Data Virtualization

[Anonymous]

@PBICommunity  May i know if Data virtualization(as in data virtualization using TIBCO/Denodo) is possible with Microsoft Fabric?

If no, do we have any tool in microsoft that supports data virtualization?

[Anonymous]

Hi @ibarrau .. Thanks for the info. My requirement is that, i have multiple source systems (ex : MS-sql,snowflake,Faltfiles..etc.) and i would want to virtually create a link between these source systems and build a model out of it, using which i'll carry out my analytics and reporting needs. So, just wanted to understand if there is any tool in microsoft that supports such requirements.

FYi....other tools that support data virtualization are Denodo, Tibco...etc

[ibarrau]

Ok, sounds like data integration to me. You can use Fabric Data Factory to get data from many different connectors and sources. The best idea would be storing all the tables you extract to a Lakehouse. That way you can build a strong data architecture starting with raw data and evolve that to a model.

You can also combine and transforme multiple sources on a single pipeline, but I wouldn't recommend that.

The only thing to consider is that onpremise sources or specific databases might require an "Integration Runtine or Onpremise Data Gateway" to help Fabric communicate with the data. It would be a small cliente at local environment to work as a bridge between fabric and data.

I hope that helps,

P/D Data Factory also exists as an Azure Service outside Fabric.

[ibarrau]

Hi. Microsoft Fabric as a tool has all data services inside to let you build and end to end data project. It has many services that can help you get different goals. Those tools can do several things, I'm pretty sure that depending on the specific task you want, you can find how to do it with Fabric.

For example, you can do data integration with Fabric Data Factory Pipelines or Dataflows Gen2. You can also use notebooks, shortcuts or even the OneLake Explorer for business users.

Take a look at a video showing introduction services and definitions of Fabric to have a better understanding: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-f0XIVEP7bE&list=PLv2BtOtLblH1RhbtfTpp9ovi3Y-3HiRO2

Fabric wants to get the old definition of one source of truth with the onelake reducing data silos helping you to have faster and unified access to data.

I hope that helps,