prevent its use.
• Customers moving to Fabric should evaluate Direct Lake as part of an overall data architecture redesign.

Fabric Direct Lake enhances access to OneLake by using semantic data models and Microsoft proprietary technology to improve performance and simplify querying OneLake data. Direct Lake supports Microsoft’s Data Analysis Expression (DAX) formula language, which also reduces a barrier to migration of Power BI and other solutions to Fabric. However, it has limitations, such as increased storage costs and reduced control over models, and the technology is not fully compatible with Power BI and other Microsoft BI tools. Customers should understand Direct Lake limitations and evaluate its use carefully as part of an overall architecture redesign to ensure it fits their needs.