Data Governance in Microsoft Fabric with Microsoft Purview

Introduction

In today’s data-driven world, organizations are leveraging artificial intelligence and the extensive capabilities of Microsoft Fabric to accelerate business insights and decision-making. However, this power comes with the responsibility to govern and protect data effectively. Microsoft Purview provides data governance solutions designed to help organizations manage data across cloud and on-premises environments, supporting organizations in their data management objectives.

Image source: Microsoft Tech Community

The Importance of Data Governance in Microsoft Fabric

Data governance is essential for organizations seeking to harness the full potential of their data, particularly when managing extensive data estates like Microsoft Fabric and other interconnected resources. At its core, data governance establishes the policies, procedures, and technologies required to ensure that data remains trustworthy, secure, and accessible to authorized individuals while adhering to regulatory standards. Without strong governance measures in place, data can become fragmented, difficult to manage, and vulnerable to compliance risks. 

A well-rounded data governance program includes several key components. Auditing tracks the origin and alterations of data, ensuring a clear record of data lineage. Evaluation assesses the accuracy and relevance of the data, while documentation provides descriptions that make the data more understandable and accessible to potential users. Effective data management practices are vital, encompassing tasks like removing outdated or inaccurate data, handling access requests, and complying with data protection laws. Data protection, meanwhile, safeguards information against unauthorized access and cyber threats, enhancing overall security. With a robust governance framework, data becomes both reliable and easily accessible to those who are authorized to use it. 

Incorporating data governance into the data estates allows organizations to:

• Ensure compliance with regulatory requirements.
• Maintain data integrity and quality.
• Enhance data security by controlling access to sensitive data.
• Optimize data discovery and usage for AI and analytics.

Microsoft Purview: The Foundation of Data Governance

Microsoft Purview works with Microsoft Fabric to provide data governance capabilities. The solution includes features for data lineage mapping, information classification, and compliance implementation,  integrating with Microsoft Fabric to support data lifecycle management.

Key Features of Microsoft Purview in Microsoft Fabric

1. Data Discovery and Classification
   Microsoft Purview automatically scans data within Microsoft Fabric, tagging sensitive information and classifying it according to predefined policies. This enables organizations to discover where sensitive data resides, ensuring it is adequately protected and managed.
2. Data Lineage
   Tracking data movement and transformations within Fabric is crucial for understanding its lifecycle. Purview provides detailed data lineage, helping data stewards trace the origins of data, transformations applied, and its consumption within various AI and analytics applications.
3. Sensitivity Labels and Information Protection
   Purview allows administrators to apply sensitivity labels to Fabric items, ensuring data remains protected even when it moves across different environments. These labels, inherited from Microsoft Purview Information Protection, maintain data security policies consistently, safeguarding against unauthorized access.
4. Data Loss Prevention (DLP) Integration
   DLP policies integrated with Microsoft Purview enable automated detection of sensitive data in Microsoft Fabric. These policies can prevent unauthorized sharing or usage of data by alerting administrators or blocking specific actions, ensuring data security across the ecosystem.
5. Compliance and Risk Management
   With the rise of global data protection regulations, such as GDPR and CCPA, Microsoft Purview ensures that all data within Fabric is handled in compliance with relevant regulations. Purview’s compliance management tools allow organizations to generate insights about data usage, ensuring regulatory requirements are met.

Microsoft Fabric and Microsoft Purview: The Integration

Microsoft Fabric offers fundamental governance features that can meet the requirements of certain organizations. 

Registering, scanning and governing Microsoft Fabric in Microsoft Purview
Integrating Microsoft Fabric with Microsoft Purview allows organizations to achieve robust data oversight and compliance. By registering Fabric resources in Purview, they create a centralized inventory of data assets, ensuring a comprehensive view of their data landscape. Scanning these resources catalogs data sources, captures metadata, and identifies sensitive information, which supports effective governance. Purview’s data governance capabilities then enable organizations to establish policies, manage access controls, and enforce compliance requirements. This integration enhances data discoverability, security, and compliance, ultimately supporting data-driven insights and analytics.

