NEW BLOG POST! I started writing this one months ago! And it was sitting in my drafts until I found time and energy to give it the treatment it deserves. So, there you go, here is your ultimate guide for handling SCD Type 2 in Microsoft Fabric. data-mozart.com/implementing...

Implementing SCD Type 2 in Microsoft Fabric - The Definitive Guide! - Data Mozart

Slowly Changing Dimensions (SCD) are one of the fundamental concepts in dimensional modeling. If you are not sure what dimensional modeling is, I suggest you first check the series of articles I wrote...

data-mozart.com

Almost there! More than a year after @shbwatson.bsky.social and I started writing our "Analytics Engineering with Microsoft Fabric and Power BI" book for @oreilly.bsky.social, we are a few weeks from finally seeing the book released! You can already order it on Amazon www.amazon.com/Analytics-En...

Analytics Engineering with Microsoft Fabric and Power BI: The Definitive Guide for Building Enterprise-Grade Analytics Solutions

Analytics Engineering with Microsoft Fabric and Power BI: The Definitive Guide for Building Enterprise-Grade Analytics Solutions [Watson, Shabnam, Ilic, Nikola] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Analytics Engineering with Microsoft Fabric and Power BI: The Definitive Guide for Building Enterprise-Grade Analytics Solutions

amazon.com

AI-Native Data Engineering with Microsoft Fabric On September 7th, I'll be running a live, 4-hour virtual workshop for all data engineers who want to level up their game in the era of AI. courses.data-mozart.com

NEW BLOG POST! Recently, I went down this rabbit hole twice within a week:) If you’ve tried to check how much storage your #MicrosoftFabric warehouse tables consume, you’ve probably discovered that the usual SQL Server approaches don’t work. data-mozart.com/how-to-check...

How to check table sizes in a Microsoft Fabric warehouse - Data Mozart

If you've tried to check how much storage your Fabric warehouse tables consume, you've probably discovered that the usual SQL Server approaches don't work. This post explains why, what else doesn't wo...

data-mozart.com

NEW ARTICLE! The medallion design pattern is probably the most widely adopted pattern of the lakehouse era, and in almost every implementation I've seen, all three layers are physically materialized. But why exactly is the silver layer a set of tables? data-mozart.com/dont-stop-ma...

(Don't) Stop materializing your silver layer! - Data Mozart

Why is your silver layer a set of tables? Challenging the fully materialized medallion pattern - with benchmark numbers and reproducible demo scripts.

data-mozart.com

Are you considering becoming a certified #MicrosoftFabric Data Engineer? I'll be running one of my most popular live bootcamps at @oreilly.bsky.social on August 26th/27th. We cover every single skill measured in the DP-700 exam. www.oreilly.com/live-events/...

Microsoft Fabric Data Engineer Associate Bootcamp (DP-700)

Learn in-demand skills and become a certified Fabric data engineer

oreilly.com

The most expensive code your data team ships this year won't be written by a human. It'll be generated by AI assistant. It'll look correct, but it'll quitely drop 14% of your rows because the join type was wrong. AI-assisted data engineering is here. courses.data-mozart.com

AI-Native Data Engineering with Microsoft Fabric

A live 4-hour, code-first workshop on Fabric implementation, agentic scaffolding, metadata-driven ingestion, validation, cost, and production trust.

courses.data-mozart.com

I'm thrilled to announce that my 26th course at Pluralsight has just been released! Enterprise data succeeds when it is managed as a shared business asset. This course will teach you to recognize common data challenges and recommend practical improvements. www.pluralsight.com/courses/ente...

Introduction to Enterprise Data Management

pluralsight.com

Manuscript done, and we are now entering the final production stage! The "Analytics Engineering with #MicrosoftFabric and #PowerBI" book, that @shbwatson.bsky.social and I are writinh for @oreilly.bsky.social is already available for pre-ordering at Amazon: www.amazon.com/Analytics-En...

