Power BI in Microsoft Fabric: Data-Driven Data Visualization

Microsoft Fabric is revolutionizing the way organizations access, transform, and design the visualization of their data. At the heart of this evolution is Power BI, now a native tool within this unified platform. With this integration, data visualization becomes smoother, faster, and more secure — from the lakehouse to the dashboard.

In this article, we show how Power BI fits within Microsoft Fabric, explore the impact of Direct Lake mode, and explain how this approach accelerates a data-driven culture in modern organizations.

What Is Microsoft Fabric?

Microsoft Fabric is Microsoft’s new analytics platform that unifies tools such as Power BI, Azure Synapse Analytics, Azure Data Factory, and OneLake into a single SaaS environment. Its goal is to simplify the analytics lifecycle: from data ingestion to visualization.

If you’re not yet familiar with the core concepts of this architecture and want to understand its impact, we recommend reading our previously published article: Modernizing Analytics with Microsoft Fabric.

With OneLake as the central repository, all services access data from a single point, improving consistency and performance. And this is where Power BI comes in…

Power BI as a Native Component of Microsoft Fabric

With the arrival of Fabric, Power BI is no longer just a standalone visualization tool and becomes an integral part of the ecosystem. This means:

• Direct connection to Fabric’s Lakehouses and Warehouses;
• Real-time visualizations using data from OneLake;
• Integrated collaboration with other Microsoft tools (Excel, Teams, etc.);

If Power BI is already in use within the organization, no migration is required — dashboards, semantic models, and reports remain valid, now with default access to Fabric functionalities.

Direct Lake: Real-Time Data, No Compromises

One of the biggest advantages of this integration is the new connection mode: Direct Lake. This feature allows Power BI dashboards to access data in OneLake without importing or duplicating it.

Benefits of Direct Lake:

• Real-time access to data;
• Elimination of manual or scheduled refreshes;
• Scalability for large data volumes;
• Optimized performance with direct Lakehouse reading;

In practice, this allows the creation of always-up-to-date dashboards without overloading the infrastructure or compromising analysis speed.

Real-World Application Example

Let’s consider the following common scenario within an organization: a finance team needs to monitor the company’s operational costs in real time. With the Fabric platform, the process works as follows:

• The technical team imports and processes the data — according to business logic — into a Lakehouse in Fabric, which serves as the central repository. Tools such as data pipelines, Spark notebooks, or manual uploads are used to bring in financial data (e.g., operational expenses, revenues);
• Power BI connects to the Lakehouse through the OneLake catalog. Relevant tables are selected, and a semantic model is created in Direct Lake mode, allowing direct access to the data without the need for import. Relationships between tables are defined, measures are created using DAX, and hierarchies are configured as needed;
• With the semantic model ready, interactive reports are developed in Power BI, incorporating relevant charts, tables, and KPIs;
• The published report can be embedded in Microsoft Teams channels, allowing leadership and other stakeholders to access information in real time, fostering a data-driven culture.

Without external integrations and without redundant processes.

More Than Dashboards: A New Way to Do Analytics

With Power BI natively integrated into Fabric, the focus is no longer just on creating dashboards. Now, it is possible to:

• Engage business users in the analytics process from the source;
• Reduce dependence on the technical team for data updates;
• Implement security and compliance policies across the board;

And with Copilot for Power BI, generative AI further assists in report creation. Using natural language commands, it is possible to automate:

• The creation of visualizations, using simple commands such as: “show operational expenses by quarter and region”;
• The creation of DAX measures using prompts like: “create a metric to compare actual costs with the budget”;
• Adding natural language descriptions and narratives to dashboards, making it easier for non-technical decision-makers to interpret the data.

Why Is This Integration a Game-Changer?

Microsoft Fabric and Power BI together represent a new generation. This native integration reduces the time from data to decision, democratizes access to information, and puts the power of analytics in the hands of the entire organization. If the goal is to create a truly data-driven culture, this is the right architecture.

Do you want to turn your data into decisions quickly, visually, and in an integrated way?

Talk to our team of experts, experienced in Power BI and Microsoft Fabric, to help you modernize your end-to-end analytics architecture.