Multi-geo feature in MS Fabric

[datadude3000]

Hey all - I am looking into the Multi-Geo feature of MS fabric. If I need to adhere to GDPR/GDPL regulation with customer PII data staying in their geo regions, with my geo as "AU East" and satellites as "Brazil South" or "North Europe" would that work ?

I know there are lots of limitations with this kind of set-up (dataflows arent supported, no support for metrics etc.,)

Is multi-geo the only way to achieve GDPR compliance in Fabric ? are there any other ways of doing this without enabling multi-geo support as it needs a dedicated capacity which is way more expensive than pay-as-you-go ? for me, I am trying to achieve a solution where data resides in its originating country but still available to be queried from other regions without actually importing the data using pipelines or import mode in power BI.

CosmosDB might fit my need but looking for a holistic end-end analytics platform and check if fabric can achieve this. Any thoughts ?

[Brunner_BI]

As far as I know, the data resides where the capacity is hosted so for all workspaces in region X the data is actually residing in that region and it does not matter where the tenant is.

There are some exceptions like if you start using copilot e.g. which is not available in all regions yet.

I do not know the exact limitations and have not seen anything online.

@Pepi 

[Pepi]

Thanks @Brunner_BI 

Based on this article Multi-Geo support for Fabric - Microsoft Fabric | Microsoft Learn I tend to agree with what you say - the problem is that I need to say to my management that our data 100% resides in region X if my capacity is in region X, despite the fact that my tenant is in region Y. I also asked this question to Microsoft support but one thinks that the data would reside in region Y, the other one thought the region would reside in region X and nobody knows for sure 🙂 

Is there some tool or something where I could verify this for certain?

In our case, we had our workspaces under the Pro license in the tenant home region and then I migrated them to the Fabric F8 capacity in another region. When I did this, there was no message regarding data migration or any visible activity therefore I am a bit sceptical that the migration would happen straight away or at all...

Thanks in any case!

Pepi

[Brunner_BI]

When I changed a pro workspace to a newly created F capacity it was showing a warning that data will be moved and it will have implications etc.

[Pepi]

@Brunner_BI ,

Interesting, do you get this message when you change the license on a PBI workspace from Pro to Fabric capacity, like on the image below? I get no such message. Which Fabric size do you have? We are on F8, wondering if there is some difference between the different sizes?

[Brunner_BI]

Interestingly, I only got it when I change from Fabric trial to paid Fabric

When I create a new Pro workspace and then move it to East US Fabric paid it did not show up

When I re-assign an existing Pro workspace and move it to East US Fabric paid it also did not show up

[Pepi]

Isn't there some tool or script to query the workspace/ semantic models' metadata to confirm where (which region) it resides in ? Or how else to confirm the data residency?

[Pepi]

Hi @datadude3000,

Did you manage to find an answer to your question? I'm investigating the issue of data residency as well but there doesn't seem to be a definitive answer. I need to know that if I create a Fabric capacity in a region different from the tenant's home region, will my Power BI data in workspaces on that capacity reside in the Fabric's capacity region or in the tenant's home region.

Thanks 

[v-jiewu-msft]

Hi @datadude3000 ,

Please try the following methods and check if they can solve your problem:

1.The Multi-Geo allows multinational organizations to address regional.

Multi-Geo support for Fabric - Microsoft Fabric | Microsoft Learn

2.Cosmos DB allows you to scale throughput and storage across any number of geographical regions.

Common use cases and scenarios for Azure Cosmos DB | Microsoft Learn

3.You can also view the following link to learn about the Azure cosmos DB.

Getting started with Azure Cosmos DB - end to end example - Azure Cosmos DB Blog (microsoft.com)

Best Regards,

Wisdom Wu

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