At AE, we regularly organise webinars on a wide range of data-related topics. Our latest session—hosted by my inimitable colleagues Jeroen Ruytings and Koen Verbeek—delved into Microsoft Fabric, with Wouter Baetens joining in his role as Data & AI Solution Specialist at Microsoft.
While a bevy of topics came to the table—and I strongly encourage you to hear from our experts yourself —this blogpost takes a closer look at how Microsoft Fabric supports data governance at any stage of an organisation’s data journey, whether you're an SME or a global enterprise.
At AE, we believe that a significant part of the answer lies not just in collecting data—but in managing it like a product. There’s a shift underway: moving from siloed pipelines to governed, reusable data products that can be shared across teams and domains. This shift demands governance that is embedded, user-centric, and highly automated.
Governance, as defined by DAMA (2017), is “the exercise of authority and control (planning, monitoring, and enforcement) over the management of data assets.” While broad, this definition underscores that governance is ultimately about behaviour—the people and process sides of the triangle.
Tooling should be seen primarily as an enabler. Microsoft Fabric is undeniably powerful, but it should also support the very human business of governance. In traditional environments, governance often comes too late—added manually (or via tools) after a solution is built.
The obvious place to point to when discussing governance in Fabric and the broader Microsoft ecosystem is Microsoft Purview. Yet ideally, governance should be part of the solution's design, not something layered on top. As mentioned during the webinar, Fabric and Purview are evolving in parallel but not always in tandem. For this reason, this blogpost focuses on Fabric, as it stands – rather than on the combination with Purview, logical as that pairing might be.
The core goal of Microsoft Fabric is to offer a unified, end-to-end data platform that connects the various disciplines, users, and producers of data in your organisation through a single cloud solution.
Crucially, Microsoft recognises the spectrum of users that interact with data. For enterprise users, complex architectures – multi-tenant, multi-cloud, hybrid – are often the norm. Fabric not only allows for this, but embraces it. At the same time, smaller organisations with some Power BI experience but limited exposure to data engineering should find the transition relatively straightforward—or “administrative,” as our webinar put it.
The aim is to reduce friction between teams and eliminate the integration challenges that plague traditional data stacks. No matter your governance model—decentralised, federated, or centralised – a user-friendly platform is not a luxury, but a necessity. Fabric supports a “start small and scale” approach, aligning well with the Non-Invasive Approach by Robert Seiner, which we also endorse at AE.
This usability is key to overcoming one of governance’s traditional obstacles: the perception that it’s a burden, or worse, a collective action problem. Say what you will about Microsoft products, but one thing they’ve always done well is integration. (Having worked with SAP in the past, I can confirm this is not always a given elsewhere.) Fabric’s focus on usability and findability – regardless of the tools your users prefer – makes governance a more natural and less painful process.
While the initial buzz around data mesh may have faded, the concept of data products remains embedded in the collective data psyche—ours at AE included.
Data products rely on eight core principles: discoverable, addressable, understandable, trustworthy, accessible, interoperable, valuable on their own, and secure. In many organisations, fragmented, siloed data estates block half of these at the outset.
Fabric doesn’t cover all eight out of the box, but it does support improved discoverability, accessibility, and interoperability. Additional tools – like Informatica or Collibra – can be integrated if preferred, offering flexibility without vendor lock-in.
More importantly, Fabric nudges organisations away from project-based pipelines toward a domain-driven model. Governance becomes more effective when there’s visibility into business value, and buy-in across all layers of the organisation. In that, Fabric provides a solid foundation.
In today’s data-driven world, the future belongs to organisations that can deliver governed, trusted data products at speed. Microsoft Fabric’s strength lies in its ability to integrate fragmented parts of the business, while remaining approachable to users. These are not just technical details—your governance is only as effective as your users’ belief in it.
Regardless of your tech stack, architecture, or governance structure, Microsoft Fabric deserves a place in the conversation.
Want to explore how Microsoft Fabric can help your team deliver reliable, governed data products? Get in touch with AE.