Humbled and honored to be recognized as Microsoft Data Platform MVP for the 6th consecutive year😊 Especially honored to receive the award in the Real-time Intelligence category for the first time! #MVPbuzz #MicrosoftFabric #CommunityRocks

Full day, hands-on: build a production-grade Fabric lakehouse end to end. Metadata-driven ingestion, medallion, Delta optimization, Direct Lake. Real invoice-to-cash scenario, 3 sources. FabCon Europe 2026, Barcelona. espc.tech/conference/f...

NEW BLOG POST! “AI will replace data engineers”… “Agents write better code than humans”… “If you’re not vibe coding, you’re already behind”… “Nikola, should we let AI write our pipelines?” Yes… but not the way you probably think. data-mozart.com/liar-liar-wh...

Liar, liar! What to do when AI writes your pipelines confidently wrong? - Data Mozart

Should we let AI write our pipelines? YES...But not the way you probably think.

data-mozart.com

Flights booked for #SummitNA - Nashville, here I come! I'll be delivering two full-day academy classes: 📆 Oct 10th Building Agentic and Conversational Analytics with Fabric IQ 📆 Oct 11th Fabric Fast Track: From Data Foundation to AI Innovation summitna.com/academy/?se=...

NEW BLOG POST! Starting Aug 1st, Microsoft is changing how your Fabric Warehouse (and SQL EP of the lakehouse) workloads are metered within the capacity. I cover what's changing (and what stays the same) and how the new model compares to Snowflake and Databricks. data-mozart.com/one-minute-t...

One-minute trap! How new Fabric Warehouse CU metering affect your workloads - Data Mozart

Microsoft is moving Fabric Warehouse CU metering from per-query CPU time to per-workspace virtual-node time. That brings Fabric closer to Snowflake and Databricks, but it also changes the cost equatio...

data-mozart.com

"What if your entire medallion pipeline could be a few SELECT statements?" @datamozart.bsky.social explains what materialized lake views (MLVs) are, how they work, and where they fit (or don't) in your architecture.

Materialized Lake Views in Microsoft Fabric: When Your Medallion Fits in a SELECT Statement | Towards Data Science

Five surfaces collapsed into one declarative layer. Here's the full story of Materialized Lake Views in Microsoft Fabric - from syntax to the new GA capabilities

towardsdatascience.com

This Thursday, I'll be talking at the Microsoft Fabric UK User Group, about transitioning from data analyst to data engineer and upgrading your skills from Dataflows Gen2 to notebooks. It's free and it's online, so RSVP: www.meetup.com/microsoft-po...

Transition from Data Analyst to Data Engineer, Thu, Jun 25, 2026, 6:00 PM | Meetup

Join our Microsoft Fabric - UK User Group for our latest webinar. This session we are excited to announce our host Microsoft MVP Leon Gordon and co-host Microsoft MVP Prag

meetup.com

My latest article at @towardsdatascience.com has just been published! This is a deep dive on Materialized Lake Views in #MicrosoftFabric. towardsdatascience.com/materialized...

Materialized Lake Views in Microsoft Fabric: When Your Medallion Fits in a SELECT Statement | Towards Data Science

Five surfaces collapsed into one declarative layer. Here's the full story of Materialized Lake Views in Microsoft Fabric - from syntax to the new GA capabilities

towardsdatascience.com

NEW COURSE ALERT! I'm thrilled to announce that my 24th course at @pluralsight.bsky.social, Managing Enterprise Data for Analytics and AI, has just been published! www.pluralsight.com/courses/ente...

Managing Enterprise Data for Analytics and AI

pluralsight.com

The last dance! Today and tomorrow, I'll be running the DP-600 #MicrosoftFabric Analytics Engineer Bootcamp for the last time at @oreilly.bsky.social. After 2+ years and 1000+ learners, this live training goes into well (un)deserved retirement. learning.oreilly.com/live-events/...

NEW SUBSTACK ARTICLE! ICYMI, I'm writing a series about Logical Data Management. In part 3, we follow Sara "the analyst" through a single Tuesday, starting with a 9:14 message and a confident "this will take 20 minutes." It does not take 20 minutes... datamozart.substack.com/p/logical-da...

Logical Data Management: Why "Just a quick number" is never quick...

