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Microsoft Build announcements

James Serra's Blog Posted on May 22, 2025 by James SerraMay 22, 2025

Once again there were a number of Microsoft Build announcements related to data and AI, and some were very impressive. Below are my favorites. Everything announced at Build can be found in the Microsoft Build 2025 Book of News. Here you … Continue reading →

Posted in Microsoft Fabric, Power BI, SQLServerPedia Syndication | Leave a reply

Deciphering Data Architectures: When to Use a Warehouse, Fabric, Lakehouse, or Mesh

James Serra's Blog Posted on May 6, 2025 by James SerraMay 5, 2025

As discussed in my blog and book “Deciphering Data Architectures: Choosing Between a Modern Data Warehouse, Data Fabric, Data Lakehouse, and Data Mesh” (Amazon), organizations are often challenged with choosing the right data architecture to meet their business goals—especially as … Continue reading →

Posted in SQLServerPedia Syndication | 2 Replies

Announcements from the Microsoft Fabric Community Conference

James Serra's Blog Posted on April 9, 2025 by James SerraApril 12, 2025

A ton of new features for Microsoft Fabric were announced at the Microsoft Fabric Community Conference recently. Here are all the new features that I found most interesting, with some released now and others coming soon: More info: FabCon 2025: Fueling … Continue reading →

Posted in Microsoft Fabric, SQLServerPedia Syndication | 1 Reply

Real-Time Intelligence in Microsoft Fabric

James Serra's Blog Posted on March 12, 2025 by James SerraMarch 11, 2025

In today’s data-driven world, organizations need the ability to analyze and act on data as it flows in real time. Microsoft Fabric provides a powerful ecosystem for real-time intelligence, enabling businesses to process, store, analyze, and visualize data with minimal … Continue reading →

Posted in Microsoft Fabric, SQLServerPedia Syndication | 2 Replies

Azure SQL offerings

James Serra's Blog Posted on February 18, 2025 by James SerraFebruary 16, 2025

There are three Azure SQL products with so many different deployment options, service tiers, and compute tiers that it can get quite confusing when choosing the right option for your workload. So, I thought I would write this blog to … Continue reading →

Posted in Azure SQL Database, SQLServerPedia Syndication | 3 Replies

Cool AI sites

James Serra's Blog Posted on January 29, 2025 by James SerraJanuary 29, 2025

As I researched and wrote my OpenAI and LLMs blogs (see Introduction to OpenAI and LLMs, Introduction to OpenAI and LLMs – Part 2 and Introduction to OpenAI and LLMs – Part 3, along with a presentation on that topic … Continue reading →

Posted in OpenAI, SQLServerPedia Syndication | 1 Reply

Introduction to OpenAI and LLMs – Part 3

James Serra's Blog Posted on January 9, 2025 by James SerraJanuary 26, 2025

My previous blog posts on this topic were Introduction to OpenAI and LLMs, the “what” part (what is OpenAI and LLM), and the “how” part Introduction to OpenAI and LLMs – Part 2. Those blogs focused on using LLMs on unstructured data, … Continue reading →

Posted in OpenAI, SQLServerPedia Syndication | Leave a reply

Ways to land data into Fabric OneLake

James Serra's Blog Posted on December 12, 2024 by James SerraDecember 16, 2024

Microsoft Fabric is rapidly gaining popularity as a unified data platform, leveraging OneLake as its central data storage hub for all Fabric-integrated products. A variety of tools and methods are available for copying data into OneLake, catering to diverse data … Continue reading →

Posted in Microsoft Fabric, SQLServerPedia Syndication | 6 Replies

Microsoft Ignite Announcements Nov 2024

James Serra's Blog Posted on November 26, 2024 by James SerraDecember 3, 2024

Announced at Microsoft Ignite last week were some new product features related to the data platform and AI. Check out the Major announcements and Book of News. Below are the ones I found most interesting: Fabric-related: Non-Fabric related: More info: … Continue reading →

Posted in Microsoft Fabric, SQLServerPedia Syndication | 1 Reply

Benefits of Migrating from Azure Synapse Analytics to Microsoft Fabric

James Serra's Blog Posted on November 6, 2024 by James SerraNovember 6, 2024

Many customers ask me about the advantages of moving from Azure Synapse Analytics to Microsoft Fabric. Here’s a breakdown of the standout features that make Fabric an appealing choice: Cost-Saving Insights with Microsoft Fabric Additionally, here are indirect ways customers … Continue reading →

Posted in Azure Synapse Analytics/SQL DW, Microsoft Fabric, SQLServerPedia Syndication | 4 Replies

European Microsoft Fabric Community Conference announcements

James Serra's Blog Posted on October 7, 2024 by James SerraOctober 7, 2024

A TON of new features announcements at the European Microsoft Fabric Community Conference help last week. The full list is here, and I wanted to list my favorite announcements from that list: More info: Microsoft Fabric Conference Europe Recap: Copilot, … Continue reading →

Posted in Microsoft Fabric, SQLServerPedia Syndication | 1 Reply

Get mentored and coached by me and other industry experts!

