🔠Fabric

activity: an executable task in a pipeline

alert: feature that notifies users of changes in the data based on limits they set [2]

app: bundle of dashboards, reports, and semantic models [2]

auditing - actions taken to understand a system, its user activities, and related processes

Augmented BI platform - Enterprise reporting and analytics software augmented with AI that provides descriptive and diagnostic analytics, data visualization and exploration, and dashboarding functionality as well as data integration and advanced (predictive and prescriptive) analytics based on statistical analysis and machine learning

Avro: data format that stores the data definition in JSON format, making it easier to read and interpret, with the data itself stored in binary format making it compact and efficient

Azure Analysis Services (AAS) - a fully managed service that provides data modeling capabilities using a semantic model

Azure Blob storage – managed storage service for storing massive amounts of unstructured data (objects, binary, text)

Azure Cognitive Services – cloud-based services with REST APIs and client library SDKs available to help customers build cognitive intelligence into applications, allowing thus apps, websites and bots to see, hear, speak and understand the needs of the user through natural language

Azure Data Factory (ADF): pay-per-use serverless cloud-based data integration service that orchestrates and automates the movement and transformation of both cloud-based and on-premises data sources [1]

Azure Data Lake – a cloud platform designed to support big data analytics by providing unlimited storage for structured, semi-structured or unstructured data, and integrating with other Azure services to support big data analytics

Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2 (ADLS Gen2): a set of capabilities built on Azure Blob Storage and dedicated to big data analytics

Azure Data Share – a Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) service that allows customers to share data simply and securely with third-parties (partners,  customers)

Azure Data Services – a set of managed services that extend the Azure platform with shared functionalities for storage, database and NoSQL processing, analytics, AI, visualization, etc.

Azure Event Hubs - a fully managed, real-time data ingestion service that enables streaming millions of events per second from any source to build dynamic data pipelines and immediately respond to business challenges

Azure IoT Hub - a managed service hosted in the cloud that acts as a central message hub for communications in both directions between an IoT application and its attached devices. It enables connecting millions of devices and their backend solutions reliably and securely.

Azure Machine Learning (Azure ML) – cloud-based service for creating and managing machine learning solutions, that enables data scientists and ML engineers in processing data with the help of ML data models 

Azure Storage Account: a container provided by Microsoft Azure that houses all storage data in the cloud, including blobs (binary large objects), files, queues, and tables

Azure Stream Analytics – real-time analytics and complex event-processing engine that is designed to analyze and process high volumes of fast streaming data from multiple sources simultaneously, helping identify patterns and relationships that can be used to trigger actions and initiate workflows such as creating alerts, feeding information to a reporting tool, or storing transformed data for later use

Azure Subscription: a logical unit of Azure services that are linked to an Azure account

Azure Synapse - a distributed system designed to perform analytics on large data, and that supports massive parallel processing (MPP), which makes it suitable for running high-performance analytics

caching - technique that improves the performance of data processing by storing frequently accessed data and metadata in a faster storage layer

canvas - area where visualization tiles are displayed (in a Power BI dashboard)

business analytics - the set of skills, technologies, methods and data driven approaches used to build analysis models and simulations to gain insight, explain or predict trends and behavior patterns

business rule – a compact statement expressed as a set of conditions, and which defines or constrains some aspect of the business

Bring-Your-Own-Device (BYOD) – feature in D365 which lets administrators configure their own database, and then export one or more data entities that are available in the application into the database

capacity: a dedicated set of resources that is available at a given time to be used and that defines the ability of a resource to perform an activity or to produce output [1]

CDM entity - an entity with an agreed-upon schema [20]

CDM folders - folders that describe the schema structure and semantic metadata of data files in a CDM-form compliant data lake

certification: a formal process that involves a review of the content by a designated reviewer and managed by the admin

champion - a self-service content creator who works in a business unit that engages with the COE

community of practice - a group of people with a common interest that interacts with, and helps, each other on a voluntary basis

Continuous Integration & Continuous Deployment [CI/CD] - development processes, tools, and best practices used to automates the integration, testing, and deployment of code changes to ensure efficient and reliable development

Conversational UI – A user interface (UI) that lets a person use natural language to interact with a technology that adjusts its responses based on previous interactions and contextual knowledge. [2]

[Power Query] custom function - a mapping from a set of input values to a single output value

dashboard: a single page (aka canvas) that uses visualizations to tell a story

data-in-processing: data actively being used by one or more users as part of an interactive scenario, or when a background process (e.g. refresh) touches the data

data-in-transit (aka data-in-motion): data actively moving from one location to another

data-at-rest: data that is stored in a non-volatile storage medium

Data Activator: no-code experience for automatically taking actions when patterns or conditions are detected in changing data

