2025 Release Wave 1: Microsoft Fabric

Jul 16, 2025

IT
Microsoft

Microsoft Fabric is still a relatively young platform, but it’s evolving rapidly, and so is its potential to transform how organizations manage and analyze data. With new features rolling out at a fast pace, staying up to date can be a challenge. That’s why we’ve created this blog: to give you a clear and concise overview of the most impactful updates from the first half of 2025.

Whether you're a data engineer, analytics lead, or IT decision-maker, these updates are designed to make your workflows more efficient, your data more accessible, and your governance more robust. From smarter notebooks and seamless integration with Microsoft Azure Data Factory to Excel-powered access to Microsoft OneLake and a transparent roadmap for future developments - this blog highlights the changes that could shape your day-to-day work in Microsoft Fabric.

👉 Are you looking for the updates about Microsoft Power BI? Make sure to read our next blog, as well.

Data engineering: smarter notebooks and reusable code

Variable Libraries in notebooks (preview)

Microsoft recently introduced Variable Libraries in notebooks, allowing you to centrally store configuration values - such as file paths or connection strings - and reference them without hardcoding. This promotes modular, reusable notebooks across different environments.

Example: A team can maintain one library of variables for development, testing, and production. The same Spark notebook will automatically pick up the correct parameters based on the environment, reducing errors when moving pipelines to production.

Learn more about Variable Library integration on Microsoft's website

Notebook Copilot Code Completion

Notebook Copilot now complements IntelliSense with inline code suggestions—helping you complete your current line or even generate entire blocks of code. This accelerates development and reduces syntax errors. Another powerful enhancement: the ability to mix T-SQL and Python code in the same notebook cell when working with the Microsoft Fabric Data Warehouse, enabling more flexible data processing.

Data integration: enhanced pipelines and lift-and-shift capabilities

Copy Job enhancements and Change Data Capture (CDC)

The Copy Job feature has been reworked and now supports more connectors. It enables users to ingest data from source systems into Microsoft Fabric in an intuitive way.

As of May, native CDC support allows for incremental data loads by capturing only changed records. Currently supported destinations include Microsoft Azure SQL Database, on-premises Microsoft SQL Server, Microsoft Azure SQL Managed Instance, and Microsoft SQL Database.

More information about Copy Job on Microsoft's website

Copilot for Data Pipelines

Announced at Microsoft Build, Copilot for Data Pipelines helps explain pipeline errors and suggests next steps - making troubleshooting faster and more intuitive.

General availability of Microsoft Azure Data Factory in Fabric

You can now mount existing Microsoft Azure Data Factory environments into Microsoft Fabric. This means organizations can “lift and shift” their ETL pipelines into Fabric workspaces within seconds. Once mounted, pipelines, dataflows, and triggers become manageable directly within Microsoft Fabric under the new 'Azure Data Factory' item type.

Microsoft OneLake & Data Catalog: Excel integration for business users

In March, Microsoft announced the integration of the Microsoft OneLake catalog into Excel for Windows. Business users can now discover and import data - such as certified datasets or lakehouse tables - directly from Microsoft Fabric’s OneLake without leaving Excel.

Example: An executive building a report can pull the latest sales figures from a lakehouse table via the Data ribbon in Excel. This bridges the gap between ad-hoc spreadsheet analysis and governed enterprise data.

Explore the update on Microsoft's website

Platform & Governance: plan ahead with the Microsoft Fabric Roadmap

A major highlight of May 2025 was the launch of the Microsoft Fabric Roadmap tool. This interactive page consolidates real-time updates on planned feature releases, synced with Microsoft’s internal planning. For example, if you're waiting for “Private Link support for Fabric workspaces,” you can check the roadmap to see when it’s expected to go live.

This tool helps IT teams plan adoption timelines, evaluate workarounds, and align with upcoming capabilities. Unlike static documentation, the roadmap is continuously updated - making it a reliable resource for strategic planning.

Explore the Microsoft Fabric Roadmap

Final thoughts

Whether you're optimizing pipelines, enabling business users, or planning your platform strategy, these updates are designed to help you get more value from your data - faster and more securely.

Want to learn more or explore how these updates could benefit your organization? Let’s connect.