OneLake Catalog makes data easy for everyone
The OneLake Catalog in Microsoft Fabric transforms how users discover and access data. The new catalog delivers a fresh, intuitive design that impresses from the first click. Business users, analysts, and IT teams all benefit from the unified experience. OneLake brings together the power of Fabric, making every catalog interaction feel seamless. Microsoft sets a new standard for data exploration with this feature.
Key Takeaways
OneLake Catalog unifies data discovery and management across Microsoft Fabric, making it easy for all users to find and use data from one place.
The catalog offers strong security and governance features, ensuring data stays protected and compliant while allowing trusted access.
Business users, analysts, and IT teams all gain productivity boosts through self-service analytics, streamlined workflows, and centralized data control.
Powerful filtering, favorites, and metadata tools help users quickly navigate large data sets and trust the quality and origin of their data.
OneLake Catalog integrates seamlessly with Microsoft Fabric tools and AI, supporting collaboration and faster, smarter decision-making.
Overview of OneLake Catalog
What is OneLake Catalog?
OneLake Catalog serves as the central cataloging and governance solution within the Microsoft Fabric ecosystem. It provides a unified interface for discovering, managing, and securing all data assets across an organization. Users can explore structured and unstructured data, lakehouses, warehouses, machine learning models, and AI assets from a single location. The catalog introduces a new level of unity, allowing teams to break down data silos and collaborate more efficiently.
Key features include:
Shortcuts to Azure Blob Storage, enabling virtualization of external data for analytics and AI projects.
Automatic and virtual conversion from Delta Lake to Apache Iceberg table format, supporting integration with services like Snowflake.
A Secure tab for centralized management of security roles and user access.
AI-driven features, such as Copilot, available for all paid Fabric SKUs, which broaden access to insights.
Enhanced security and compliance, including Azure Private Link support and customer-managed keys.
Note: OneLake Catalog tracks capacity consumption and supports integration with external systems through the OneLake connector, making it a flexible choice for organizations with diverse data needs.
Role in Microsoft Fabric
OneLake acts as the foundational data lake for Microsoft Fabric, built on Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2. The catalog sits at the heart of this architecture, providing unity across users, regions, and clouds. Its hierarchical design organizes data into containers, workspaces, and lakehouses, simplifying management and collaboration.
The catalog supports documentation, discovery, and governance for all data, models, and platforms within Fabric. This unity ensures that organizations can trust their data and accelerate analytics and AI development.
Features of OneLake Catalog
Unified Data Discovery
OneLake Catalog delivers a unified experience for discovering and managing assets across the entire Microsoft Fabric ecosystem. Users can access structured and unstructured data, lakehouses, warehouses, and AI assets from a single interface. The catalog brings unity to data exploration, making it easy for teams to collaborate and break down silos.
Key performance metrics highlight the effectiveness of unified discovery:
Asset curation completeness tracks the percentage of assets with full metadata.
Asset ownership assignment measures how many assets have clear owners.
Classification coverage shows the percentage of assets classified for governance.
Catalog adoption metrics, such as active users and search frequency, reflect organizational engagement.
The catalog also provides dashboards that display user engagement, search queries, and top search terms. These insights help organizations monitor adoption and improve discovery processes. Integration with Microsoft Purview enhances governance and the new OneLake Catalog by offering unified audit logs, classification, and compliance monitoring. This approach ensures that every user benefits from a consistent and trusted data experience.
Filtering and Navigation
Efficient filtering and navigation stand at the core of the OneLake Catalog experience. The domain slicer allows users to filter content by business domain, such as marketing or finance, aligning with organizational structures. Visual cues, like domain cover images, help users stay oriented within their current context.
The catalog features context-aware tags, which display only relevant tags for the current view. This reduces clutter and streamlines the search process. Enhanced search capabilities enable users to find sub-items, such as tables, columns, and measures, directly within data items. Quick actions, like opening item editors or viewers with a single click, eliminate unnecessary steps and boost productivity.
Users can also filter by item type, favorites, endorsements, and recently accessed workspaces. These features make navigation intuitive and efficient, supporting unity across all data assets. The catalog’s design ensures that users spend less time searching and more time analyzing.
Metadata and Lineage
Metadata and lineage play a crucial role in building trust and transparency within the catalog. OneLake Catalog automatically captures and displays metadata for every asset, including descriptions, tags, owners, and endorsement status. Users can view the full lineage of data assets, tracing their origins and downstream dependencies.
The catalog supports endorsement labels, such as Promoted, Certified, or Master Data, making it easy to identify trusted assets. Data refresh recency is visible, helping users assess the timeliness of information. Metadata completeness, including the presence of descriptions and tags, is tracked and displayed in governance dashboards.
Integration with Microsoft Purview further enriches metadata management. Purview provides sensitivity labels, data classifications, and lineage tracking, ensuring that governance standards are met. This unity between metadata and lineage empowers users to make informed decisions and maintain compliance.
Security and Governance
Security and governance form the foundation of reliable data management in OneLake Catalog. The catalog integrates advanced security features and governance controls, ensuring that data remains protected and accessible only to authorized users.
OneLake supports disaster recovery through geo-replication and cross-region failover, aligning with Azure region pairs. This ensures data resiliency and continuity, even during regional outages. The catalog’s integration with Microsoft Purview provides unified audit logs, sensitivity labeling, and compliance monitoring. These features empower data owners to manage access reliably and maintain governance standards.
