Mission-Critical Data Integration: What’s New in Fabric Data Factory
Why Mission-Critical Features Matter
In the era of AI and cloud-scale analytics, organizations need a data integration platform that is secure, resilient, and ready for the most demanding workloads. Fabric Data Factory is engineered to deliver just that—enabling enterprises to unify, protect, and orchestrate their data across clouds, firewalls, and hybrid environments.
Security, Isolation, and Compliance
Fabric Data Factory now includes a robust set of features to support mission-critical enterprise needs:
- Workspace Identity Authentication for Connectors (Generally Available): Ensuring secure and seamless data access is essential within Microsoft Fabric. Workspace identity authentication enhances credential management by leveraging a managed service principal assigned to each workspace (excluding My Workspace). With this support in connections, data access becomes more secure and seamless, minimizing credential sprawl and streamlining administrative processes.
- Workspace Private Link Support for Data Factory (Preview): Microsoft Fabric enables secure data integration through Private Link support in Dataflows Gen2, Pipelines, and Copy jobs. This ensures that inbound data access remains isolated and compliant within protected workspaces. By leveraging VNet data gateways, organizations can securely connect to data sources across Private Link-enabled environments—eliminating exposure to public networks and reinforcing enterprise-grade security for sensitive data operations.
- Azure Key Vault Integration for Connectors (Generally Available): Microsoft Fabric enables centralized secret management via Azure Key Vault (AKV), providing secure storage and retrieval of credentials for data source connections. This integration is intended to minimize credential sprawl and support consistent secret management. AKV integration (Generally Available) and Fabric currently offers AKV secret resolution for on-premises data gateway connections, with VNet data gateway support planned for future release.
- VNet Gateway Support for Pipelines, Fast Copy in Dataflow Gen2 and Copy Job (Generally Available): Microsoft Fabric offers VNet data gateway support for Pipeline and Copy job, enabling secure data movement through virtual networks. This ensures that data integration processes remain isolated from public networks, supporting enterprise-grade compliance, security, and network segmentation. With VNet gateway support, organizations can confidently manage sensitive data flows while maintaining strict control over access boundaries and infrastructure policies.
- Connections and Gateways API (Generally Available): Microsoft Fabric provides robust Connections and Gateways API that enables programmatic management of data connections and gateway configurations—ideal for scalable automation across enterprise environments. With Service Principal (SPN) support, organizations can securely manage access and streamline deployment workflows without manual intervention. This API empowers teams to automate connection provisioning, update gateway settings, and enforce consistent security policies across workspaces, enhancing operational efficiency and governance.
- VNet Gateway Lifecycle Controls (Generally Available): Microsoft Fabric now offers operational lifecycle controls for VNet data gateways, allowing gateway administrators to start, stop, and restart gateways as needed. This capability helps optimize resource usage, enhance security posture, and support maintenance without disrupting data movement. With these controls, teams gain greater flexibility in managing gateway uptime and enforcing network isolation policies.
- PowerShell Automation for Gateways (Preview): Fabric introduces PowerShell-based automation for gateway management. This includes support for automating gateway ownership transfers and configuring installation paths, streamlining administrative tasks and improving disaster recovery readiness. These capabilities empower IT teams to manage gateway deployments at scale with consistent, scriptable workflows.
- Snowflake Key-Pair Authentication (Coming Soon): To further strengthen security and automation for Snowflake connections, Microsoft Fabric will soon support key-pair-based authentication. This modern approach eliminates the need for password-based credentials, enabling secure, scalable integration with Snowflake while aligning with enterprise best practices for identity management and compliance.
- Outbound Access Protection for Data Factory (Coming Soon): Outbound access protection for Data Factory helps you enhance network security and compliance. This upcoming capability will allow organizations to restrict and monitor outbound traffic from Data Factory items like pipelines, Dataflow Gen2 and Copy job, ensuring that data movement adheres to enterprise policies and avoids unintended exposure. By enforcing outbound access controls, teams can better safeguard sensitive data, maintain isolation boundaries, and align with regulatory requirements across hybrid and cloud environments.
These features empower organizations to meet strict regulatory requirements, protect sensitive information, and ensure operational resilience. They make Fabric Data Factory a trusted data integration platform for industries with high compliance needs, such as finance, healthcare, and government.
For full context and additional announcements, see the Data Factory announcement blog at Fabric Conference EU 2025.
