The Problem
Why platforms become swamps.
Security by Accident
You turned on Microsoft Fabric and started building. Now you have 50 workspaces, data shared everywhere, and no clear idea who has access to PII. Without a proactive security model using OneLake data access roles and Purview, your data is exposed.
The "Just Put It in the Lake" Mentality
Data lakes quickly become data swamps when there's no structure. Without enforcing the Medallion Architecture (Bronze, Silver, Gold), business users query raw, dirty data and get wrong answers. Trust in the platform drops to zero.
Uncontrolled Costs
Fabric capacity is powerful, but inefficient notebooks and poorly modeled data will burn through your compute credits rapidly. Without a cost management framework and optimization strategy, your Azure bill will surprise you.
Deliverables
Workspace Architecture
Structured workspace design separating Dev, Test, and Prod. Tenant-level configurations optimized for your industry.
Medallion Architecture
Implementation of Bronze (raw), Silver (cleansed), and Gold (business) layers using Fabric Lakehouses or Warehouses.
Security & Governance Model
Purview integration, data sensitivity labels, OneLake security, and role-based access control (RBAC).
CI/CD & DevOps
Deployment pipelines configured with Azure DevOps/GitHub. Version control for notebooks, models, and pipelines.
Cost Management Framework
Capacity planning, compute isolation strategies, and alerting so you never get a surprise bill.
Our process.
Requirements & Design
Define security requirements, data domains, and organizational structure to design the workspace and capacity architecture.
Core Infrastructure
Provision Fabric capacities, set up workspaces, create Lakehouses/Warehouses, and establish the Medallion structure.
Security & Governance
Implement Entra ID groups, OneLake security, and Microsoft Purview data cataloging and lineage.
DevOps & Handoff
Configure Git integration, deployment pipelines, runbooks, and train your platform administration team.
How we built a secure data foundation for a financial services firm
Situation
A regional wealth management firm needed to unify data from Salesforce, portfolio management systems, and market feeds. But their CISO halted the Microsoft Fabric project because there was no documented plan for securing PII, managing workspace sprawl, or controlling compute costs. They had the license, but couldn't use it.
What We Built
- Tenant-level configuration disabling external sharing and enforcing private links.
- Hub-and-spoke workspace architecture (Central Lakehouse + Domain-specific Workspaces).
- Medallion architecture using Fabric Warehouses for the Gold layer to enforce strict SQL-based row-level and column-level security.
- Microsoft Purview integration to automatically scan for SSNs, account numbers, and apply sensitivity labels that carried through to Power BI.
- Azure DevOps CI/CD pipelines ensuring no developer had direct write access to Production.
Outcome
The CISO approved the architecture within two weeks. The data engineering team now deploys changes through automated pipelines. Business analysts securely query the Gold layer without any risk of exposing underlying PII. The foundation is set for their AI Copilot initiatives.