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Data Talk Episodes

Data Talk is where we slow down and unpack the entire Microsoft data stack — from self-service to enterprise, from Excel users to lakehouse architects.
This is Power BI, Microsoft Fabric, SQL Server, Synapse-DNA lineage, Dataverse, Lakehouse, Warehouse, Real-Time Analytics, semantic models, data governance, DAX patterns, dataflows, pipelines — and the craft of turning raw data into actual intelligence that impacts business decisions.

We talk about how the pieces fit — not just the tool buttons.
Data modelling logic, semantic modeling best practices, enterprise data product thinking, proper star schema design, delta table decisions, Power BI report performance tuning, how to operationalise Fabric workloads, how to treat Power BI as a “first-class” enterprise platform and not a wild west of “dashboard in five minutes” chaos.

We cover governance deeply: capacity planning, workspaces strategy, managed vs unmanaged lakes, sensitivity labels, lineage, data mesh vs data swamp, self-service enablement frameworks, adoption and literacy programs, federated ownership, and the “balance of freedom vs control” that every organisation struggles with.

We also talk human business dynamics — because data is ultimately not a tech project. It is a decision-making multiplier.
We are here to surface the patterns that create trusted, reliable, explainable, well-governed analytic landscapes — not one-off Power BI hero dashboards.

If it moves data, visualises data, secures data, or makes data make sense — it belongs in Data Talk.
Aug. 9, 2025

Fabric Notebooks for Data Transformation and ML

Stop wrestling Power BI with endless clicks. Microsoft Fabric Notebooks let you prep, model, and feature-engineer data end-to-end—in Python or R—right inside your Lakehouse with Spark scale and Git governance. This guide shows a proven workflow: ingest to Bronze, clean and join to Silver, feature-e…

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Aug. 8, 2025

Extending Microsoft Fabric with Custom APIs and Power BI Models

Fabric’s UI is great for quick wins—but it hits limits with niche data sources, complex business logic, and real-time automation. The way through is building custom API integrations (secure, least-privilege, monitored) and surfacing them with Power BI semantic models (single source of truth, govern…

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Aug. 8, 2025

Building Customer Portals with Power Pages + Dataverse

Stop emailing Dataverse exports. Build a branded, secure, customer-ready portal with Power Pages that shows the right records to the right people—nothing more. This guide gives you a step-by-step build, least-privilege web roles/table permissions, and a go-live checklist (auth, data scope, branding…

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Aug. 8, 2025

Building Machine Learning Models in Microsoft Fabric

Ship ML faster on Microsoft Fabric. This guide shows how to go from Lakehouse data to production models—without the spreadsheet chaos. You’ll get a practical blueprint for curated data layers, reproducible notebooks, MLflow tracking, governed model registry, and one-click batch/real-time serving. I…

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Aug. 7, 2025

Using Copilot in Microsoft Fabric to Build Data Models

This episode breaks down where Microsoft Copilot truly speeds up data work in Microsoft Fabric—and where you still need a human in the loop. You’ll see how Copilot catches schema issues at ingestion, suggests fixes (naming, types, dates, partitions) before pipelines break, and then accelerates tran…

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Aug. 6, 2025

Implementing Row-Level Security in Power BI with Fabric

This episode shows why Row-Level Security (RLS) in Power BI isn’t a checkbox—it’s a living system. We unpack the parts that actually decide who sees what: model relationships, role design, DAX filters (static vs dynamic), Azure AD group assignments, and the identity shifts that happen when you publ…

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Aug. 5, 2025

Monitoring Data Pipelines in Microsoft Fabric

This episode shows you how to stop flying blind in Microsoft Fabric by designing a proactive, system-level monitoring strategy. We break monitoring into four pillars—performance metrics, error logging, data lineage, and automated recovery—then wire them together so issues surface early, route to th…

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Aug. 5, 2025

Customizing Dataverse for Complex Business Apps

Tired of Dataverse apps that fly with 10 users and crumble at 100? This episode shows how to design for scale by treating relationships, logic, calculated fields, and alternate keys as first-class citizens—not afterthoughts. You’ll learn how to keep performance predictable, automation consistent, i…

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Aug. 5, 2025

Building Ingest Pipelines in Microsoft Fabric for Enterprise Data

If your Microsoft Fabric ingest “works” until a random Monday dashboard explodes, this episode is your wake-up call. We tear down the real difference between Dataflows Gen2 and direct Pipeline copy—and why picking wrong quietly injects duplicates, truncations, and schema-drift chaos into your lakeh…

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Aug. 5, 2025

Unlock Dataverse—Stop Flying Blind in Fabric

Your CRM insights are trapped behind Dataverse’s walls. In this guide, you’ll punch a clean hole straight into Microsoft Fabric—so sales, marketing, support, and product finally live on one dashboard. Learn the exact permissions to flip, the Dataverse tables that actually matter, and the shaping ru…

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Aug. 4, 2025

Fabric Governance Is Not What You Expect

Think Fabric governance is “just like M365”? That’s the trap. This guide shows where your Microsoft 365 instincts help—and exactly where they fail—so you don’t mislabel datasets, over-permission workspaces, or miss audit events. You’ll learn how Fabric’s domains, workspace roles, and object-level o…

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Aug. 4, 2025

Is Your Campaign Analytics Lying To You?