James Serra's Blog Posted on September 26, 2024 by James SerraSeptember 26, 2024

This fall you can take the next step in your data leadership journey by joining a cohort of industry peers and get mentored by experts in the field. In this cohort you will get personalized interaction and coaching from me, … Continue reading →

Posted in SQLServerPedia Syndication | 1 Reply

Microsoft Purview GA menu’s

James Serra's Blog Posted on September 19, 2024 by James SerraSeptember 19, 2024

The new data governance features in Microsoft Purview are now being made generally available as they are gradually rolled out across various regions. You can view the deployment schedule at New Microsoft Purview Data Catalog deployment regions. These enhanced features … Continue reading →

Posted in Azure Purview, SQLServerPedia Syndication | Leave a reply

Microsoft Purview FAQ

James Serra's Blog Posted on September 12, 2024 by James SerraSeptember 13, 2024

I get many of the same questions about Microsoft Purview, so I wanted to list those common questions here along with their answers. If your question is not answered here, please put it in the comments and I will reply: … Continue reading →

Posted in Azure Purview, SQLServerPedia Syndication | 8 Replies

Microsoft Fabric AI Skill

James Serra's Blog Posted on August 26, 2024 by James SerraOctober 5, 2024

Are you ready to have conversations with your data? Announced in public preview within Microsoft Fabric is AI Skill, a new capability in Fabric that allows you to build your own generative AI experiences. In short, this is a generative … Continue reading →

Posted in Microsoft Fabric, SQLServerPedia Syndication | Leave a reply

Microsoft Fabric reference architecture

James Serra's Blog Posted on August 12, 2024 by James SerraAugust 12, 2024

Microsoft Fabric uses a data lakehouse architecture, which means it does not use a relational data warehouse (with its relational engine and relational storage) and instead uses only a data lake to store data. Data is stored in Delta lake … Continue reading →

Posted in Microsoft Fabric, SQLServerPedia Syndication | 4 Replies

Classifications and sensitivity labels in Microsoft Purview

James Serra's Blog Posted on July 24, 2024 by James SerraAugust 13, 2024

I see a lot of confusion on how classifications and sensitivity labels work in Microsoft Purview. This blog will help to clear that up, but I first must address the confusion with Purview now that multiple products have been renamed … Continue reading →

Posted in Azure Purview, SQLServerPedia Syndication | 4 Replies

Copilot in Microsoft Fabric

James Serra's Blog Posted on July 10, 2024 by James SerraJuly 9, 2024

Microsoft Copilot is an app that uses AI to help you find information, create content, and get things done faster (see What Is Copilot? Microsoft’s AI Assistant Explained).  Copilot is now integrated heavily in Microsoft Fabric to bring new ways to … Continue reading →

Posted in Microsoft Fabric, SQLServerPedia Syndication | Leave a reply

Transform yourself into an Invaluable Data Leader in just 6 weeks

James Serra's Blog Posted on June 24, 2024 by James SerraJune 21, 2024

I’ve collaborated with two industry experts to design a transformative course for data leaders: “The Technical and Strategic Data Leader.” This six-week intensive learning journey is crafted to elevate both your technical skills and strategic acumen. Facing Data Leadership Challenges? … Continue reading →

Posted in SQLServerPedia Syndication | 2 Replies

Introduction to OpenAI and LLMs – Part 2

James Serra's Blog Posted on June 5, 2024 by James SerraJanuary 23, 2025

My previous blog post on this topic was Introduction to OpenAI and LLMs, the “what” part (what is OpenAI and LLM), and this blog post will talk about the “how” part (how to use OpenAI on your own unstructured data … Continue reading →

Posted in OpenAI, SQLServerPedia Syndication | Leave a reply

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About James Serra

I work at Microsoft as a big data and data warehousing solution architect where I have been for most of the last ten years.  Prior to that I was an independent consultant working as a Data Warehouse/Business Intelligence architect and developer. I am a prior SQL Server MVP with over 35 years of IT experience. The views and opinions on this blog are mine and not that of Microsoft. Check out my book Deciphering Data Architectures: Choosing Between a Modern Data Warehouse, Data Fabric, Data Lakehouse, and Data Mesh. 

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Recent Posts

  • Microsoft Build announcements
  • Deciphering Data Architectures: When to Use a Warehouse, Fabric, Lakehouse, or Mesh
  • Announcements from the Microsoft Fabric Community Conference
  • Real-Time Intelligence in Microsoft Fabric
  • Azure SQL offerings
  • Cool AI sites
  • Introduction to OpenAI and LLMs – Part 3
  • Ways to land data into Fabric OneLake
  • Microsoft Ignite Announcements Nov 2024
  • Benefits of Migrating from Azure Synapse Analytics to Microsoft Fabric
  • European Microsoft Fabric Community Conference announcements
  • Get mentored and coached by me and other industry experts!
  • Microsoft Purview GA menu’s
  • Microsoft Purview FAQ
  • Microsoft Fabric AI Skill
  • Microsoft Fabric reference architecture
  • Classifications and sensitivity labels in Microsoft Purview
  • Copilot in Microsoft Fabric
  • Transform yourself into an Invaluable Data Leader in just 6 weeks
  • Introduction to OpenAI and LLMs – Part 2

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  • Classifying and Labeling Synapse Spark Data with Microsoft Purview – Learn IT in Sri Lanka on Classifications and sensitivity labels in Microsoft Purview
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  • Stephane on Microsoft Fabric reference architecture

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