9 min read
Fabric's Data Engineering Agent: Set Guardrails Before Autonomy
Fabric's preview data engineering agent runs with the launching engineer's permissions. What to delegate first, which settings to pick, and what stays human.
Governance
91 articles
9 min read
Fabric IQ Goes GA in Copilot: Your Semantic Model Is Now an Agent API
Fabric IQ is GA in Copilot Chat, Cowork and MCP. Treat each semantic model as an agent endpoint: RLS, OLS, metadata contracts and default-on access.
9 min read
Egress Policy Belongs on the Agent, Not in Its Code
Foundry's preview egress controls attach ordered destination rules to a hosted agent. Why that limits prompt-injection damage, and how to roll it out safely.
8 min read
GPT-6 Landed in Foundry: Upgrade Discipline Beats Upgrade Speed
GPT-6 arrived in Foundry ten weeks after GPT-5.6. Pin versions, gate on real queries, shadow traffic and plan retirements before you switch tiers on day one.
8 min read
Release Plans Are Gone: Tracking Power Platform Change in 2026
Power Platform and Dynamics 365 release plans moved to the AI at Work roadmap. Why a CoE now needs continuous change intake, not two planning events a year.
8 min read
Converting Direct Lake Tables to Import: Designing Hybrid Models
Power BI now converts single Direct Lake tables to Import in web modelling, making storage mode a per-table choice with real refresh and governance costs.
9 min read
Model Router Already Routes to Claude and Open Models: Govern the Pool
Foundry Model Router picks from OpenAI, Anthropic, DeepSeek, xAI and Meta models. Treat subsets, policy and model logging as governance, not tuning knobs.
11 min read
Fabric Item CI/CD Is Mostly Solved. Your Tenant Isn't
Git integration and fabric-cicd ship Fabric items well. Workspaces, capacity, domains, roles and tenant settings still need their own source of truth.
9 min read
Auditing a Fabric Tenant on a Schedule with the Scanner and Admin APIs
Use a read-only service principal, the scanner APIs and the Fabric admin APIs to detect governance drift in a Fabric tenant, without handing it write access.
12 min read
Whose Identity Reaches the Target? OneLake Shortcut Security
How identity flows through OneLake shortcuts: passthrough vs delegated, SQL endpoint access modes, the Direct Lake over SQL exception, and lost policy.
8 min read
Findable by Design: Workspace Choices That Shape the OneLake Catalog
How workspace splits, item names, descriptions, endorsement and domains decide what people find in the OneLake catalog, plus a findability test you can script.
8 min read
Sensitivity Labels in OneLake: Decide Item Boundaries Before Scale
Fabric sensitivity labels apply per item, not per table, so item boundaries, defaults, inheritance and protection policies need designing before OneLake grows.
9 min read
Blameless Reviews for Data Incidents: Ask Which Control Failed
How to run blameless reviews for data quality incidents: record who detected it, which control was missing, and turn each review into a tracked change.
8 min read
Feeding AI Teams Through OneLake Shortcuts Without Over-Sharing
A passthrough OneLake shortcut adds speed but no boundary: how to give data science teams curated Fabric features without opening the whole lakehouse.
8 min read
OneLake Shortcuts Are Dependencies: Inventory Them Before Scale
Treat every OneLake shortcut as a cross-team dependency: placement, identity, write paths, environment variables and a REST inventory of what points where.
7 min read
Pruning Data Quality Checks: Keep, Demote, or Delete
How to cut an inherited data quality rule set down to the checks that change decisions, using failure history, ownership and an explicit retirement path.
8 min read
Keeping OneLake Clean: Design the Workspace Lifecycle Before Scale
How to stop Fabric workspace and item sprawl before it starts: lifecycle states, domains, tags, endorsement, retention settings and a weekly hygiene audit.
9 min read
Foundry After the March GA: What's Governed and What's Still Preview
Foundry Agent Service went GA in mid-March 2026, but monitoring and tracing are still preview. What's governed now, and the controls I'd add first.
9 min read
Fast Access Without Eroding OneLake Boundaries in Fabric
Why adding people as Fabric workspace Contributors is the access shortcut that erodes OneLake boundaries, and a faster pattern that keeps them intact.
9 min read
Who Gets Told? Owners, Error Codes and Runbooks in Fabric
A table contract is half the job: assigning owners per layer, collapsing load outcomes to three, and mapping Fabric pipeline failures to runbooks.
