Microsoft’s dramatic expansion of its Fabric data platform marks a strategic shift to dissolve data silos and streamline enterprise AI development. By integrating CosmosDB—the database that powers ChatGPT—alongside other key database technologies, Microsoft is executing on its vision of a unified data foundation capable of handling diverse workloads without the traditional limitations of coupled compute and storage. This approach directly addresses the integration complexity that has historically hindered enterprise AI initiatives.
The big picture: Microsoft is significantly expanding its Fabric data platform by integrating CosmosDB and other database options to create a unified data layer that eliminates traditional data silos.
- CosmosDB, the database powering OpenAI’s ChatGPT, will now be available through Microsoft Fabric, marking a critical expansion for AI workloads.
- The platform now serves over 21,000 paying organizations worldwide, including 70% of Fortune 500 companies, demonstrating significant market adoption.
Key technical advances: Microsoft is open sourcing its DiskANN vector search technology while delivering new integrations across its data portfolio.
- CosmosDB is being integrated with Azure AI Foundry to provide agentic AI with more direct access to data resources.
- All data in Fabric is stored in open source Apache Parquet and Delta Lake formats, enabling multiple services to access the same underlying data without conversion or duplication.
Why this matters: The platform directly addresses enterprise data fragmentation that has historically hampered AI initiatives by allowing diverse database technologies to access a common data layer.
- For generations, databases coupled compute and storage tightly together, creating scalability challenges and data silos that Microsoft Fabric was designed to overcome.
- Enterprise data leaders can now build more sophisticated AI applications that seamlessly integrate multiple data types without complex data movement or transformation.
What they’re saying: Arun Ulag, Corporate Vice President for Azure Data at Microsoft, emphasized the company’s unified approach to data management.
- “We’re bringing all of our products together and unifying them into a single product, which is Microsoft Fabric,” Ulag stated, highlighting the platform’s comprehensive strategy.
New capabilities: The Build 2025 announcements include several additional enhancements to Microsoft’s data platform ecosystem.
- Microsoft is previewing SQL Server 2025 and has added Copilot support to the PowerBI business intelligence platform.
- DiskANN vector search technology, originally created in Microsoft Research and used in Bing, is now being open sourced and built into both CosmosDB and Fabric.
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