Microsoft Fabric vs. Microsoft SQL Server

I would highly recommend Microsoft Fabric, especially for medium to large enterprises aiming to build a robust, scalable, and secure data analytics platform. It effectively unifies various data workloads, streamlining data integration, engineering, and particularly enhancing our ability to create and share reliable Power BI dashboards. The deep integration with Azure AD for features like Row-Level Security is a significant advantage for data governance.

Incentivized

Microsoft SQL is ubiquitous, while MySQL runs under the hood all over the place. Microsoft SQL is the platform taught in colleges and certification courses and is the one most likely to be used by businesses because it is backed by Microsoft. Its interface is friendly (well, as pleasant as SQL can be) and has been used by so many for so long that resources are freely available if you encounter any issues.

Incentivized

• Access Control / Security & Governance
• Collaborative Work up to Visualization
• Data Ingestion

Incentivized

• Easy to configure and use with Visual Studio and Dot Net
• Easy integration with MSBI to perform data analysis
• Data Security
• Easy to understand and use
• Very easy to export database and tables in the form of SQL query or a script

Incentivized

• Clarity and Documentation on Power BI Integration Changes and Best Practices
• More Flexible and Advanced Scheduled Report Delivery Options
• Enhanced Data Export Control Based on Sensitivity Labels

Incentivized

• Microsoft SQL Server Enterprise edition has a high cost but is the only edition which supports SQL Always On Availability Groups. It would be nice to include this feature in the Standard version.
• Licensing of Microsoft SQL Server is a quite complex matter, it would be good to simplify licensing in the future. For example, per core vs per user CAL licensing, as well as complex licensing scenarios in the Cloud and on Edge locations.
• It would be good to include native tools for converting Oracle, DB2, Postgresql and MySQL/MariaDB databases (schema and data) for import into Microsoft SQL Server.

Incentivized

We understand that the Microsoft SQL Server will continue to advance, offering the same robust and reliable platform while adding new features that enable us, as a software center, to create a superior product. That provides excellent performance while reducing the hardware requirements and the total cost of ownership of our solution.

Incentivized

I've rated Microsoft Fabric's overall usability as a 4, primarily due to its extensive and multifaceted feature set, which can make it challenging to navigate and determine the optimal functionality for a given task.While the breadth of capabilities is a core strength for large enterprises, it often leads to a sense of being "lost" or overwhelmed for teams like ours that do not have highly formalized roles or dedicated specialists for each Fabric "experience" (e.g., Data Engineering, Data Warehousing, Data Science).

Incentivized

SQL Server mostly 'just works' or generates error messages to help you sort out the trouble. You can usually count on the product to get the job done and keep an eye on your potential mistakes. Interaction with other Microsoft products makes operating as a Windows user pretty straight forward. Digging through the multitude of dialogs and wizards can be a pain, but the answer is usually there somewhere.

Incentivized

Its does not have outages.

Incentivized

SSAS data cubes may some time slow down your Excel reports.

Incentivized

We managed to handle most of our problems by looking into Microsoft's official documentation that has everything explained and almost every function has an example that illustrates in detail how a particular functionality works. Just like PowerShell has the ability to show you an example of how some cmdlet works, that is the case also here, and in my opinion, it is a very good practice and I like it.

Incentivized

It was good

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very hands on and detailed training

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Other than SQL taking quite a bit of time to actually install there are no problems with installation. Even on hardware that has good performance SQL can still take close to an hour to install a typical server with management and reporting services.

Incentivized

Microsoft Fabric integrates data ingestion, engineering, warehousing, and Power BI visualization into one cohesive environment. This "one-stop shop" approach dramatically reduces complexity, minimizes operational overhead, and eliminates the need to integrate disparate tools and manage data across multiple systems. It provides superior scalability for large datasets, supports open data formats, and offers a much broader suite of data engineering and data science capabilities.In essence, Fabric's integrated ecosystem and streamlined operational management were key differentiators, providing a more cohesive, scalable, and efficient solution for our evolving data strategy than combining specialized tools.

Incentivized

[Microsoft] SQL Server has a much better community and professional support and is overall just a more reliable system with Microsoft behind it. I've used MySQL in the past and SQL Server has just become more comfortable for me and is my go to RDBMS.

Incentivized

SQL server does handle growing demands of a mid sized company.

Incentivized

• Transformation from Monthly Reports to Daily Insights, Accelerating Decision-Making
• Streamlined Reporting: Enhanced Data Consistency and 30% Reduction in Reports Provided
• Empowered Self-Service Analytics Through Elevated Employee Data Literacy

Incentivized

• Increased accuracy - We went from multiple users having different versions of an Excel spreadsheet to a single source of truth for our reporting.
• Increased Efficiency - We can now generate reports at any time from a single source rather than multiple users spending their time collating data and generating reports.
• Improved Security - Enterprise level security on a dedicated server rather than financial files on multiple laptop hard drives.

Incentivized