Project overview
A leading office supply retailer struggled to manage its massive inventory dataset, which exceeded 10 billion records over a rolling two-year period. Reporting in Import or DirectQuery mode led to performance issues, refresh failures, and inefficiencies. Users also faced challenges with Snowflake mirroring in Microsoft Fabric, including inconsistent incremental updates and the need to restart refresh processes, causing delays and redundant reprocessing. To address these issues, we integrated Apache Iceberg tables into Fabric, providing a scalable and efficient solution for handling large volumes of data.
Solution implementation
The project accessed Apache Iceberg tables in Microsoft Fabric to process large-scale inventory and sales data. The technology stack included Snowflake and ADLS as data sources, with Fabric and Power BI as the visualization tools. The data pipeline involved:
· Fetching data from ADLS and creating Iceberg tables in Snowflake.
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Establishing cloud storage structures and linking them to Fabric Lakehouse.
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Connecting Iceberg tables from ADLS to Microsoft Fabric via shortcuts.
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Replicating inventory and sales ad hoc reports in Power BI.
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Conducting performance, functionality, and data integrity checks before deployment.
| Figure 1: Solution architecture |
Technical challenges and resolutions
We encountered authentication issues when creating shortcuts with Service Principal and Org Accounts. To resolve this, we tested alternative authentication mechanisms and scheduled data synchronization to ensure seamless updates.
Key benefits
· Improved performance: Iceberg-based reports load in 10–12 seconds, compared to 14–18 seconds for standard reports, even with 20 concurrent users.
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Efficient data processing: Resolved dataset refresh and load time issues under complex filtering and high concurrent usage.
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Robust data integrity: Ensured strong guarantees for atomicity, consistency, isolation, and durability (ACID), optimizing large-scale data management in Power BI.
Interested in learning more?
As a Microsoft Fabric Featured Partner, MAQ Software brings deep expertise in helping organizations unlock the full potential of Microsoft Fabric. Whether you're looking for guidance on implementing data solutions or optimizing your existing platform, we’re here to support you every step of the way.
Reach out to CustomerSuccess@MAQSoftware.com to discover how Power BI and Snowflake can enhance your business operations, improve customer satisfaction, and drive cost savings.