Is Fabric a Reliable Service or a Ripped Resource?

Posted on June 27, 2026 by way0utwest

Over the last few weeks, I’ve noticed a few complaints from different friends and customers about issues with Microsoft’s Fabric service. I had assumed these were isolated incidents in just a few places, and customers were being refunded according to an SLA. Then I saw Joey D’Antoni’s post this week about Fabric going down. It lists quite a few of the incidents in June, including a few global ones.

However, the most surprising thing in the post was this link, noting Fabric doesn’t have a dedicated SLA. Instead, it’s under the general Microsoft support agreement, meaning your organization needs to have a support plan to get help. I think that makes some sense, but I’d really expect that a data service in the cloud, including an analytic service that touts itself as real-time, would have a high SLA. Some agreement on the order of 4 9s at least, if not 5.

For those of you who think you can do better on premises, I’ll remind you that four 9s mean you get 52 minutes of downtime a year, or 1 minute a week (roughly). Five 9s is 5 minutes a year, and the weekly calculation doesn’t matter. I’ve had systems run for a year, but a lot, and not a lot of databases, especially with patching 6 times a year. This year, with AI (my guess) finding lots of holes and GDR releasing quite often, I would guess that three nines is out the window for most SQL Server systems that aren’t HA clustered in some way.

As a point of reference, Denny notes that Azure SQL database, Business Critical, has a four-and-a-half 9s level of reliability and financial refunds for costs if that’s exceeded. You will need some sort of business insurance if you worry about revenue issues, but my guess is that most of us live with the downtime and work around it (and hopefully, plan for it).

I’ve been skeptical of Fabric (outside of Power BI). It feels cobbled together, so many issues are reported, and I feel like it’s immature. If I were working on a new analytics project, and we didn’t have a solution, I might PoC it, but I’d be more likely to consider Databricks, Snowflake, or Redshift rather than Fabric.

Perhaps you have a different view, or you have had success with Fabric. I know some people who have, but it seems one-sey two-sey and not commonplace. There seem to be so many workarounds and issues; it makes me skeptical that Fabric is really ready for primetime if Microsoft won’t stand behind it. Databricks only gives credit up to three 9s, but if they fall below 95%, they issue a 100% credit. Snowflake offers four 9s.

I feel that if Microsoft were confident in their reliability, they’d offer refunds if they didn’t perform.

Steve Jones

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I Want to Use My Brain

Posted on June 26, 2026 by way0utwest

I had a very interesting conversation recently with a longtime DBA who was worried about using AI in their database work. The Redgate State of the Database Landscape 2026 report showed that the vast majority of you (99%) are getting value from AI, so clearly it’s being used. However, this individual was concerned that using AI for tasks would not engage their brain, and they might lose some of their SQL skills.

And they want to use their brain at work.

I would hope most of you want to use your brains and accomplish things. That’s a lot of the reason I continue to work and enjoy what I do. It engages me, and I find the challenge of solving problems to be interesting work. Whether that’s simple T-SQL queries, architecture for an application, or the culture challenges of changing teams. It’s exciting to move anything forward.

I would hope most people want to use their brains at work and not just get through the day without straining their mental faculties. It’s fun to solve a problem, puzzle, or challenge. The thing I’ve learned is that AI doesn’t preclude that.

I use AI to tackle tedious things. Small things. Minute-saving things. The number of times I use an AI to do something that saves me minutes is surprising. Those minutes add up across the week and let me avoid some of the tedious work and focus on the things I enjoy: deciding if something works and if it is the appropriate solution.

I might ask an LLM to generate some code, summarize some text, or give me a first draft. I might use a lot of what I get, or just a little. I might throw everything away and do it myself, but often that little kickstart gets me moving quicker than I might otherwise get started, and it’s lower stress for me when I’m on a deadline.

I enjoy PowerShell, but sometimes the tedium of getting the syntax right and formatting things is annoying. Scaffolding around an algorithm can be a pain. An AI can do a lot of that stuff and I can evaluate the result. I never type > instead of -gt anymore because the LLM does it. I decide if I like the approach or not, or if I want to write a little code inside the scaffolding.

I still use my brain. AI hasn’t changed that. It’s just that I avoid some of the tedious things. And if I need a break, I can go for a walk or cook or play guitar rather than slogging through a chore that isn’t interesting.

Steve Jones

Listen to the podcast at Libsyn, Spotify, or iTunes.

Note, podcasts are only available for a limited time online.

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Advice I Like: Respect

Posted on June 26, 2026 by way0utwest

“Don’t aim to have others like you; aim to have them respect you.” – from Excellent Advice for Living

This is an interesting piece of advice. It’s easy to look at this and think, no, that’s not what I want, but remember that these two things are not mutually exclusive. People can respect and like you. However, for many things in life, you really want respect more than link.

When I coach, respect is more important. At work, respect is more important. In relationships, they’re probably equal.

Respect means that people listen to you, treat you well, give weight and consideration to your words, actions, and feelings.

I like some people, but don’t respect them. I might enjoy spending time with them, but our relationship is more for leisure and fun. We don’t really have anything of significance between us. We can just enjoy time.

Your goal is respect.

I’ve been posting New Words on Fridays from a book I was reading, however, a friend thought they were a little depressing. They should be as they are obscure sorrows. I like them because they make me think.

To counter-balance those, I’m adding in thoughts on advice, mostly from Kevin Kelley’s book. You can read all these posts under the advice tag.

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Spending Time in the Office

Posted on June 24, 2026 by way0utwest

I’ve visited a number of customers in the last few years who require most people to work in the office. Recently, I had the chance to go to Epic Systems, just outside Madison, WI, USA. They are a medical records software provider that was very reminiscent of Microsoft in some ways, and quite different in others. I published a blog with some pictures, so you can see how cool this office is in person.

Epic has all their employees coming into the main office every day. They are flexible if you have needs, but the expectation is that employees go in every day. I believe this is also their policy, and culture, in various offices around the world.

This is somewhat rare these days, but not unique. I’ve worked with one other (10,000 people) large company and a few small ones that have similar policies and expectations. Their offices aren’t as fun, but they are still neat. I love working at home, but I miss the camaraderie of being in an office. JD Edwards was probably my favorite place to work, and I enjoyed going into the office with friends, having lunch, going to movies together, and especially our Friday afternoon Nerf battles.

I’m lucky in that I get to split my time. I’m at home much of the time, but I do go to the Redgate offices 4-5 weeks a year. Usually, I visit Cambridge, but I have visited the offices in Austin, Pasadena, Brisbane, and Amsterdam. I’ve yet to get to the Berlin office, but I’m hoping to fix that later this year or next.

I know many tech professionals, and even those in other areas, prefer to work at home and can do their jobs effectively. We saw this during the pandemic, but I also think that many of us are missing something by not being in the same room with others. I find I build better bonds, better understand the way others communicate, and we can go back and forth with brainstorming, debate, discussions, and other collaborative actions more effectively. This can work remotely, but for many organizations that didn’t start this way, I feel like something is missing. We’re struggling to communicate and work as smoothly together.

I don’t want to give up my ability to work at home, but I’d also hate to never visit an office either. I think I have a great balance, I enjoy both environments, and I appreciate the ability to change my location on a regular basis. However, if I got another job and had to go into the office every day, I’d be happy to do so (provided the commute is reasonable).

Steve Jones

Listen to the podcast at Libsyn, Spotify, or iTunes.

Note, podcasts are only available for a limited time online.

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