If you've ever seen a demo of Microsoft Fabric's Data Activator, it probably involved simulated data and pre-recorded spikes in dashboards. While the technology is undeniably powerful, it's often hard to connect those demos to something tangible.

In this post, I’ll walk you through how I used Data Activator, Azure Event Hub, and a Raspberry Pi connected to my electric panel to monitor the real-time energy usage of my house. This isn't just a mock-up — I can trigger real alerts by turning on real appliances in my kitchen.

Much of the conversation around Microsoft Fabric rightly focuses on gaining insights from our data. But what if the insights we reveal demand immediate action to mitigate a problem in real-time or, better yet, prevent a problem from occurring in the first place? Data Activator allows us to do just that within Real-Time Intelligence in Microsoft Fabric. If you're reading this and saying "what's Data Activator?", you've come to the right place.

You might be familiar with setting an alert on a visual in a Power BI Dashboard, but Data Activator can provide more functionality and add value to your alerts!