What is new for Databases and Fabric at Ignite

There is significant news on the database front. Microsoft is unifying its data platform by deeply integrating its databases with Microsoft Fabric, creating a seamless, AI-powered data estate.

Unified Data Estate with Microsoft Fabric

• Microsoft Fabric now acts as a unified platform that integrates Microsoft’s operational databases (like Azure Cosmos DB, Azure SQL, and PostgreSQL) with analytics and AI tools.
• This integration enables real-time insights and governed data sharing across operational and analytical systems without complex ETL pipelines.

Real-Time Analytics with Synapse Real-Time Intelligence

• The new Synapse Real-Time Intelligence in Fabric allows streaming data from operational databases to be analyzed instantly.
• This supports use cases like fraud detection, predictive maintenance, and personalized recommendations.

Built-in Governance and Security

• Microsoft Purview is embedded in Fabric, ensuring data lineage, access control, and compliance across the entire data estate.
• This helps organizations meet regulatory requirements while maintaining agility.

AI-Ready Data for Copilot and Custom Models

• With this integration, data from operational systems becomes AI-ready by default, enabling seamless use with Microsoft Copilot and custom AI models.
• This supports natural language querying, automated insights, and generative AI applications.

Fabric IQ 

Fabric IQ is Microsoft Fabric’s new semantic intelligence layer that transforms raw data into business-aware insights by embedding meaning, relationships, and operational context directly into the data platform. This announcement marks the moment Microsoft Fabric evolves from a unified data platform into a unified intelligence platform. It created a shared, real-time understanding of the business. It is designed to solve a core challenge in enterprise AI: AI agents can read data, but they often lack the business context to interpret it meaningfully. Fabric IQ introduces a semantic layer that maps data to real-world business concepts like customers, flights, or inventory, rather than just tables and columns

Fabric IQ introduces a semantic intelligence layer that gives both people and AI the same deep business context your experts rely on. It connects data, meaning, and action through:

• Ontology - A shared business model built with no-code visual tools
• Semantic Model - Trusted BI definitions extended into operations & AI
• Graph Engine - Multi-hop reasoning across connected business systems
• Data Agent - Virtual analysts that answer questions using real business semantics
• Operations Agent - Autonomous agents that monitor, reason, and act in real time

Bi-Directional Data Movement

• Fabric supports bi-directional data movement between databases and the analytics layer, enabling write-back scenarios like updating customer profiles or triggering workflows.

Microsoft Databases and Microsoft Fabric: Your unified and AI-powered data estate

SQL Database in Microsoft Fabric

SQL Database in Microsoft Fabric is a cloud-native, developer-friendly transactional database built on the same engine as Azure SQL Database, designed to integrate seamlessly with the broader Fabric ecosystem.

SQL database in Fabric is built on 3 important pillars: Simple, Autonomous & Secure, and Optimized for AI. It is now genernally available. 

Announcing SQL database in Fabric (Generally Available)