8 min read
Foundry Project Boundaries: Draw Them Around Use Cases, Not Demos
How I split Microsoft Foundry resources and projects by environment and use case so RBAC, quota and agent data line up with ownership and delivery speeds up.
8 min read
OneLake Table Contracts: Owners, Schemas and Failure Modes Up Front
Why OneLake governance has to be designed before scale: table contracts, schema-enabled lakehouses, explicit owners and deliberate failure modes in Fabric.
9 min read
Azure AI Foundry Is Now Microsoft Foundry: Hubs, Projects, Choices
What the Microsoft Foundry rename means in early 2026: Foundry projects vs hubs, the preview portal, prompt flow's place, and how I'd decide.
8 min read
AI Security Basics: Keys, Quotas and Logs Before Prompt Tricks
The AI security failures that actually cost money are leaked keys, unbounded token spend and sensitive data in logs. Fix those before prompt defences.
1 min read
Data Mesh: Federated Computational Governance
Computational governance scales where manual review cannot. Embed policies in CI/CD pipelines to catch issues before they reach production.
1 min read
Enterprise AI Adoption: Building Your Center of Excellence
An AI CoE serves as the central hub for AI expertise, governance, and best practices. It prevents siloed implementations and ensures consistent quality…
1 min read
AI Governance Frameworks: Building Responsible AI Systems
Comprehensive AI governance ensures responsible and compliant AI deployment.
7 min read
AI Agents in 2025: What You Can Actually Ship on Day One
A practical look at the agent tooling that really exists on 1 January 2025, what is still preview, and where to draw the line on autonomy.
1 min read
AI Governance Frameworks: Building Responsible AI at Scale
AI governance is not bureaucracy - it's enablement with guardrails. Build governance that enables innovation while managing risk appropriately.
1 min read
EU AI Act Practical Guide: What Enterprises Need to Do Now
The EU AI Act is complex but manageable with systematic approach. Start your inventory now, prioritize high-risk systems, and build compliance into your…
1 min read
AI Regulation Updates: Navigating the 2024 Regulatory Landscape
Regulation is here to stay. Treat compliance as a feature, not a burden, and build it into your AI development process.
1 min read
AI Safety Progress: From Research to Practice
AI safety is no longer optional. Build safety into your AI systems from the start, not as an afterthought.
1 min read
Microsoft Fabric Governance: A Complete Guide
Effective Microsoft Fabric governance requires attention to access control, data quality, cost management, and lifecycle management. This month's…
1 min read
Usage Reporting in Microsoft Fabric
1. Collect comprehensively : Gather data from all sources 2. Aggregate appropriately : Different audiences need different views 3. Automate distribution :…
1 min read
Cost Allocation Strategies for Microsoft Fabric
1. Tag everything : Consistent tagging enables accurate allocation 2. Use multiple methods : Combine direct, shared, and overhead allocation 3. Document…
1 min read
Chargeback Models for Microsoft Fabric
1. Start with showback : Build understanding before chargeback 2. Keep it simple : Complex models create disputes 3. Automate collection : Manual processes…
1 min read
FinOps for Microsoft Fabric
1. Start with visibility : You can't optimize what you can't see 2. Allocate costs : Enable accountability through showback/chargeback 3. Automate policies…
1 min read
Security Fundamentals in Microsoft Fabric
Security is foundational to any data platform. Today I'm exploring the security architecture and best practices in Microsoft Fabric.
1 min read
Building a Data Marketplace in Microsoft Fabric
A data marketplace enables data discovery, sharing, and consumption across your organization. Today I'm exploring how to build one using Microsoft Fabric.
1 min read
Data Contracts: Agreements Between Data Producers and Consumers
Data contracts formalize the agreement between data producers and consumers. Today I'm exploring how to implement effective data contracts in your data…
1 min read
Federated Governance in Data Mesh
Federated governance balances domain autonomy with organizational standards. Today I'm exploring how to implement effective federated governance in…
1 min read
Data Mesh with Microsoft Fabric
1. Clear domain boundaries Define ownership clearly 2. Product thinking Treat data as a product 3. Self serve enablement Empower domain teams 4.…
1 min read
Workspace Governance in Microsoft Fabric
Workspaces are the containers for collaboration in Fabric. Effective governance ensures organization, security, and efficiency. Today I'm covering workspace…
1 min read
Tenant Settings in Microsoft Fabric
Tenant settings control what users can do in your Fabric environment. Today I'm covering the essential settings every admin should configure.