Data Analysis Expressions (DAX) - a formula language for Power Pivot in Excel, Power BI, Azure Analysis Services, and tabular modeling in SQL Server Analysis Services that is used to add calculations to a data model and define row-level security rules

data enrichment – the process of enhancing, improving or refining existing data to make them fit for use

data entity (aka entity) –  an abstraction from the physical implementation of database tables that acts as a container for the respective tables and the relationships between them

data governance: set of capabilities that help organizations to manage, protect, monitor, and improve the discoverability of data, so as to meet data governance (and compliance) requirements and regulations

(Enterprise) Data Hub (EDH) – a data store that acts as integration point for data coming from multiple data sources and organized for distribution, subsetting and sharing

data ingestion – the process of obtaining and importing data for immediate usage or storage to a medium from where it can be accessed, used, and analyzed. 

data item: a subtype of item that allows data to be stored within it using OneLake

data lineage: the lifecycle that spans the data’s origin, and where it moves over time across the data estate

Data Loss Prevention (DLP): the practice of protecting sensitive data to reduce the risk from oversharing, implemented by defining and applying DLP policies

Data Management - the development and execution of architectures, policies, practices and procedures that properly manage the full data lifecycle needs of an enterprise (DAMA) 

data mesh: a type of decentralized data architecture that organizes data based on different business domains

data orchestration: the coordination and management of multiple data-related processes, ensuring they work together to achieve a desired outcome

data partitioning (aka sharding): a process where small chunks of the database are isolated and can be updated independently of other shards

data pipeline: a sequence of activities that orchestrate a process

data pipeline run: 

data processing – the conversion of raw data to machine-readable form for operational, analytics or other purposes

data product - a product that facilitates an end goal through the use of data

data quality - the degree to which data are fit for use

data source - reusable reference to a specific database in the same workspace as the dashboard

(Enterprise) Data warehouse (EDW) –  subject oriented, integrated, time-variant, and non-volatile data repository that contains summary and detailed historical data used to support the decision-making processes

dataflow (Gen1): a type of cloud-based ETL tool for building and executing scalable data transformation processes

dataflow (Gen2): new generation of dataflows that resides alongside the Power BI Dataflow (Gen1)

delta table: table that stores data as a directory of files in the delta lake (DL) and registers table metadata to the metastore within a catalog and schema 

descriptive analytics – a form of data analytics that summarizes historical business data in a useful user-friendly format that enables business understanding what previously happened, respectively that allows further data processing

diagnostic analytics – an advanced form of data analytics that uses business data and models to uncover the causes that lead to certain results and to answer to business questions. 

Distributed File System (DFS): a protocol used for storage and replication of data

distributed system: platform used to build hyper-scalable, reliable and easily managed applications for the cloud

domain: a way of logically grouping together data in an organization that is relevant to a particular area or field

endorsement: formal process performed by admins to endorse MF items

Eventhouse: a service that empowers users to extract insights and visualize data in motion, and which offers an end-to-end solution for event-driven scenarios

Eventstream: an instance of the Eventstream item in Fabric

Eventstreams: feature in Microsoft Fabric's Real-Time Intelligence experience, that allows to bring real-time events into Fabric

experience: a collection of capabilities targeted to a specific functionality [1]

experiment: the primary unit of organization and control for all related machine learning runs [1]

external data sharing: feature that enables Fabric users to share data from their tenant with users in another Fabric tenant (aka cross-tenant sharing)

folders: organizational units inside a workspace that enable users to efficiently organize and manage artifacts in the workspace [>>]

gateways: a bridge to underlying data sources that provides quick and secure data transfer to the Power BI service

globalization – designing and developing solutions that function appropriately on systems with different language and culture configurations without requiring culture-specific changes or customization

grouping key: one or more columns in an event data use to group the data

[warehouse] hints: keywords that users can add to SQL statements to provide additional information or instructions to the query optimizer

incremental refresh: 

[Fabric] item: a set of capabilities bundled together into a single component

item (aka Fabric item): a set of capabilities within an experience [1]

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) - quantifiable measurements (aka metrics) formulated in nonfinancial terms that reflect the critical success factor of an organization in respect to their strategic goals and objectives

Key Result Indicators (KRIs) – quantifiable measurements (aka metrics) that summarize the activities of more than one team in respect to strategic goals and objectives, often formulated in financial terms.

lakehouse: a collection of files, folders, and tables that represent a database over a data lake [1]

Lakehouse Explorer: tools that enables to browse files, folders, shortcuts, and tables; and view their contents within the Fabric platform [1]

Low code BI platform – A BI platform that provides rapid application development and deployment using low-code and no-code techniques such as declarative, model-driven application design

