The following products, which make up the Data and Integrations toolkit, are supported by the Data and Integrations product line:
- Microsoft Fabric, including Power BI.
- The Unified Data Platform (Azure Databricks + Azure Data Factory).
- The Enterprise Integrations Platform.
In addition, there are some legacy tools still in use such as SOA, Oracle Data Integrator and Discoverer.
Microsoft Fabric, including Power BI
Microsoft Fabric is Microsoft’s enterprise data platform and the market leader. Originally a set of separate tools, they were brought together in 2023 into Microsoft Fabric.
Fabric includes Power BI and, for organisations that already had Power BI, Power BI changed into Fabric.
Fabric has many powerful tools, but also a focus on self-service and low to no code use. This can be used to:
- Build and share analytics
- Process data from source for use in analytics or integrations
- Provide real time analytics at scale
- Build notifications and actions from data
- Apply Azure machine learning tools to your data
Fabric is available to all staff, though some elements require ICT to enable access to them.
Fabric is genuinely no code in many elements is a good entry point for people starting on their analytics journey, whilst also having highly sophisticated tools available for experts.
The Unified Data Platform
The Unified Data Platform is our central platform for data ingest, processing and storage. It is made up of Azure Data Factory and Azure Databricks. A powerful platform, it enables data engineers to process data and make it available to other services, including Fabric and Power BI, as well as integration services.
The Unified Data Platform is incredibly powerful and robust, but requires specific coding and skills to be able to use it effectively. But with those skills and the framework that has been built, content can be developed rapidly.
You can use the Unified Data Platform to:
- Process data from source for use in analytics or integrations
- Provide real time analytics at scale
- Apply Databricks machine learning tools to your data
The Enterprise Integrations Platform
The Enterprise Integrations Platform is a set of tools (Azure Data Factory, a data bus, Logic Apps and potentially other tools) that can be used to move data between sources. It generally uses the Unified Data Platform as its source.
You can use the Enterprise Integrations Platform to:
- Move data securely between products
- Address data conflicts in real time with the Error Hospital
- It is one of several approaches to integrations.