A true life story about the gap between available data and a trusted number.

datamozart.substack.com

Still getting your head around #MicrosoftFabric? Not sure if you should take lakehouse or warehouse path? What changes in #PowerBI workloads? Next Monday, I'll be running live online training at @oreilly.bsky.social to help you get started with the Fabric. www.oreilly.com/live-events/...

Getting Started With Microsoft Fabric

Learn the fundamental skills to work with Microsoft Fabric

oreilly.com

NEW SUBSTACK ARTICLE! The story I wasn't ready to tell two years ago and how AI changed that... My first article in Logical data management series is live. Why the reports became fast, while the answers are slow? And why AI made the old problem louder? datamozart.substack.com/p/logical-da...

Logical Data Management for mere mortals

The story I wasn't ready to tell two years ago. AI changed that...

datamozart.substack.com

NEW BLOG POST! Quick question for Fabric Warehouse folks: If clustering reduces CPU by 40% and I/O by 69%, but elapsed time stays the same, is it working? Yes. And the explanation is more interesting than the answer. 100M-row demo with real numbers: data-mozart.com/cluster-by-i...

CLUSTER BY in Fabric Warehouse: when the magic shows up and when it doesn't! - Data Mozart

Microsoft's announcement post for data clustering in Fabric Warehouse promised 24x speedups. So I built a 100-million-row clickstream table and tested it myself. The result is more nuanced than the ma...

data-mozart.com

When should you process data in real time, and when does batch processing make the most sense? @datamozart.bsky.social shares a clear and thorough tutorial for current (and aspiring) data engineers.

Batch or Stream? The Eternal Data Processing Dilemma | Towards Data Science

"Should we process our data in batches or in real-time?" It's not batch vs. stream: it's "when does the answer matter?"

towardsdatascience.com

NEW BLOG POST! Two policies, three storage states, one rule connecting them. A newcomer's guide to caching, retention, and tiered storage in #MicrosoftFabric Eventhouse. data-mozart.com/hot-cold-gon...

Hot, Cold, Gone: Caching and Retention in Microsoft Fabric Eventhouse - Data Mozart

Two policies, three storage states, one rule connecting them. A newcomer's guide to caching, retention, and tiered storage in Microsoft Fabric Eventhouse.

data-mozart.com

NEW SUBSTACK ARTICLE! If I had a euro every time someone asked me “should I use Warehouse or Lakehouse in #MicrosoftFabric?” - I’d have enough to fund an F64 for a month:) And, my answer has been the same for a while now: you’re asking the wrong question! datamozart.substack.com/p/same-lake-...

Same lake, different shores: Warehouse vs. Lakehouse in 2026

If I had a euro for every time someone asked me "should I use the Warehouse or the Lakehouse?" - I'd have enough to fund a month of exclusive vacation...

datamozart.substack.com

NEW BLOG POST! Five surfaces collapsed into one declarative layer. Here's the full story of Materialized Lake Views in #MicrosoftFabric - from syntax to the new GA capabilities announced last month at #FabCon Atlanta. data-mozart.com/materialized...

Materialized Lake Views in Microsoft Fabric: When your medallion fits in a SELECT statement - Data Mozart

Five surfaces collapsed into one declarative layer. Here's the full story of Materialized Lake Views in Microsoft Fabric - from syntax to the new GA capabilities announced at FabCon Atlanta

data-mozart.com

My 24th course at @pluralsight.bsky.social is live! "Analyze Data in Power BI with Copilot" The real skill isn't finding the Copilot button. It's knowing HOW to ask and how to verify the answer. From structured prompts to DAX queries to narrative validation. www.pluralsight.com/courses/powe...

Analyze Data in Power BI with Copilot

pluralsight.com

NEW BLOG POST! A naming framework is the cheapest piece of architecture you'll ever set up in #MicrosoftFabric. It's also the most expensive one to retrofit. data-mozart.com/the-name-gam...

The Name Game - Naming Microsoft Fabric from tenant to table - Data Mozart

A reference framework for naming everything in Microsoft Fabric - from capacities down to gold-layer fact tables. Patterns, examples, and strong opinions.

data-mozart.com

I asked Claude Opus 4.7 to create a thumbnail for my upcoming YouTube video (btw, it's a small teaser of what to expect soon😉).