Stop waiting a week to learn your campaign flopped. Plug Dynamics 365 straight into Microsoft Fabric and watch email clicks, web journeys, and sales-stage changes stream into one live dashboard—updated in minutes, not Mondays. I’ll show you the exact signals to track (intent, not vanity), the real-…

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Aug. 4, 2025

Microsoft Fabric: M365’s Missing Link?

Tired of Power BI, Synapse, and Data Factory acting like strangers? Microsoft Fabric finally puts them under one roof—with OneLake as your single, governed source of truth. No more copy-paste datasets, brittle connectors, or audit scavenger hunts. In this guide, you’ll see how Fabric unifies storag…

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Aug. 2, 2025

Hidden Dangers Inside Your Power BI Audit Logs

Your Power BI audit logs aren’t boring—they’re blowing the whistle. Hidden in that wall of “View Report” and “Share Dashboard” events are the clues behind your creeping license costs, ghost workspaces, risky external shares, and stale data decisions. Build one governance dashboard that fuses audit …

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July 31, 2025

You’re Missing Critical M365 Compliance Data – Here’s Why

Your Compliance Dashboard Is Lying to You: The Microsoft Graph Endpoints That Expose Hidden Risk (and How to Wire Them into Purview) If your M365 compliance reports always feel a step behind, you’re missing entire categories of incidents that never hit the default dashboards. In this episode, we…

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July 30, 2025

Microsoft Syntex Ends Data Silos—Here's How

Stop wasting hours hunting for the “final_final” contract. Microsoft Syntex turns your SharePoint and OneDrive chaos into searchable, compliant, metadata-rich content—automatically. In this episode, we show how Syntex classifiers and extractors tag the details that matter (vendor, totals, dates) so…

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June 22, 2025

Microsoft Dataverse: The Trusted Data Backbone for Business Transform…

Your data isn’t the problem—your data plumbing is. Microsoft Dataverse turns scattered silos into a governed, secure backbone for apps, automations, and analytics across Power Platform and Dynamics 365. In this episode, we show how to model faster, ship apps sooner, lock down security, and light up…

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May 26, 2025

Why Power BI Copilot Requires a Broader Strategy

Power BI Copilot revolutionizes how you analyze data, enhancing productivity and accuracy. However, relying solely on this tool limits its potential. To unlock its full power, you need a broader approach. Strong data practice...

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May 20, 2025

Why Power BI Models Struggle to Deliver Results

Have you ever wondered why some Power BI Models seem to fall flat? It often happens because they lack a clear purpose or proper structure. Without a solid foundation, your data turns into a maze rather than a roadmap. When yo...

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May 14, 2025

I Used Microsoft Copilot for Fabric and Saved Hours—Here’s How

From Code Cruncher to Creative Thinker: How Microsoft Copilot in Fabric Rewired My Data Engineering Journey Ever spent what felt like an entire summer afternoon just transforming a CSV file? I have—and to say it sapped my mot...

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May 9, 2025

Beyond Bullet Points: My Caffeine-Fueled Deep Dive Into Microsoft Fab…

You can tell it's a big tech update when you lose track of time and, suddenly, it’s 2 a.m., your coffee is cold, and you’ve got five Fabric tabs open. That was me last Tuesday, chasing every new feature tucked into Microsoft ...

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May 5, 2025

Microsoft Fabric DP-600 Analytics Engineer Training Step 4 of 4: The …

In a world that increasingly values data privacy, I found myself reflecting on a conversation with a financial services client recently. They were concerned about who could access their sensitive sales data. It struck me how ...

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May 3, 2025

Microsoft Fabric DP-600 Analytics Engineer Training Step 3 of 4: Data…

When I first plunged into Microsoft Fabric, the complexity was daunting. I spent hours combing through logs, convinced there was a “magic pill” that would streamline my data processes. It wasn't until I began exploring practi...

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May 2, 2025

Microsoft Fabric DP-600 Analytics Engineer Training Step 2 of 4: Unlo…

Imagine your boss assigning you the crucial task of extracting data from Amazon S3, transforming it using Python, and loading it into a fabric data warehouse. If the thought brings on a wave of anxiety about choosing the righ...

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