The Library · Insights
Deep dives across data, automation & AI
41 in-depth articles — from Excel foundations to production machine learning. Filter by topic or difficulty to find exactly what you need.
Microsoft FabricFoundation
Loading Data into a Fabric Lakehouse with the Pipeline Copy Activity: Connecting to REST APIs, Blob Storage, and SQL Sources
Learn how to use Microsoft Fabric's Pipeline Copy Activity to ingest data from REST APIs, Azure Blob Storage, and Azure SQL databases into a Lakehouse. This hands-on lesson walks through real configuration steps, explains every key decision, and covers common pitfalls so your first ingestion pipeline actually works.
19 min read
Microsoft FabricExpert
Securing and Governing Microsoft Fabric: Workspace Roles, Item Permissions, and OneLake Data Access
Fabric's security model has four distinct permission layers — and most teams only know about one of them. This deep-dive lesson teaches you how workspace roles, item permissions, and OneLake data access policies interact so you can design and audit a governance model that actually holds up in production.
29 min read
Microsoft FabricExpert
Fabric Git Integration and Deployment Pipelines: Version Control and Promotion Across Environments
Learn how to combine Microsoft Fabric's Git integration and deployment pipelines into a production-grade SDLC. This deep-dive lesson covers repository serialization, branching strategies, deployment rules, CI/CD automation, and the edge cases that trip up even experienced Fabric engineers.
29 min read
Microsoft FabricExpert
Database Mirroring in Microsoft Fabric: Replicating Azure SQL and Snowflake into OneLake
Database Mirroring in Microsoft Fabric creates continuous, near-real-time replication from Azure SQL Database and Snowflake directly into OneLake as Delta tables — eliminating scheduled ETL and enabling Direct Lake Power BI reporting on always-fresh operational data. This deep-dive lesson covers CDC configuration, Snowflake change tracking, schema change handling, and production operations.
31 min read
Microsoft FabricExpert
Real-Time Analytics in Microsoft Fabric: Eventstreams, Eventhouses, and KQL Querysets
Learn how to build a complete real-time analytics pipeline in Microsoft Fabric using Eventstreams for ingestion, Eventhouses for ultra-fast time-series storage, and KQL Querysets for millisecond-latency queries. This expert-level lesson covers architecture internals, KQL query patterns, materialized views, and Power BI integration.
32 min read
Microsoft FabricExpert
Using OneLake Shortcuts to Query Data in ADLS Gen2 and Amazon S3 Without Copying It
OneLake Shortcuts let you query data in ADLS Gen2 and Amazon S3 directly from Microsoft Fabric — no copying, no pipelines, no duplication. This deep-dive lesson covers the internal architecture, credential configuration, Spark and T-SQL querying patterns, performance optimization, and the security model you must understand before deploying shortcuts in production.
29 min read
Microsoft FabricPractitioner
Building a Fabric Data Warehouse with T-SQL: Tables, Views, and Cross-Database Queries
Learn how to design and build a production-ready dimensional model in Microsoft Fabric Warehouse using T-SQL. This lesson covers DDL for fact and dimension tables, view design patterns, and cross-database queries that join warehouse and lakehouse data without moving it.
21 min read
Microsoft FabricPractitioner
Direct Lake Mode in Power BI: How It Works and When to Use It over Import and DirectQuery
Direct Lake mode reads Delta Parquet files directly from OneLake into Power BI's in-memory engine — delivering Import-speed performance without scheduled refreshes. Learn how framing, transcoding, and fallback work, and build a production-ready Direct Lake semantic model from a Fabric lakehouse.
24 min read
Microsoft FabricPractitioner
Implementing the Medallion Architecture in Microsoft Fabric: Bronze, Silver, and Gold Layers
Learn how to design and build a production-ready medallion architecture in Microsoft Fabric using three separate lakehouses for Bronze, Silver, and Gold layers. This lesson goes beyond theory — you'll write real PySpark notebooks with MERGE patterns, quarantine logic, and Delta optimization for Power BI Direct Lake reporting.
19 min read
Microsoft FabricPractitioner
Transforming Data with Spark Notebooks in Microsoft Fabric: PySpark for Lakehouse Tables
Learn how to use PySpark in Fabric Spark notebooks to clean, enrich, and write production-quality Delta tables to your lakehouse. Covers deduplication, Delta merge, partitioning, and parameterized notebooks that plug into Data Pipelines.
20 min read
Microsoft FabricFoundation
Orchestrating Loads with Fabric Data Pipelines: Copy Activities, Parameters, and Schedules
Learn how to build reliable, automated data pipelines in Microsoft Fabric from the ground up. This hands-on lesson covers Copy Activities, dynamic parameters, activity chaining with dependencies, and scheduled triggers — everything you need to load data without manual intervention.
19 min read
Microsoft FabricExpert
Ingesting Data with Dataflow Gen2: Power Query Skills in Microsoft Fabric
Dataflow Gen2 is more than a drag-and-drop ETL tool — it's a Power Query runtime with query folding, a staging layer, and Delta table output built into Microsoft Fabric. This deep-dive lesson teaches you how to connect to diverse sources, write effective M transformations, maximize query folding, configure incremental refresh, and troubleshoot the failures that trip up even experienced practitioners.
31 min read