Microsoft Fabric and Zero Trust Data Access complement each other to provide comprehensive data governance across both structured and unstructured data—even when unstructured data exists outside of Fabric’s scope. While Fabric excels at analytics and insights from structured sources within the Microsoft ecosystem, FileFlex brings Zero Trust principles to unstructured data—enabling secure, identity-based access without duplicating content or ingesting it into Fabric.

Extending Microsoft Fabric with Zero Trust Data Access for Unstructured Data

 
Estimated reading time: 4 minutes

Introduction: Why Microsoft Fabric Needs Zero Trust Data Access

Microsoft Fabric unifies structured data analytics across Power BI, Synapse, and Data Factory, but it doesn’t fully address the security and governance challenges of unstructured data and hybrid environments. That’s where Zero Trust Data Access (ZTDA) from FileFlex Enterprise comes in—extending granular, identity-based access controls, real-time telemetry, and policy enforcement to unstructured data stored on a hybrid infrastructure. This blog explores how FileFlex enhances Microsoft Fabric with Zero Trust principles to close security gaps, reduce risk, and support true end-to-end data governance.

What is Microsoft Fabric?

Microsoft Fabric is an all-in-one analytics platform designed to unify data movement, data engineering, data science, real-time analytics, and business intelligence (BI) under a single, integrated SaaS offering. It was announced in 2023 and builds on Microsoft’s existing ecosystem, especially Power BI, Azure Synapse Analytics, and Azure Data Factory.

It supports both structured and unstructured data, but has a primary emphasis on structured data as part of its core analytics and business intelligence capabilities.

How ZTDA Complements and Covers the Security Blind Spots of Fabric

ZTDA can extend and complement Microsoft Fabric by covering the security blind spots that Fabric doesn’t natively address, especially in hybrid environments, as follows:

1. Fabric is not your entire data ecosystem

While Fabric consolidates analytics for structured/semi-structured data within Microsoft’s stack, enterprises still have vast volumes of unstructured data—files, documents, PDFs, images, legal contracts, spreadsheets—that:

• • • Reside outside Fabric (e.g., in file servers, NAS, SharePoint, OneDrive, on-prem storage)
    • Are used alongside Fabric for context, enrichment, or reporting
    • Contain sensitive information, often subject to regulatory or IP controls

ZTDA brings this unstructured data under the same Zero Trust principles—even if that data never enters Fabric.

2. Fabric’s access controls are not Zero Trust by default

Fabric uses Microsoft Entra (Azure AD) for identity, and Microsoft Purview for governance. But:

• • It assumes data is within the Microsoft ecosystem
  • Access is generally persistent and role-based
  • Controls are often at the dataset or workspace level, not per file, per folder, or per user context

ZTDA brings:

• • Just-in-time and just-enough access
  • Context-aware enforcement (e.g., deny access from unmanaged devices)
  • Continuous validation during active sessions
  • Granular controls for external collaborators or internal segmentation

3. Structured and unstructured data often need to be used together

A Power BI report in Fabric might link to:

• • A PDF contract or invoice
  • A Word doc with executive commentary
  • An Excel file with offline calculations

ZTDA ensures these supporting files are accessed securely, without copying, duplicating, or emailing—which Fabric doesn’t natively control.

4. ZTDA bridges the security gap across your hybrid architecture

Even if you’re centralizing analytics in Fabric, your data is not all in OneLake. Fabric doesn’t protect:

• • File shares
  • Legacy databases
  • On-prem repositories
  • Non-Microsoft cloud storage (Box, Dropbox, S3)

ZTDA enforces consistent access policies across all of these—without moving the data—and ensures unstructured data used alongside Microsoft Fabric insights remains protected, even when Fabric does not directly govern or interact with it.

FileFlex + Microsoft Fabric: Strategic Value Propositions

Here’s how FileFlex Zero Trust Data Access complements Microsoft Fabric for enterprise customers:

1. Provides Zero Trust Security for Fabric’s Unstructured Data

• • Microsoft Fabric excels at integrating structured data pipelines—such as Power BI, Data Factory, and Synapse—but it does not natively protect or govern unstructured data like documents, images, and PDFs across hybrid environments. FileFlex addresses this gap by adding Zero Trust data protection, fine-grained access control, and comprehensive activity monitoring to unstructured data stored in SharePoint, OneDrive, Azure, AWS, Google and even on-premises servers. Importantly, it enables this protection without requiring data movement or duplication.

2. Extends Fabric’s Governance Layer to the Edge

• • While Microsoft Purview provides governance for data within the Microsoft ecosystem, real-world hybrid deployments often include legacy file servers, private clouds, and external repositories that fall outside its native reach. FileFlex serves as a data access governance bridge, extending audit trails, policy enforcement, and data residency controls to any storage endpoint. This enables organizations to establish a unified compliance posture across both Microsoft Fabric and their legacy environments.

3. Enables Real-Time Telemetry for Security & Compliance AI

• • Microsoft Fabric includes powerful data observability tools, but it lacks real-time telemetry for file-level access, sharing behavior, and remote usage—particularly across hybrid storage environments. FileFlex fills this gap by delivering real-time activity telemetry across both cloud and on-premises systems. This visibility is invaluable for security analytics, insider threat detection, and compliance.

4. Reduces Data Duplication and Provides Native Access Across Storage

• • Microsoft Fabric’s strength in data consolidation can inadvertently lead to storage bloat and migration overhead when enterprises are required to replicate data into OneLake. FileFlex addresses this issue by enabling secure, in-place collaboration and sharing of data directly from its original locations—whether in the cloud or on-premises. This avoids unnecessary duplication or migration, significantly reducing storage costs and lowering compliance risk.

5. Enables Smart City, Financial, and Government Use Cases

• • In sectors like smart cities, financial services, and government—where FileFlex is seeing growing adoption—the combination of Microsoft Fabric’s capabilities to ingest, model, and visualize data with FileFlex’s ability to secure and federate access to raw unstructured data creates a powerful, end-to-end digital governance solution. This integrated approach supports complex regulatory, operational, and data sovereignty requirements while enabling secure, data-driven innovation across domains.

Summary of Combined Differentiation

Conclusion: Unlocking the Full Potential of Microsoft Fabric with FileFlex and Zero Trust Data Access

By using FileFlex and Microsoft Fabric, organizations extend Zero Trust protection beyond structured analytics to unstructured content across hybrid infrastructure. This combination secures sensitive data in place, reduces duplication, and provides the real-time visibility needed for compliance and threat detection.

For further reading see What is Zero Trust Data Access (ZTDA)?, Why Microsoft-Centric Security Isn’t Enough: The Case for Zero Trust Data Access, Why Zero Trust Data Access is an Essential SharePoint Add-in, 21 Reasons to Supplement Microsoft 365 E5 Security with Zero Trust Data Access, and  Accelerating Digital Transformation Leveraging Zero Trust Data Access (ZTDA) in a Microsoft Ecosystem.

*Microsoft