Category: Direct Lake

BI Projects, Certification Exams, Data Agents, Data Factory, Data Governance, Direct Lake, Fabric, Microsoft BI Platform, Microsoft Fabric, Ontologies

FabCon & SQLCon: What I expect to learn in Atlanta this year

Paul Turley

What do I want to learn at FabCon this year? I have high expectations for the FabCon conference during the week of March 16-20, 2026. With over 30,000 organizations actively using Fabric in production, I expect to hear much more about what we’ve learned, how to plan, optimize and monitor Fabric solutions rather than marketing rhetoric about new and upcoming features. There will be announcements and I’m interested in the long-term product vision, but I am anxious to learn more from others who are in the trenches and using Fabric day-to-day.

Visit Me in the Community Lounge

I will be in the community lounge expert’s area from 9 to 11 on Thursday answering questions about Fabric certifications. I have a new O’Reilly book on the PL-300 exam and recently delivered Fabric certification prep sessions for the DP-600 and DP-700 exams.

Direct Lake, Microsoft BI Platform, Microsoft Fabric, RLS, Semantic Models, Tableau

Using Tableau with Microsoft Fabric & RLS

Paul Turley

I’m a big fan of Power BI but that doesn’t mean that I’m not open to using different reporting and analytical tools in an enterprise modern data platform. People love Tableau with its long history as a leading visual dashboard and report design tool. Is Tableau an effective dashboarding and analytic reporting tool for a solution built using Microsoft Fabric? As I investigated this question for a new consulting client, my goal was to put aside any product prejudice I might have and approach the question with as little bias as possible.
The purpose of this article is not to compare Tableau to Power BI nor to expound on the strengths or perceived weaknesses of either product, but to share my experience and learnings about using Tableau with Microsoft Fabric and Power BI semantic models. I will demonstrate…

Direct Lake, Microsoft BI Platform, Microsoft Fabric

Microsoft Fabric Project Advice: Getting into the Thick of It

Paul Turley

Advice and lessons learned from working with consulting clients for nearly one year since Fabric was released. How to approach architecting solutions, choosing from among Fabric assets and tools, and getting your organization ready for Fabric adoption, developing, managing and deploying successful Fabric solutions.