Fabric Architecture Podcast

ML Models in Fabric: Training, Deployment, and When to Stay on Azure ML Episode 22 • 2026-05-29 Microsoft Fabric ships its own MLflow registry — but is it a replacement for Azure Machine Learning? Matthias and Fabia work through the four-layer registry model, PREDICT versus Model Endpoints, the Direct Lake prediction loop, and the architectural question that actually determines the answer: where d...

Event Schema Set: Contracts That Stop Midnight Breakage Episode 21 • 2026-05-22 Event Schema Set is Fabric's contract layer for streaming data — but it ships in Preview with real gaps. Matthias and Fabia unpack the retrofit trap, the dead-letter gap everyone worries about, and when Confluent Schema Registry is honestly the better call. What we discuss A real-world mistake from a pre-Fabric era The...

Data Activator: Stateful Alerts That Don't Spam Your Team Episode 20 • 2026-05-15 Data Activator is Fabric's no-code event detection engine — but most teams build it wrong. Matthias and Fabia unpack the stateful rule model, the billing trap everyone hits once, and when Power Automate is actually the better answer. What we discuss A real-world mistake from a pre-Fabric era The one question that ref...

Real-Time Dashboard: When 10-Second Refresh Changes the Architecture Episode 19 • 2026-05-08 Real-Time Dashboard is not Power BI wearing a different hat. Matthias and Fabia unpack the naming collision, permission separation, Activator alert traps, and when you should actually use Power BI DirectQuery instead. What we discuss A real-world mistake from a pre-Fabric era The one question that reframes...

Real-Time Hub: The Yellow Pages Your Streams Were Missing Episode 18 • 2026-05-01 Matthias and Fabia unpack Fabric's Real-Time Hub — the tenant-wide catalog that sits above Eventstream, Eventhouse, and Activator. They tackle why it feels redundant until it doesn't, dig into a real Reddit question about skipping the Hub entirely, and lay out the four-layer real-time stack every architect should int...

KQL Queryset: Why Pipe-Forward Beats SQL for Time-Series Episode 17 • 2026-04-24 Duration : 9:39 Matthias and Fabia explore the KQL Queryset in Microsoft Fabric — why the pipe-forward mental model beats SQL for time-series data, when to use make-series vs bin+summarize, and the architectural decision between KQL Queryset, Notebooks, and the SQL endpoint. What we discuss A real-world mistake from a...

KQL Database: Why Time-Series Data Needs Its Own Engine Episode 16 • 2026-04-17 Duration : 10:26 Matthias and Fabia explore why KQL Database exists alongside four other analytical stores in Microsoft Fabric. They unpack the Eventhouse-as-building mental model, the caching vs retention trap, and when you should — and shouldn't — choose KQL over SQL. What we discuss A real-world mistake from a pre-F...

Eventstreams — When No-Code Streaming Hides the Failure Mode Episode 15 • 2026-04-10 Duration : 8:03 Matthias and Fabia break down Fabric Eventstreams — the visual stream processor that replaces three Azure services with one canvas. They explore why green doesn't always mean flowing, tackle Kafka compatibility from a real Reddit question, and walk through the four billing meters that confuse every...

Eventhouse — Why Your Lakehouse Can't Do Real-Time Episode 14 • 2026-04-03 Duration : 7:32 Matthias and Fabia break down Microsoft Fabric's Eventhouse — when you need a dedicated real-time store, how hot and cold cache tiers drive your bill, and why the default cache policy is the most common Eventhouse mistake. What we discuss A real-world mistake from a pre-Fabric era The one question that refra...

Apache Airflow in Fabric: When Code-First Orchestration Earns Its Keep Episode 13 • 2026-03-27 Duration : 8:19 When should you reach for Apache Airflow Job instead of Data Pipelines in Microsoft Fabric? Matthias and Fabia break down pool types, cost traps, dbt fragility, and the architectural threshold where visual orchestration breaks down. What we discuss A real-world mistake from a pre-Fabric e...

Copy Job: When Built-In State Management Beats Pipeline Plumbing Episode 12 • 2026-03-20 Duration : 9:54 Copy Job fills the gap between Mirroring's zero-config simplicity and Pipeline's full orchestration control. We break down the architecture, the 2x incremental pricing controversy, V-Order performance traps, and when you should still reach for Pipeline Copy Activity instead. What we discuss A r...

SQL Database in Fabric — When OLTP Meets Your CU Budget Episode 11 • 2026-03-13 Duration : 9:50 SQL Database in Fabric promises zero-ETL translytical architecture — OLTP writes mirrored to OneLake automatically. But the 15-minute billing window and interactive CU consumption change the math. We break down when it makes sense and when Azure SQL Database plus mirroring is the smarter play. What we d...

