This month’s T-SQL Tuesday contribution delves into the Fabric multiverse. Focusing on four different possible outcomes for the future of Microsoft Fabric. Based on the thoughts that came to my mind after reading the invite.
Before I get going, I just want to make it clear that this post is both fictional and hypothetical. Apart from the mention of two new offerings announced during Microsoft Build 2026. Those are both very real. I would also like to say thank you to Koen Verbeeck for providing the opportunity to write such a unique post.
This month’s T-SQL invitation by Koen asks us to think about what would happen if we had to build everything again.
After reading the invite I started thinking about the different possibilities for Microsoft Fabric. Which is how I came up with the concept for this post. While these ideas are purely hypothetical, I hope they spark your imagination about what could be possible.
Into the Fabric multiverse
After reading the outcome I came up with four possible outcomes for the future of Microsoft Fabric. As per the image below.
1: Fabric today
First possible outcome is that Fabric is still available online exactly the same was as it is today. With additional functionality provided to work with it.
Like the first outcome depicts. Which shows how you can speak to your Fabric ontologies. Plus, the introduction of new offerings. Such as Fabric Apps, which were introduced at this years Microsoft Build.
2: Voice-first Fabric
During last weeks Microsoft Build 2026 event Microsoft introduced Project Solara. Which is Microsoft’s platform for agent-first devices, enabling AI agents to act as the primary user interface and perform tasks across local hardware and cloud services.
Part of the premise includes working with agents on multiple devices, including watches. Which means that there is potential to work with Fabric Data Agents from your watch in the future.
Over the years a lot of us have witnessed the smart phone evolution. Allowing the same of level of compute on a modern phone that existed on older desktop machines.
Considering modern smart watches already contain a lot of capabilities. Does that mean that in the future we will be doing a lot more with Microsoft Fabric from our watches?
Taking it one step further, does that mean that one day smart watches will be powerful enough to run standalone versions of Fabric in one form or another? Or taking it one step further, be powerful enough to become a remote Fabric capacity?
Sounds far fetched, but then again so did working with multiple types of computes within one offering until a few years ago.
3: Fabric appliance
Now we are moving more towards the scenario covered in the T-SQL Tuesday invitation. Because replicating the majority of offerings in Microsoft Fabric on-premises would take a lot of work.
One thing that would make it easier is the introduction of an appliance that contains a version of Microsoft Fabric you can work with on-premises. Just like Microsoft has made available over the years with their Analytics Platform System (APS) and Azure Local (formerly Azure Stack).
Everything bundled together this way would be great. Because it means that aspects such as security and governance can be included. In addition, it can help with the challenges of accessing the services from within your own local network. Plus, a tick box for those who need everything to be governed locally.
However, appliances need to be installed somewhere to work with them. For example, in a datacentre. In addition, it does mean you need to configure your networking properly for secure use.
In addition, you would need to decide how to manage the Microsoft Entra authentication aspects. Like you need to do with Azure Local.
Other aspects to consider in this hypothetical scenario are compute requirements and scaling out.
4: Back to separate servers
This option relates more to the T-SQL Tuesday invitation. Because it requires replicating the majority of Microsoft Fabric functionality on-premises.
For some, the capability of doing this sounds far fetched, but is it really? Because a lot of the different types of compute available in Microsoft Fabric has been available in different forms on-premises over the years. In fact, a lot of companies still work with them.
Below are some examples:
- ETL and Data Integration – SQL Server Integration services.
- Data Warehouse Server – SQL Server and APS.
- Lakehouse server- Spark and Hadoop
- Reporting Server – SQL Server Report Server and Power BI Report Server
- Semantic Model Server – SQL Server Analysis Services
- SQL database in Fabric – SQL Server database
However, there are challenges connecting all these services together. Which the image in this post amplifies (or exaggerates).
Those currently working with cloud-based solutions will need to relearn how to perform a variety of tasks. Such as networking between the offerings, integration, security, separate management interfaces, etc.
Plus, there are other aspects to take into consideration. Such as hosting, manageability, troubleshooting, networking (including DNS) and so on. For example, performing CI/CD for all of these services separately on-premises can be a big undertaking.
Epilogue about the Fabric multiverse
This hypothetical post shows that there are various possibilities about what the future can bring for Microsoft Fabric. With the recent introduction of offerings such as Project Solara and Fabric Apps being just a small sample of the number of new developments.
This post also highlights that fact that moving functionality back to on-premises can require some undertaking. Because of the points I mentioned in the previous two sections. Yes, the image the image in this post exaggerates working with multiple servers locally, but it gets the point across.
Anyway, I am sure the contents of this months T-SQL Tuesday provide some points to consider. Especially for those already invited into discussions about hot to return to on-premises if required.
Thanks again Koen for providing me with a platform to deliver such a unique T-SQL Tuesday contribution and introduce the Fabric multiverse.
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