Last year, Microsoft introduced Microsoft Fabric, a unified SaaS platform that combines under one umbrella the best of Microsoft Power BI, various Azure PaaS offerings, and a host of new experiences related to data science, real-time analytics, and more. Fabric is underpinned by CAPACITY–the paradoxically simple yet complex measurement of compute resources powering various Power BI Fabric workloads.
FABRIC: SaaS rebrand
The same SaaS ecosystem Microsoft debuted as Power BI in 2015
ALSO FABRIC: new capabilities
A series of new workloads enabled independently of Fabric’s Power BI experience
To facilitate a smooth transition from Power BI to Fabric (new capabilities), Microsoft ensured customers could access these new Fabric workloads as well as Copilot for Power BI on their existing Power BI Premium capacity P SKUs.
However, with the introduction of Azure-billed pay-as-you-go and annual reservation F SKUs for Microsoft Fabric, Microsoft recently announced the eventual retirement of the Power BI Premium per capacity SKUs that needs to consider an organization’s Enterprise Agreement (EA) timing.
Impact of Enterprise Agreement (EA) on Transition
The timing of the EA has a significant impact on the transition timeline for a few reasons. Since the EA is a multi-year contract with an annual anniversary:
- An anniversary date “true down” or waiting until the end of the entire EA contract are the only options for customers to remove product SKUs such as Power BI Premium per capacity P SKUs
- Customers with an existing EA agreement can continue to use their existing P SKU purchases until the end of their EA agreement
- Customers with an existing P SKU on their EA can continue to purchase new Premium capacity using that SKU through the end of their EA.
See the Microsoft licensing page for the exact verbiage: https://www.microsoft.com/licensing/news/power-bi-premium-sku-retirement
The EA timing is key from a cost perspective to ensure that customers don’t overspend during the transition period. As a result, most organizations would likely transition from P SKUs to F SKUs around their anniversary date or wait until end of EA.
Considering Hybrid P + F
Having P SKUs on an EA doesn’t mean customers won’t be able to purchase new Fabric F SKUs for extending their workloads or scaling. Many organizations provision multiple capacities for various reasons such as workload or line of business isolation, multi-geo, and more.
In one sample scenario, there could be advantages for a hybrid approach with a mix of P and F capacities where Fabric workloads such as compute-heavy but less-frequently used data engineering workloads may sit on an Azure F PayGo that’s scaled or paused flexibly along with Power BI workloads that continue to remain in “static” Premium P until the EA anniversary. And so on…
Closing Thoughts
The transition from Power BI Premium P SKU to Fabric F SKU seems like a small change but has significant impact on contracts and costs for any Power BI Premium customer with an EA. It’s therefore important to understand the timeline for this transition and how it’s impacted by the Enterprise Agreement timing. Around the time of next renewal, existing P SKU customers should work with their Microsoft account representative to transition to a suitable Fabric SKU to take advantage of new F-only features like workspace identities, more flexibility in SKU size, pay-as-you-go billing options, and the ability to contribute toward any Azure spend commitments (MACC).