Materialized Lake Views (MLVs): persisted, continuously updated view of data that allows to build declarative data pipelines using SQL, complete with built-in data quality rules and automatic monitoring of data transformations

materialized view: 

measure: a quantitative (numeric) field that can be used to do calculations [2]

medallion architecture: a recommended data design pattern used to organize data in a lakehouse logically

metric: an elevated measure which as part of the Metrics Layer can be reused in Power BI and notebooks

metric set: a Fabric item that groups together a set of metrics into a mini-model 

Metrics Layer: an abstraction layer available between the data store(s) and end users which allows organizations to create standardized business metrics, that are rooted in measures and are discoverable and intended for reuse

model: a file trained to recognize certain types of patterns (Machine Learning) [1]

Multidimensional Expressions (MDX) - a formula language that can be used to query multidimensional and tabular models built in SQL Server Analysis Services (SSAS) and Azure Analysis Services (AAS)

NoSQL (Not only SQL) – a set of data access, storage and retrieval technologies that don’t use the SQL language as their primary mechanism for reading and writing data

notebook: a web document-like cell-based container for writing and executing code in a collaborative manner

OneLake: a single, unified, logical data lake for the whole organization

Operational Data Store  (ODS) – a data warehouse used to support the operational and tactical decision-making process

partition: a data organization technique used to split a large dataset into smaller, more manageable nonoverlapping subsets (aka shards)

partitioning: core pattern of building scalable services by dividing state (data) and compute into smaller accessible units to improve scalability and performance 

Parquet format: open source, column-oriented data file format designed for efficient data storage and retrieval

perspective - mechanism in tabular models that defines viewable subsets of model objects to help provide a specific focus for report creators

pipeline:

pipeline template: predefined pipeline that can be used and customize as required

Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) - a complete application platform for multitenant cloud environments that includes development tools, runtime, and administration and management tools and services, PaaS combines an application platform with managed cloud infrastructure services

Polaris SQL Pool - distributed SQL query engine that powers Microsoft Fabric's data warehousing capabilities, and that’s designed to unify data warehousing and big data workloads while separating compute and state for seamless cloud-native operations

policy: mechanism that defines access controls and enforce encryption

Power BI: online SaaS offering from Microsoft that lets users to easily and quickly create self-service business intelligence dashboards, reports, semantic models, and visualizations

Power BI dataflows: a self-service ETL capability which is exclusively created and managed in Power BI

Power BI data source: 

Power BI dashboard - a combination of related visual elements pinned from one or more reports that provide a single page overview of the most relevant numbers. Dashboards are used to navigate to reports

Power BI dataflow – a ETL component of Power BI which allows to prepare and stage data for use by datasets. A dataflow is a collection of tables that are created and managed in workspaces in the Power BI service*

Power BI Desktop – a free application that can be installed on users’ computer and which  lets them connect to, transform, and visualize data

Power BI Embedded - a capacity-based license, purchased as an Azure service, which provides the ability to render Power BI content in custom business applications

Power BI Free: a user-based license which includes the ability to use the Power BI service for personal use, with no collaboration or content distribution options 

Power BI Gateway – a software installed in the local domain that is used to create a connection between cloud-based Power BI services and data sources located on-premises. The gateway is responsible for creating the connection and passing data through

Power BI Mobile: a collection of apps designed for the three primary mobile platforms: Android, iOS, and Windows (UWP)

Power BI Pro: a user-based license which includes all Power BI Free features, plus the ability to share and collaborate with colleagues in the Power BI service

Power BI Premium: a capacity-based license. Power BI Premium includes many additional benefits and features, as well as the capability to distribute read-only content to report consumers with Power BI Free licenses

Power BI report - a combination of related visual elements (charts, tables, cards, etc.) on a page that can be used to investigate numbers and develop insight by interacting with the elements with the help of slice and dice, hovering and highlight features

Power BI Report Builder – a tool for authoring paginated reports to share in the Power BI service

Power BI Report Server: a reporting portal which supports the delivery of paginated reports alongside Power BI reports, Excel reports, and mobile reports

Power Query – a data transformation and data preparation engine that comes with a graphical interface for getting data from sources and a Power Query Editor for applying transformations.

