Power BI Datamarts Transitioning to Fabric Data Warehouse

The evolution of data platforms continues to accelerate as organizations demand more scalable, intelligent, and integrated solutions for managing analytics workloads. In response to this demand, Microsoft is transitioning Power BI Datamarts into a comprehensive enterprise-grade solution through the Fabric Data Warehouse.

First introduced in May 2022, Power BI Datamarts gave users a self-service way to work with relational data in a managed environment. This simplified experience enabled business users to create models and derive insights without relying heavily on IT support. However, as usage grew, so did the expectations. Feedback from across the community revealed the need for deeper capabilities in areas such as scalability, SQL support, governance, and development collaboration.

With the general availability of Microsoft Fabric, a broader analytics platform built for the AI era, Fabric Data Warehouse emerges as the next step. It combines the ease of self-service with the performance and extensibility required by modern enterprise workloads.

Why Power BI Datamarts Gained Traction

Power BI Datamarts offered an approachable, low-code environment for users to analyze data with minimal setup. Its key strengths included:

• A simple and intuitive experience that made relational analytics accessible to non-developers.

• Pre-provisioned SQL environments that eliminated infrastructure configuration.

• Integration with Power BI Dataflows for seamless extract, transform, and load (ETL) pipelines.

These features made it ideal for departmental use cases and rapid prototyping, especially where time-to-insight was a critical factor.

Key Requests from the Community

While Datamarts provided a solid starting point, several recurring themes emerged from user feedback:

• A need for full DDL and DML capabilities to support advanced SQL operations.

• Integration with version control systems such as Git for team-based development.

• Enterprise-grade security features with support for row- and column-level access control.

• Backup and restore options to enhance data resilience.

• Better performance at scale with the ability to manage larger datasets and more complex workloads.

These insights shaped the vision for a unified platform that retains simplicity while scaling to meet the demands of advanced analytics.

Why We’re Moving to Fabric Data Warehouse

While Datamarts offered a simplified SQL experience, many customers expressed concerns about their scalability and long-term viability. The reality was that Datamarts lacked a clear path to grow with your organization’s needs.

Microsoft Fabric changes that. Built on the powerful foundation of Azure Synapse and SQL Server, Fabric Data Warehouse delivers the capabilities you need today—and is ready for what you’ll need tomorrow.

What Makes Fabric Data Warehouse a Game-Changer

Fabric Data Warehouse brings significant advantages over legacy Datamarts:

• Rich SQL capabilities: Full DDL/DML support with robust transaction handling.

• Unmatched scalability: No 100GB limitation—store and analyze data at any scale.

• Open file formats: Delta/Parquet storage for maximum interoperability.

• Built-in AI integration: AI-enhanced SQL engine with Copilot simplifies development and boosts performance—no tuning needed.

• Enterprise-grade security: Fine-grained control at multiple levels—object, row, column.

• Cross-database queries: Run queries across databases and endpoints within a Fabric workspace.

• Enhanced developer tools: Use pipelines, dataflows, and the high-speed COPY INTO command for ingestion. T-SQL notebooks and IntelliSense enrich the development experience.

• Version control & deployment: Git integration, SQL projects, and deployment pipelines streamline development.

• Deep Fabric integration: Seamlessly work with Fabric’s data science, AI, and analytics tools.

• Flexible licensing: Available via Power BI Premium (P SKUs) or Fabric capacity (F SKUs) with pay-as-you-go or reservation options. Free 60-day trials are also available.

• Direct Lake mode: Fast performance for Power BI reports—eliminates refresh delays and data duplication.

• Data recovery options: Point-in-time restoration and table cloning protect against data loss.

Key Transition Dates

To support a smooth transition, Microsoft has announced the following timeline:

• June 1, 2025: Creation of new Power BI Datamarts will be disabled. Users attempting to create a Datamart will be notified about its retirement.

• October 1, 2025: Existing Datamarts will no longer be supported. They will be removed from workspaces, and dependent reports will stop functioning unless migrated.

How to Migrate to Fabric Data Warehouse

Migrating from Power BI Datamarts to Fabric Data Warehouse ensures continued access to your data while unlocking new capabilities. Two migration options are available:

Option 1: Use Accelerator Scripts

Pre-built scripts are available to automate schema and data migration into Fabric Data Warehouse.

Option 2: Manual Migration Steps

1. Export Datamart Template
   Use the “Transform Data” option in your Datamart and select “Export Template” to extract the schema and queries.

2. Create a Fabric Warehouse
   Set up a new warehouse in the Fabric portal.

3. Initiate a Dataflow Gen2
   From the warehouse interface, choose “Get Data” and create a new Dataflow Gen2.

4. Import the Template
   Use the Power Query Online editor to import the previously exported template.

5. Publish and Refresh
   Save and run the dataflow to begin loading data into the Fabric Data Warehouse.

6. Reconnect Your Reports
   Point your Power BI reports and dashboards to the new data source using the Default Semantic Model or direct connections.

Enhancing Your Migration

Manage the Semantic Model

By default, Fabric Data Warehouse does not automatically sync tables with Power BI. You can either enable automatic sync or manually select the tables and views to include. This allows for more control over what gets added to your semantic model.

Reapply Measures and Relationships

Custom measures and relationships from your Datamart should be recreated in the new model. You can use SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) to script and migrate them.

Strengthen Governance

Define security rules at the schema or view level using T-SQL. Fabric provides deeper control over access policies than the GUI-based permissions available in Datamarts.

Re-implementing Row-Level Security in Fabric Warehouse

When migrating to Fabric Data Warehouse, existing row-level security (RLS) configurations from Datamarts need to be re-created. Fabric supports more advanced and granular governance using Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) and native RLS features.

In Power BI Datamarts, data was stored in the dbo schema, while users accessed it via views in the model schema. To replicate this structure in Fabric, you can manually create a model schema and define views on top of warehouse tables. These views can then be secured using T-SQL-based RLS policies, offering significantly more flexibility than the original Datamart interface.

Best Practices: Incremental Refresh with Dataflows Gen2

Fabric supports incremental refresh, enabling you to load only the data that has changed since the last update. This approach enhances performance and reduces overhead. Documentation is available to guide setup using Dataflow Gen2 patterns.

Conclusion

The unification of Power BI Datamarts into Fabric Data Warehouse marks a significant advancement in Microsoft’s analytics platform. By addressing limitations in performance, security, collaboration, and scalability, Fabric delivers a comprehensive solution tailored for today’s data-driven enterprises.

Organizations currently relying on Datamarts are encouraged to begin their migration journey as soon as possible. By moving to Fabric Data Warehouse, teams can benefit from improved performance, enterprise-grade capabilities, and seamless integration with the broader Fabric ecosystem.

At Quadrant Technologies, we harness the power of Microsoft Fabric to unify data, streamline analytics. Contact us at marcomms@quadranttechnologies.com to explore how Microsoft Fabric can transform your data ecosystem.