Data Analytics

Demystifying Microsoft’s Copilots Updated: September 4, 2026 Microsoft’s range of Copilots, initially broad and confusing, is narrowing, but remains convoluted. Copilots, like...more Protecting Power BI Premium Pricing During the Move to Fabric August 31, 2026 Power BI Premium P customers must move to Fabric F SKUs at the end of...more Fabric IQ: The Long Road to Smarter Data August 10, 2026 Fabric IQ enhances OneLake data with additional business context to help AI, agents, and other...more SQL Server 2016/2017 BI Migration: Destinations Point to Power BI March 13, 2026 Power BI or Fabric are Microsoft’s direction for reporting and analysis services unless organizations consider...more SQL Server 2016/2017 Database Migration: So Many Choices January 26, 2026 Organizations should develop plans to migrate off SQL Server 2016/2017 before the end of Extended support.  Migrating the database is likely the largest task but is manageable and less...more Top Reasons to Use SQL Server 2025 and a Few Reasons to Avoid It January 14, 2026 SQL Server 2025 reached general availability in Nov. 2025 and offers compelling changes that should...more Power BI Report Server: Licensing Changes Offer Potential Cost Savings December 15, 2025 Power BI Report Server licensing rules changed with SQL Server 2025, offering potential cost savings....more Goodbye SQL Server Reporting Services and Hello Power BI Report Server December 1, 2025 SQL Server 2025 (released in Nov. 2025) will not include Reporting Services (SSRS), its long-standing reporting...more HDInsight Stagnates: Time to Migrate August 9, 2025 HDInsight’s future is looking bleak as Microsoft abandons a major upgrade and retires key security...more How to Choose Azure SQL Configurations That Meet Requirements and Control Costs August 5, 2025 Azure SQL services can host SQL Server databases using the same SQL Server database engine...more Excel Organization Data Types Retiring: Switch to Excel’s Get Data July 20, 2025 Excel Organization Data Types retire on July 31, 2025; does not impact other Data Types....more Power BI and Fabric Limiting User Levels: Consolidate Now  July 20, 2025 Microsoft is limiting the number of individual assignments in Power BI and Fabric workspaces. Administrators...more Copilot Now Available to Power BI Pro and Desktop Users July 8, 2025 Copilot for Power BI and Copilot for Fabric features are now available for most Power...more Databricks Gets More Azure-Entrenched with Extended Partnership June 30, 2025 Microsoft and Databricks have extended their strategic partnership and announced more Azure integrations. The extension...more Surge Protection Stabilizes Power BI, Fabric Performance, With Limits June 9, 2025 Surge protection is a Power BI and Fabric feature that reduces the chance of unexpected...more Power BI Premium Migration Tool Eases the Required Move to Fabric June 2, 2025 Commercial Power BI Premium P customers must migrate to Fabric at their next licensing renewal....more

  Licensing Reference Azure Analysis Services Azure Analysis Services purchasing is instance-based and hourly, with costs driven by tier, size, runtime,...more   Licensing Reference Event Hubs Azure Event Hubs offers several tiers of service, and the primary cost factors are deployed...more   Product Reference HDInsight Azure HDInsight is a cloud database service based on Apache’s Hadoop open-source software framework.   Product Reference Synapse Analytics Azure Synapse Analytics is a multipurpose analytics and data warehouse service designed for organizations with...more   Product Reference Databricks Azure Databricks is an Azure cloud service based on Databricks technology, a third-party offering that...more   Licensing Reference Databricks Azure Databricks provides a “lakehouse”—a single governed environment that combines the structured data and query...more   Licensing Reference HDInsight Azure HDInsight is a managed cluster service for running Apache Hadoop ecosystem technologies on Azure...more   Licensing Reference Synapse Analytics Azure Synapse Analytics is purchased as an Azure consumption service, and each of the engines...more   Licensing Reference Fabric Fabric is primarily licensed through a combination of computational capacity-based fees (that can be applied...more   Product Reference Azure Analysis Services Azure Analysis Services (AAS) is a cloud analytics service based on SQL Server Analysis Services...more   Product Reference Event Hubs Azure Event Hubs is a managed service that routes event streams from source to destination...more   Product Reference Fabric IQ Fabric IQ is a Fabric workload in preview that adds reusable business context to data...more   Product Reference Viva Insights Viva Insights is a Teams-based application that provides employees with information to help improve work...more   Product Reference OneLake OneLake is the core data management component in Microsoft Fabric. It can host and query...more   Licensing Reference OneLake OneLake is the core data management component in Microsoft Fabric and can only be created...more   Licensing Reference Data Lake Storage Cost optimization requires aligning storage tiers, redundancy, and transactions with access patterns.

Database, Analytics, and AI/ML Roadmap

Copilot   Fabric