Microsoft Fabric Licensing Options

Cost Effective Microsoft Fabric Licensing Options

Microsoft Fabric pricing can be a challenging topic, especially for small businesses. The annual costs can be significant, making it difficult for many to justify the expense. However, investing in Fabric can be a smart move to future-proof your business, as it’s clear that this platform is here to stay. The advantages of a unified platform for Data Engineering, Data Science, and Data Analytics are evident.

So, how can small businesses access Fabric’s services without breaking the bank?

One often overlooked option is the PAYG (Pay As You Go) model. At first glance, PAYE may seem more expensive than reserving services upfront, and in terms of comparable services, it typically is. However, PAYE offers valuable flexibility.

What many small businesses miss is that both PAYG and reserved services allow you to turn resources on and off. Microsoft Fabric resources are billed hourly, which means they can be very cost-effective when used for short periods. For instance, a data warehouse may only need to be updated overnight after Power BI updates, and once that’s complete, it may no longer be necessary.

By automating this process with PowerShell scripts or Power Automate flows—or even manually—you can significantly reduce costs. As of today (2024-11-12), the hourly rate is £0.314 for PAYG and £0.193 for a 1-year reservation at the lowest tier (2 CU).

The scalability of Microsoft Fabric allows businesses to easily scale up if additional resources are required, making it a flexible solution until a full license is needed. Based on our analysis, turning the resource on and off offers no cost benefits once the service is in use for more than 12 hours a day, at which point it becomes more economical to leave it running continuously.

For the most up-to-date pricing on Microsoft Fabric, visit Microsoft Fabric - Pricing | Microsoft Azure.
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