Beyond connectivity: SAP meets Microsoft Fabric and BI takes off

In recent months, I’ve had the chance to work on a challenging project: integrating a complex SAP structure for a client, with the goal of building advanced reports in Power BI. This experience led me to face the typical challenges of extracting data from SAP environments—rigidity, performance, security—but also to discover the potential of a constantly evolving platform: Microsoft Fabric.

And it’s in this context that the latest Fabric updates represent a turning point that simply didn’t exist until now.

SAP + Fabric: concrete acceleration

With the July update, Microsoft introduced significant improvements in SAP connectivity within Fabric, particularly for Data Factory. Among the most noteworthy updates:

• Support for SAP ODP (Operational Data Provisioning): a data extraction method allowing efficient access to delta data, reducing the load on SAP systems and improving dataset refresh frequency.
• Optimized connectors for SAP ECC and S/4HANA: now you can set up data ingestion pipelines in just a few clicks, with a guided experience directly within the Fabric interface.
• Enhanced security and governance: thanks to integration with Microsoft Purview, you can track data lineage, apply access policies, and ensure compliance even for data coming from SAP.

What changes for those working with SAP and Power BI

With the new features, it will be possible to:

• Fully automate the SAP → Fabric → Power BI flow.
• Drastically reduce report refresh times.
• Ensure greater reliability and traceability of data.

An evolving scenario

These updates are not just a technical upgrade, but a clear signal: Microsoft is investing to make Fabric an enterprise-ready platform, capable of interacting with the most widespread legacy systems—SAP first and foremost—and offering a modern, scalable, and secure analytics experience.

For those, like me, who work every day with data and BI tools, it’s an evolution that opens new possibilities. And finally, it allows us to move beyond platforms.

Boom, done 💣!

Follow me:

LinkedIn

YouTube

Instagram