Microsoft Purview Hub

The Microsoft Purview hub in Microsoft Fabric is a centralized platform designed to help administrators and users manage and govern their data estate within Fabric. It provides insights into sensitive data, item endorsement, and serves as a gateway to advanced governance and compliance capabilities such as Data Catalog, Information Protection, Data Loss Prevention, and Audit. The hub offers tailored views for Fabric administrators and other users, enabling them to access relevant insights and tools to effectively manage their data.

Image source: Microsoft Learn

Integrating Microsoft Purview for Business Outcomes

Microsoft Purview’s integration with Microsoft Fabric provides organizations with tools to establish consistent data management practices. Users across business, engineering, and AI development roles can confidently access and use data, knowing that governance policies are in place to protect it. By using Microsoft Purview’s rich metadata catalog, data discovery becomes faster and more accurate, enabling informed decision-making and workflow optimization.

Organizations can utilize Microsoft Purview to:

• Automate data discovery and classification: Quickly identify sensitive or high-value data across Microsoft Fabric’s data lakehouses, ensuring compliance and security measures are applied.
• Monitor and improve data quality: With Purview’s data insights, organizations can monitor the health of their data estates, identifying potential issues in data quality and taking corrective actions.
• Enable collaborative data usage: Purview ensures that data across different departments and geographies is governed uniformly, breaking down data silos and enabling cross-functional collaboration.

Industry Use Case Scenarios

• Financial Services: Financial institutions can use Microsoft Purview with Microsoft Fabric to support compliance with regulations like GDPR and CCPA.  Purview helps financial institutions manage and protect sensitive customer data across various environments, ensuring compliance and reducing risk. By integrating with Microsoft Fabric, these institutions can unify their data sources, enabling better analytics and decision-making while maintaining strict data governance.
• Healthcare: Healthcare organizations handle vast amounts of sensitive patient data. Microsoft Purview, combined with Fabric, allows these organizations to classify and protect patient information, ensuring compliance with HIPAA and other regulations. This integration also facilitates secure data sharing and collaboration among healthcare providers, improving patient care and operational efficiency.
• Retail: Retail companies can leverage Microsoft Purview and Fabric to gain insights from customer data while ensuring data privacy and security. By governing data across on-premises, cloud, and SaaS environments, retailers can create personalized shopping experiences and optimize supply chain operations without compromising data integrity.
• Manufacturing: In manufacturing, data from IoT devices and production systems can be vast and complex. Microsoft Purview helps manufacturers govern this data, ensuring it is accurate and secure. When integrated with Microsoft Fabric, manufacturers can analyze this data to improve production efficiency, predict maintenance needs, and enhance product quality.

Conclusion: Empowering Data Governance and Skill Development for Maximum Impact

As organizations continue to advance their AI initiatives, effective data governance becomes increasingly important. When integrated with Microsoft Fabric, Microsoft Purview’s governance capabilities provide tools to help organizations discover, secure, and manage their data while maintaining compliance requirements. Organizations implementing Purview for data governance can work toward maximizing their Microsoft Fabric investment while maintaining control over their data landscape. 

To unlock the full potential of these advanced technologies, a structured, hands-on approach to learning is invaluable. Microsoft’s detailed guidance offers a strong foundation, and CloudThat—named Microsoft’s 2024 Global Training Service Partner of the Year—complements this by providing immersive, instructor-led training. Led by certified experts, these programs, available in both standardized and customizable formats, empower teams to deepen their knowledge and skills, ensuring they are equipped to drive innovation and business growth. By combining strong data governance practices with ongoing skill development, organizations can ensure they’re not only managing their data effectively but also staying ahead in a constantly shifting technology ecosystem.
 

About CloudThat

Established in 2012, CloudThat is the first company in India to offer Consulting and Training to individuals and corporates in Cloud and other niche technologies. With its headquarters in Bangalore, India, CloudThat caters to mid-market & enterprise clients from across the globe. Recently, CloudThat became the first Indian company to win the Microsoft Training Services Partner of The Year Award ’24. As an official Microsoft Solutions Partner, our commitment to delivering end-to-end cloud solutions has enabled us to train 750k+ professionals in 600+ cloud certifications and complete 350+ consulting projects globally.

With deep expertise in Microsoft Fabric and Purview, we empower organizations to secure, govern, and unlock the potential of their data assets. To learn more about how CloudThat can empower your organization, please visit our Consultancy page and Managed Services Packages.