Promethium vs. Microsoft Fabric
A Side-by-Side Comparison for Enterprise Data Teams
Promethium and Microsoft Fabric both promise unified access to enterprise data. But only one delivers real-time, governed answers from all your data — without migrations, months of prep, or vendor lock-in.
If you’re evaluating Fabric, this guide will help you understand how Promethium compares, where it outperforms, and why many enterprise teams are choosing a more open, agentic alternative.
Summary Table: Feature-by-Feature Comparison
| Feature | Promethium | Microsoft Fabric | Best For |
| Real-Time Querying | ✅ Native federated access with full metadata | ⚠️ Shortcuts available, but full context requires OneLake ingestion | Promethium (speed with complete governance) |
| Self-Service Interface | ✅ Agent interface, no SQL needed | ⚠️ Power BI centric, requires modeling setup | Promethium (non-technical users) |
| Context Awareness | ✅ 360° metadata engine | ⚠️ Manual semantic models required | Promethium (trusted AI insights) |
| Governance & Security | ✅ Built-in, role-aware, query-level | ✅ Integrated with Microsoft Purview | Tie |
| AI/LLM Integration | ✅ Mantra agent, real-time insights | ⚠️ Fabric Copilot tied to Microsoft stack | Promethium (open ecosystem flexibility) |
| Data Movement Required? | ✅ No data movement | ⚠️ Must copy to OneLake for full functionality and context | Promethium (cost and latency efficiency) |
| Data Freshness | ✅ Real-time | ⚠️ Batch processing (hourly/daily updates) | Promethium (up-to-date insights) |
| Deployment Time | ⏱️ Days | 🗓️ Weeks–Months | Promethium (faster time to value) |
Who Should Choose What
Promethium and Microsoft Fabric take fundamentally different architectural approaches. While both claim to unify enterprise data, Fabric requires that all data is first moved into Microsoft’s OneLake. Promethium, by contrast, delivers value without migration or lock-in—instantly querying your data wherever it lives.
Choose Promethium If You Are
- A CDO or Head of Data tasked with accelerating insights across silos
- A data analyst or business user who needs trusted answers, not pipeline tickets
- An AI leader looking to power copilots and agents with real-time, explainable data
Fabric Is Best Suited For
- Teams heavily invested in Microsoft-only infrastructure
- Use cases that are already centralized in OneLake and Power BI
- Organizations comfortable with longer deployment cycles and lock-in
How Promethium Is Different
Promethium is purpose-built for real-time, AI-driven enterprise data access. It delivers governed answers from across your stack — without weeks of pipeline work or manual data prep.
Zero-Copy Architecture
Query in place across cloud, on-prem, and hybrid systems
Mantra Agent Interface
Ask business questions, get SQL-backed, trusted answers
360° Context Engine
Bridge the gap between business and technical metadata across your entire data estate
Open by Design
Integrates with Microsoft, Snowflake, Databricks, and more.
Deployed in Days
See results before Fabric even finishes ingestion
Technical Specifications
| Capability | Promethium | Microsoft Fabric |
| API Support | REST, SQL, JDBC, MCP, A2A, LLM integration | Microsoft Graph, Power BI APIs |
| Integration Surfaces | 200+ sources (ADLS, Databricks, Snowflake, Oracle, and many more) | Microsoft-native services only |
| Query Engine | Federated SQL using Trino or pushdown to source + agent orchestration with full metadata | Shortcuts + OneLake ingestion for complete functionality |
| Data Freshness | Real-time streaming and batch | Batch processing with scheduled refreshes |
| Security & Access Control | Query-level, role-aware, SSO, SOC 2 | Purview integration, RBAC |
| Deployment Model | Hybrid (SaaS + VPC on AWS, Azure, GCP) | Azure-only cloud |
| Semantic Layer | Auto-contextual, dynamic, leveraging metadata across data sources, data catalogs, semantic layers, and more | Manual modeling required |
Use Case Examples: Where Promethium Outperforms Fabric
Pricing Optimization Across Systems
Fabric Challenge: Testing whether pricing changes impact customer retention requires copying data from billing, CRM, and support systems into OneLake — delaying analysis by weeks
Promethium Solution: Instant pricing impact analysis connecting pricing data to customer behavior and support tickets in real-time, enabling rapid optimization and decision-making
Marketing Campaign Experimentation
Fabric Challenge: Testing campaign effectiveness requires ingesting web analytics, CRM, and customer data into OneLake before analysis can begin
Promethium Solution: Real-time campaign experimentation connecting web behavior to CRM conversions and customer lifetime value, validating campaign hypotheses within hours instead of weeks
Multi-Cloud Data Access
Fabric Challenge: Supply chain data spread across AWS, GCP, and on-premises systems can’t be easily accessed through Fabric’s Azure-only architecture
Promethium Solution: Real-time supply chain monitoring across all clouds and on-prem systems with unified governance, regardless of where data lives
Migration Path: No Pipeline Rebuilds. No Vendor Lock-In.
Promethium doesn’t require data migration or replatforming. It connects directly to your existing systems — while preserving security and governance.
- Avoid duplicating pipelines in OneLake
- Keep your BI tools and reporting workflows
- Add value instantly with low lift and high flexibility
- Support both Microsoft and non-Microsoft sources equally
Common Misconceptions About Data Unification
Myth: "You need to migrate data to get unified access"
Reality: Promethium’s federated architecture queries data in place, eliminating the time, cost, and risk of large-scale data movement while maintaining real-time freshness.
Myth: "Microsoft-native always means better Microsoft integration"
Reality: Promethium integrates seamlessly with Microsoft tools like Azure, ADLS, and Power BI while also supporting your entire tech stack — giving you the best of both worlds without vendor lock-in.
Myth: "Data fabric solutions require months of setup and modeling"
Reality: Promethium’s 360° Context Engine automatically understands relationships and metadata, enabling deployment in days rather than months of manual semantic modeling.
Learn more about data fabrics here.
Real-World Impact
95%
reduction in data provisioning time for ad hoc questions
5x
increase in productivity for data product owners and data analysts
<2
weeks to time-to-value for enterprise pilot deployments
$M+
value unlocked through new insights and faster decisions
Promethium is trusted by Fortune 500 leaders across finance, energy, telecom, and healthcare.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Promethium a replacement for Microsoft Fabric?
For many enterprises, yes — especially those looking for agility and flexibility. Promethium provides a full-featured alternative to Fabric that avoids the complexity, cost, and lock-in of OneLake. Organizations often find that Fabric’s ingestion requirements slow down their data initiatives. Promethium delivers the same unified data access goals — faster, and across your entire stack.
Can Promethium integrate with Microsoft tools like Power BI?
Yes. Promethium can push governed, query-ready data directly into Power BI or any other BI tool. It works with Microsoft, not just within it.
What's the difference between OneLake and Promethium's federated approach?
OneLake requires copying all your data into Microsoft’s data lake before you can access it, creating latency, storage costs, and vendor lock-in. Promethium queries your data where it lives, providing real-time access without data movement.
Can Promethium handle enterprise-scale data volumes?
Yes. Promethium’s federated architecture scales with your existing systems — whether you’re querying terabytes in Snowflake, petabytes in your data lake, or real-time streams from operational systems.
Does Promethium support AI copilots or agent workflows?
Yes. Mantra is Promethium’s AI-native agent that enables conversational access to data, auto-generates SQL, explains results, and supports LLM workflows out of the box. Furthermore, Promethium can support your existing agents via MCP or A2A connectivity.
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