1 min read
Fabric Admin Updates: Governance and Management
Fabric administration has matured significantly. Today I'm covering the latest admin capabilities for managing your Fabric environment effectively.
1 min read
Unity Catalog for ML: Governed Machine Learning
Unity Catalog extends governance to machine learning assets. Manage models, features, and experiments with the same rigor as your data.
1 min read
Image Generation for Enterprise: Governance and Best Practices
1. Define clear policies What's allowed, what's not 2. Implement review Human approval for external use 3. Track everything Full audit trail 4. Disclose…
8 min read
Data Activator Preview Readiness: Limits, Admin Settings and Risks
A readiness checklist for the Data Activator preview in Fabric: tenant switches, throughput and alert limits, failure modes, and when to wait for GA.
7 min read
Governing Custom GPTs in ChatGPT Enterprise Before the Store Opens
How to run internal-only GPTs in ChatGPT Enterprise: sharing controls, what knowledge files really expose, Actions auth, and when to build instead.
1 min read
AI Risk Management: Identifying and Mitigating AI Risks
AI introduces risks that cut across data, models, operations and people. Over the past year I've helped teams map those risks to concrete controls — from…
1 min read
AI Governance Frameworks: Building Trust at Scale
Governance isn't a checkbox — it's what lets organisations scale AI safely. The frameworks I use combine risk tiers, model lifecycle controls, and pragmatic…
1 min read
Fabric Endorsement: Certifying Trusted Data Products
Fabric endorsement — the Promoted and Certified badge system for Fabric items — is a lightweight but important trust signal in a self-service analytics…
2 min read
Fabric Governance: Building a Secure Data Platform
Fabric governance is where the platform's SaaS architecture creates both an advantage and a complication for enterprise security teams. The advantage…
1 min read
Item Permissions in Fabric: Granular Access Control
Item permissions provide the flexibility to share specific artifacts securely. Tomorrow, I will cover Row-Level Security in Fabric.
1 min read
Fabric Workspace Roles: Managing Access and Collaboration
Proper role management is essential for secure and efficient collaboration. Tomorrow, I will cover Item Permissions in more detail.
1 min read
Microsoft Fabric Security: Protecting Your Data Platform
Security is an ongoing responsibility. Tomorrow, I will cover Workspace Roles in more detail.
2 min read
Microsoft Fabric Workspace: Organization and Collaboration
A Fabric workspace is the collaboration boundary in Microsoft Fabric—the container where Fabric items (Lakehouses, Warehouses, Notebooks, Pipelines, KQL…
1 min read
AI Ethics in Enterprise: Building Trustworthy AI Systems
1. Start early : Include ethics from project inception 2. Involve stakeholders : Get diverse perspectives 3. Document everything : Decisions, trade offs,…
8 min read
Responsible AI on Azure OpenAI: What the Platform Covers and What You Own
Azure OpenAI's preview ships with use-case review, content filtering and abuse monitoring. Here is where those controls stop and your application's begin.
8 min read
Locking Down an Azure OpenAI Resource: Network, Identity, Keys, Logs
A security baseline for an Azure OpenAI preview resource in January 2023: private endpoints, Azure AD auth, customer-managed keys, logging and policy.
8 min read
Azure OpenAI Service in Preview: What to Sort Out Before GA
Azure OpenAI is still a limited-access preview as 2023 starts. Here is what to settle now on access, identity, data handling and code so you're ready for GA.
1 min read
AI Governance for Enterprise: Policies and Practices
AI governance must balance: Innovation : Enabling teams to use AI effectively Risk : Managing security, privacy, and compliance risks Consistency : Ensuring…
1 min read
AI Ethics and Responsible AI: Building Trustworthy Systems
Microsoft's framework provides a solid foundation: 1. Fairness : AI should treat all people fairly 2. Reliability & Safety : AI should perform reliably and…
1 min read
Approvals and Checks in Azure DevOps
Approvals and checks ensure deployments meet organizational requirements.
1 min read
Power Platform Environment Strategy: Planning for Scale
A well-planned environment strategy enables teams to move fast while maintaining governance and security.
1 min read
Power Platform Solution Layering: Managing Dependencies
Understanding solution layering prevents deployment issues and ensures predictable behavior across environments.
1 min read
Power Platform ALM: Application Lifecycle Management Best Practices
Proper ALM ensures Power Platform solutions are reliable, maintainable, and can be safely deployed across environments.
8 min read
DirectQuery for Power BI Datasets: Extending a Certified Model
How DirectQuery for Power BI datasets lets teams extend a certified model with their own data, what the preview limits are, and when not to chain.