Power Pivot – an Excel add-in that enables users to create data models, establish relationships, and create calculations

Power View - a data visualization technology that lets users create interactive charts, graphs, maps, and other visuals

predictive analytics – an advanced form of data analytics that uses business data and models to find patterns and predict future trends 

prescriptive analytics –  advanced form of data analytics that uses business data and models to make recommendations in what concerns the best course of action in decision making

promoting: formal process performed by contributors or admins to promote content

Purview: comprehensive data governance and security platform designed to help organizations manage, protect, and govern their data across various environments

query acceleration:

query folding: the ability for a Power Query query to generate a single query statement to retrieve and transform source data

quota: assigned number of resources for an Azure subscription

Real-Time Dashboard: a collection of tiles that acts as containers of tiles and organizes tiles into logical groups

Real-Time Hub [RTH]: single, tenant-wide, unified, logical place for streaming data-in-motion that enables to easily discover, ingest, manage, and consume data-in-motion from a wide variety of sources [1]

Real-Time Intelligence: a robust platform tailored to deliver real-time data insights and observability analytics capabilities for a wide range of data types

real-time streaming: the ability to stream data and update dashboards in real time from sources such as sensors, social media, usage metrics, and anything else from which time-sensitive data can be collected or transmitted

row-level security (RLS): feature that enables database administrators to control access to rows in a database table based on the characteristics of the user executing a query [2]

real-time analytics: a robust platform tailored to deliver real-time data insights and observability analytics capabilities for a wide range of data types

real-time streaming: the ability to stream data and update dashboards in real time from sources such as sensors, social media, usage metrics, and anything else from which time-sensitive data can be collected or transmitted [2]

report: a multi-perspective view into a single semantic model, with visualizations that represent different findings and insights from that semantic mode [2]

resource group: a container that holds related resources for an Azure solution 

resource instance rules: a way to grant access to specific resources based on the workspace identity or managed identity

Result Set Caching: built-in performance optimization in SQL Analytics Endpoints for Warehouse and Lakehouse that improves read latency

[OneLake] Role-based access control (RBAC) - security framework that allows to manage access to resources by assigning roles to users or groups

row-level security (RLS): feature that enables database administrators to control access to rows in a database table based on the characteristics of the user executing a query

semantic model: a logical description of an analytical domain, with metrics, business friendly terminology, and representation, to enable deeper analysis

semi-structured data – data that, although unstructured, still has some degree of structure

service: a standalone resource available to customers by subscription or license [2]

service principal - a non-human, application-based security identity used by applications or automation tools to access specific Azure resources

service tag: a defined group of IP addresses that can be configured to be automatically managed together to minimize the complexity of updates or changes to network security rules

shortcut: a mechanism within OneLake that points to other file store locations and provides a way to connect its data without having to directly copy it

Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) - an approach to software licensing and delivery in which software is hosted remotely in the cloud and accessed via a web browser (alternative to traditional on-premise installations).

SQL analytics endpoint: a warehouse that is automatically generated from a Lakehouse in MF

statistics: objects that contain relevant information about data, to allow query optimizer to estimate query plan's costs

structured data – data that have a strict definition, typically organized in structure like rows and columns

subdomains: a way for fine tuning the logical grouping data under a domain

table: the data output of a query created in a dataflow, after the dataflow has been refreshed

tabular model – in Analysis Services, a database that runs in-memory or in DirectQuery mode and which models data with relational constructs and is designed to provide a rapid and powerful way for self-service BI client applications to consume data. 

Tabular Model Definition Language (TMDL): definition language used to define objects within a Tabular Analysis Services model, which forms the underlying technology in Microsoft Power BI

tag: 

template apps: apps that be distributed to customers outside the organization [27]

tenant: a single instance of Fabric for an organization that is aligned with a Microsoft Entra ID [1]

tenant inventory - snapshot of metadata at a given point in time that describes what's been published to the Power BI service (e.g. workspaces, reports, semantic models)

tile – a snapshot of the data pinned on a Power BI dashboard 

time series: a way of displaying time as successive data points [2]

Translytical data platform – A unified database that supports transactional, operational, analytical, and streaming workloads in real time, ensuring data consistency, transactional integrity, and analytical accuracy with extreme performance and scale achieved through modern memory architectures

unstructured data – data that doesn’t have a definition, with no definable structure behind

User Data Functions (UDFs): a platform that allows customers to host and run custom logic on Fabric from different types of items and data sources [

V-order: a write optimization to the parquet file format that enables fast reads and provides cost efficiency and better performance [1]

warehouse: a 'traditional' data warehouse that supports the full transactional T-SQL capabilities like an enterprise data warehouse

warehouse snapshot: read-only representation of a warehouse at a specific point in time

workspace: a collection of items that brings together different functionality in a single environment designed for collaboration

workspace identity: a unique identity that can be associated with workspaces that are in Fabric capacities

Z-Order: technique to collocate related information in the same set of files

zero-copy clone: a replica of an existing OneLake table created by copying existing table's metadata and referencing its data files [>>]

Acronyms:
API - Application Programming Interface
MF - Microsoft Fabric

References:
[1] Microsoft Learn - Fabric (2024) Microsoft Fabric terminology (link)
[2] Microsoft Learn - Fabric (2024) Glossary for business users of the Power BI service (link)