22-25 April 2026

Adapting to Fabric: A SQL Server Practitioner’s Path Forward

Proposed session for SQLBits 2026

TL; DR

SQL Server skills transfer to Microsoft Fabric. In a one-day workshop covering Lakehouses and Warehouses, you’ll dive into engines, query plans, stats, and Delta Lake, and leave confident applying what you already know.

Session Details

This workshop is for SQL Server practitioners who know their way around administration, query plans, and access control, and who want to step into the world of Microsoft Fabric without starting from zero.

In one day, we’ll cover both Fabric Lakehouses and Warehouses, and show how your existing skills are still relevant in:
Understanding the engines and what’s really happening under the hood

* Reading query plans, statistics, and performance signals
* Working with Delta Lake storage and its impact on
* performance

The takeaway: the approach may look different, but the fundamentals and your knowledge carry straight across.

3 things you'll get out of this session

* Understand the core components of Microsoft Fabric and 'where Lakehouses vs. Warehouses fit. * Map familiar SQL Server concepts (security, performance, admin mindset) to Fabric’s model. * Explain what engine you’re using in Fabric and what that means for performance and behavior. * Read and interpret query plans and key statistics/performance signals in Fabric. * Understand Delta Lake fundamentals (storage layout, files, transactions) and how it impacts query performance.