7 min read
Azure Advisor Score (Preview): Read It as a Trend, Not a Grade
How the preview Azure Advisor Score is weighted, why dismissals inflate it, and how to pair it with Resource Graph queries before you report it upward.
7 min read
Well-Architected Reviews as a Habit, Not a Kickoff Ritual
How to run Azure Well-Architected Reviews on a cadence: what the assessment covers, what Azure Advisor adds between reviews, and what neither can tell you.
8 min read
Cloud Adoption Framework: The Half That Isn't Landing Zones
How to use the Microsoft Cloud Adoption Framework for strategy, planning, governance and operations, not just as a landing zone template library.
7 min read
Azure Landing Zones: Accelerator, Terraform Module or Your Own Bicep
What an Azure landing zone is in early 2022, and how to choose between the portal accelerator, the Terraform module and your own Bicep.
6 min read
Azure Blueprints Is Still in Preview: Hedging With Bicep and Template Specs
Azure Blueprints has sat in preview since 2018; here's how to keep landing zone governance portable with Bicep, Template Specs, Policy and locks.
8 min read
Azure Policy as Code: Repo Layout, Pipeline and Staged Rollout
How to run Azure Policy from a Git repo with Bicep: what to version, how to stage controls safely, and how to test without a local evaluator.
7 min read
Azure Hybrid Benefit as Code: Only Claim Licences You Can Prove
Set Azure Hybrid Benefit in Bicep, audit it with Resource Graph and Azure Policy, and size core licences so the discount never becomes a compliance finding.
1 min read
Power Platform Managed Environments: Enterprise Governance at Scale
Managed Environments represent a significant maturation of Power Platform governance. For enterprises that want to enable citizen development while…
2 min read
Databricks Cluster Policies for Governance and Cost Control
Databricks cluster policies are the governance layer that prevents the classic enterprise data platform problem: data scientists spinning up 64-node GPU…
1 min read
Working with Azure Activity Logs for Audit and Compliance
Activity Logs include several categories: Administrative : Resource management operations (create, update, delete) Security : Security Center alerts and…
1 min read
Secure Data Sharing with Azure Data Share
Set up the data sharing infrastructure: Configure datasets to be shared: Invite consumers to access shared data: Set up automated data synchronization: On…
1 min read
Understanding Data Lineage with Azure Purview
Create and configure an Azure Purview account: Register various data sources for lineage tracking: Set up scans to discover and catalog data: Azure Data…
1 min read
Azure Cost Management Budgets and Alerts
Effective cost management requires proactive monitoring and automated responses. Azure Cost Management budgets provide the foundation for cost governance,…
1 min read
Multi-Tenant Management Patterns in Azure
Multi-tenant Azure management is the architecture problem I've spent more time on this year than any other. The patterns matter because the wrong choice…
1 min read
Azure Management Groups for Enterprise Hierarchy
Azure Management Groups are the first thing I help clients set up when their Azure estate starts involving more than two or three subscriptions. Without…
1 min read
Azure Resource Graph for Cross-Subscription Queries
Azure Resource Graph is the query service that answers "what do we actually have in Azure?" at enterprise scale in milliseconds. The ARM APIs query each…
3 min read
Power Platform Governance for Enterprise: DLP Policies and Environments
Power Platform governance is the problem that doesn't announce itself until it's already serious. I've walked into tenants where three hundred flows were…
1 min read
Optimizing Cloud Spend with Azure Cost Management
Cloud bills have a way of arriving late and being everyone's problem at once. Cost Management is the tool that moves that conversation from quarterly shock…
2 min read
Environment Governance with Azure Blueprints
The first time I helped a platform team stand up a new environment from scratch, we got it right on the third try. The first two tries had a RBAC assignment…
2 min read
Enforcing Cloud Governance with Azure Policy
The tagging policy conversation is the one I have in every landing zone engagement. Someone inevitably says "we'll just ask people to tag resources…
1 min read
Azure Cost Management: Control Cloud Spending
Every cloud bill story I've heard starts the same way: "we didn't realise it was running." A test VM left on over a long weekend, a Premium SSD attached to…
1 min read
Azure Blueprints: Repeatable Environment Templates
Blueprints ensure every environment starts from a known, compliant state.
1 min read
Azure Policy: Governance at Scale
Every Azure environment I've inherited from someone else has the same three problems: storage accounts created without encryption-at-rest configuration…