dataMinds News Round up –
December 2024
Author: Jason Himmelstein
In this detailed update from Jason Himmelstein, explore the latest innovations and enhancements within Microsoft Fabric for December 2024.
This month, Jason brings you a host of new features and improvements designed to enhance your experience and productivity. From the introduction of Copilot in Power BI mobile apps to the new Fabric Databases, there’s something for everyone.
Author: Sandeep Pawar
In his latest blog, Sandeep Pawar dives deep into optimizing Delta Lake tables for Direct Lake performance in Microsoft Fabric using Python notebooks. He explores how tools like Polars can configure rowgroup sizes to enhance performance, comparing it with Spark setups.
With detailed tests on a 600M-row dataset, Sandeep demonstrates how Python notebooks offer efficient options for smaller workloads while maintaining flexibility for tuning Direct Lake performance. From configuring rowgroups to testing performance impacts, this blog provides actionable insights for data professionals.
Curious about the results? Check out Sandeep’s detailed analysis!
Author: James Serra
Author: Chris Webb
Chris Webb showcases a creative use of Microsoft Fabric’s Eventstreams and Activator to tackle the challenge of refreshing a Power BI semantic model linked to an Excel workbook in OneDrive for Business. By leveraging Fabric Pipelines and Activator’s rule-based triggers, he demonstrates how to manage refreshes intelligently, avoiding unnecessary CU usage and overlapping processes.
The solution waits for a period of inactivity in the Excel file before triggering the refresh, ensuring efficiency while handling frequent autosaves. While it may not be the simplest approach, it highlights the versatility of Fabric’s Real-Time Intelligence capabilities.
Explore how these tools work together to solve old problems with new, innovative techniques in the full post.
Microsoft has announced SQL Server 2025, now in private preview. This AI-ready enterprise database delivers advanced AI capabilities like vector indexing and integration with tools like LangChain and Semantic Kernel, enabling developers to build intelligent applications seamlessly from ground to cloud.
SQL Server 2025 introduces Fabric mirroring for near real-time analytics without ETL, along with features like JSON support, GraphQL APIs, and enhanced T-SQL functions. Security is strengthened with managed identity support, while performance improvements ensure mission-critical reliability.
Learning
Get certified in Microsoft Fabric—for free! Fast-track your career by becoming a Microsoft Certified: Fabric Analytics Engineer Associate. The Microsoft Fabric Community team is offering 5,000 free DP-600 exam vouchers to eligible community members. Complete your exam by the end of the year and join the ranks of certified Fabric experts. Don’t miss this incredible opportunity!
Introducing a new certification for data engineers! We’re excited to announce the Microsoft Certified: Fabric Data Engineer Associate certification, designed to showcase your expertise in data ingestion, transformation, administration, monitoring, and performance optimization within Fabric. To earn this certification, pass Exam DP-700: Implementing Data Engineering Solutions Using Microsoft Fabric, now in beta.