SQL Analytics Endpoint: Read-Only by Design Episode 10 • 2026-03-06 Duration : 10:53 The SQL Analytics Endpoint gives you T-SQL on Lakehouse data for free — but free comes with metadata sync delays, no Git integration, and silent Direct Lake fallbacks. Matthias and Fabia unpack when to use it, when to reach for a Warehouse instead, and how to avoid the traps that catch most teams. What we discuss...

Fabric Warehouse vs. Lakehouse: Same Storage, Different Engines Episode 9 • 2026-02-27 Duration : 15:34 Matthias and Fabia dissect the Warehouse-vs-Lakehouse decision. They explore why three SQL options exist in Fabric, when the SQL endpoint's read-only design saves you, and why judging Warehouse performance on a cold-cache first query is the mistake everyone makes. What we discuss A real-world mi...

Mirrored Databases: When Zero-Code Replication Meets Real Architecture Episode 8 • 2026-02-20 Duration : 8:18 Matthias and Fabia explore Fabric mirrored databases — the sweet spot between real-time eventstreams and batch ETL. They unpack CDC replication, the 500-table limit, schema change risks, and why setup simplicity doesn't excuse you from data modeling. What we discuss A real-world mistake fr...

Data Pipelines: When Orchestration Helps and When It Hurts Episode 7 • 2026-02-13 Duration : 9:53 Matthias and Fabia debate when Fabric Data Pipelines earn their complexity. They unpack the orchestra-conductor mental model, walk through a real green-checkmark-but-no-data failure, and steel-man the case for skipping pipelines entirely. What we discuss A real-world mistake from a pre-Fabric era The...

Spark Job Definitions: Notebooks Are for Humans, SJDs Are for Machines Episode 6 • 2026-02-06 Duration : 10:23 Matthias and Fabia break down Spark Job Definitions in Microsoft Fabric — the production wrapper most teams skip until their scheduled notebook fails at 3 AM. They cover the notebook-to-SJD promotion path, why state leakage kills overnight runs, retry policies, and when a plain notebook s...

Spark Environments: When Your Starter Pool Isn't Enough Episode 5 • 2026-01-30 Duration : 9:09 Matthias and Fabia dig into Spark Environments in Microsoft Fabric — the dependency management layer most teams adopt too early. They cover the Starter Pool trade-off, why publishing takes fifteen minutes, the SJD gotcha, and when percent-pip install is actually the right call. What we discuss A real-wor...

Dataflow Gen2: When Power Query Meets Enterprise Scale Episode 4 • 2026-01-23 Duration : 11:20 Matthias and Fabia unpack Dataflow Gen2 — the low-code transformation layer in Fabric. They cover staging architecture, the Gen1-to-Gen2 leap, why your dataflow is slow, multi-destination patterns, and when you should skip the visual editor entirely and reach for a notebook. What we discuss A real-world...

Fabric Notebooks: When Interactive Spark Meets Production Reality Episode 3 • 2026-01-16 Duration : 11:26 Matthias and Fabia dig into Fabric Notebooks — the code-first data engineering workhorse. They cover starter pools vs. custom environments, the new native Python mode, the notebook-to-production gap, and why your notebook that runs perfectly at 2pm crashes in the pipeline at 2am. What we discu...

OneLake Shortcuts: Virtual Pointers, Real Tradeoffs Episode 2 • 2026-01-09 Duration : 9:21 Matthias and Fabia break down OneLake shortcuts — virtual pointers that unify multi-cloud data without copies. They cover the read-write boundary, the shared credential security model, caching economics, and when a good old copy is actually the better architecture call. What we discuss A real-world mistake f...

Lakehouse Architecture: One Storage Layer, Zero Excuses Episode 1 • 2026-01-02 Duration : 8:28 Why the Fabric Lakehouse isn't a set-and-forget data platform. Matthias and Fabia unpack the real architectural tradeoffs — medallion layers, Delta table maintenance, Direct Lake, and when a Warehouse is actually the better call. What we discuss A real-world mistake from a pre-Fabric era The one question...

Welcome to the Fabric Architecture Podcast Episode 0 • 2026-01-01 Duration : 3:47 Meet Matthias Falland and his AI co-host Fabia. Learn what this show is — anonymized real customer architecture decisions, cost realism, counter-arguments included — and what it is not. Weekly episodes, aligned with Fabric Friday recordings. Key principles of the show Architecture is not religion. Pattern dictates pl...