Redmond to millions of Power BI users: You’re Fabric app devs now

Microsoft is pushing its data analytics and engineering environment to a new set of commercial users that are an “order of magnitude” greater than its current base. Power BI has become a popular biz intelligence system - with more than 425,000 customers worldwide - particularly among customers of the Microsoft Dynamics application portfolio. Now, Microsoft execs are trying to exploit this penetration by offering Power BI customers high-end database services and app building tools available on its Fabric data analytics and engineering platform. Customers who license Power BI Pro and Power BI Premium Per User will get Fabric Apps and Fabric Database capabilities (up to 1GB per app), along with security, at no additional cost. Microsoft argues that the Apps customers are building in Fabric can be ported to Power BI without much additional work or cost. Arun Ulag, exec veep at Microsoft, told The Register: “We have 40,000 Fabric customers today. …