The unity between security, governance, and data management in OneLake Catalog sets a new benchmark for reliability. Organizations can trust that their data remains secure, compliant, and available, supporting every analytics and AI initiative within Fabric.
Benefits for Microsoft Fabric Users
For Business Users
Business users experience a new level of independence with OneLake Catalog. The catalog enables self-service analytics, allowing users to explore and analyze data without waiting for IT support. They can access unified data from multiple sources, including Power BI and Excel, all within familiar Microsoft 365 applications. Features like natural language queries and interactive visualizations make analysis intuitive. AI-powered tools, such as Data Activator, help users generate insights and trigger actions with no code. Built-in governance ensures secure and compliant access, so business users can trust the data they use every day.
Business users can ask questions like, "What is the average revenue per customer in North America?" and receive instant, interactive results.
For Data Analysts
Data analysts benefit from the unity and streamlined workflows that Fabric provides. The catalog organizes data into Bronze, Silver, and Gold layers, following the Medallion Architecture. This structure improves data quality and governance, making it easier to find trusted assets. Analysts can quickly discover, endorse, and favorite key datasets, boosting productivity. Integration with PowerBI and Databricks Unity Catalog allows seamless transitions between analytics tools. The unified experience reduces time spent searching for data and increases the speed of delivering insights.
For IT and Data Engineers
IT and data engineers see significant improvements in productivity and governance. OneLake Catalog centralizes data management across Fabric, Power BI, Azure Synapse, and Databricks. This unity reduces complexity and supports better collaboration. Automated metadata capture, lineage, and auditing simplify compliance. The SaaS model eliminates infrastructure costs, while unified storage in Delta format enables seamless sharing and querying across engines like T-SQL and Spark. Real-time data integration and AI/ML support further accelerate development.
Real-World Scenarios in Fabric
Finding Data Fast
Organizations often struggle to locate the right information quickly. With OneLake Catalog in Fabric, users experience a unified search across all assets. The domain slicer and item filters allow teams to narrow results by business area, workspace, or endorsement. For example, an insurance company using PowerBI with Fabric streamlined claims management by enabling underwriters to find trusted datasets in seconds. The catalog’s favorites and recent workspaces features help users return to important items without delay. This unity in navigation reduces wasted time and supports faster decision-making.
Exploring Lineage and Metadata
Understanding where information comes from and how it flows is essential for trust and compliance. OneLake Catalog provides deep visibility into lineage and metadata, supporting both business and technical users. The January 2025 Fabric update introduced enhanced semantic model descriptions and lineage tracking, making it easier to trace data origins and dependencies. Integration with Microsoft Purview ensures that metadata, classifications, and ownership details remain current. Users can monitor data quality, compliance, and health through dashboards and automated alerts. This unity between metadata and lineage supports regulatory needs and improves governance.
Users benefit from:
Daily refreshed domains and dimensions for semantic modeling.
Automated monitoring and alerting for data accuracy and policy compliance.
Copilot integration for summary generation and actionable insights.
Managing Access and Endorsement
Securing information and promoting trusted assets are critical for any organization. OneLake Catalog in Fabric centralizes access controls, allowing IT and data engineers to manage permissions at the workspace, domain, or item level. Endorsement labels such as Promoted or Certified guide users to reliable sources. A financial services firm using Fabric and Databricks achieved a 30% reduction in data breaches by leveraging unified access management and endorsement workflows. The catalog’s integration with Databricks Unity Catalog further strengthens governance, ensuring that only authorized users can access sensitive information. This unity across platforms simplifies compliance and builds confidence in shared analytics.
Tip: Use endorsement and tagging features to highlight key assets and foster a culture of data stewardship.
Getting Started with OneLake in Microsoft Fabric
Accessing OneLake Catalog
OneLake stands as the central data lake for every organization using Microsoft Fabric. It provides a single location for all analytics data, supporting both multi-cloud and on-premises sources. Users can access the catalog directly from the Fabric home page, where it appears as a dedicated icon. This catalog organizes data into logical domains, making it easy to explore, manage, and govern assets. The seamless integration with all Fabric workloads ensures that users experience unity across data sources and tools. Shortcuts allow referencing data stored in different locations without duplication, which simplifies data access and supports efficient collaboration. OneLake also prepares data for AI projects, integrating natively with Azure AI Foundry and Azure AI Search for advanced analytics.
Tip: Start with small projects and scale gradually. Assess organizational readiness, plan the journey, and align stakeholders for a smooth onboarding experience with the catalog.
Using Filters and Favorites
Filters and favorites play a vital role in managing large data estates within the catalog. Users can filter content by domain, workspace, or endorsement, which aligns with organizational structures. Enhanced filtering capabilities now support nested folders, allowing users to filter across entire workspaces or specific folders and their contents. Context-aware tag filtering reduces visual clutter by displaying only relevant tags, improving navigation and focus. Favorites enable quick access to frequently used items, while enhanced search functionality allows users to find sub-items such as tables, columns, and measures. Quick actions further streamline navigation, reflecting the unity that Fabric brings to data discovery.
Key best practices:
Use endorsement and certification to promote trusted data sources.
Tag and describe assets to provide context.
Connect data consumers, creators, and owners for better understanding.
Exploring Data and Lineage
Exploring data and lineage in the catalog helps users build trust and transparency. The catalog displays metadata, including descriptions, tags, and ownership details, for every asset. Users can trace the full lineage of data, understanding origins and downstream dependencies. Integration with Microsoft Purview enhances this experience by providing sensitivity labels, classifications, and governance dashboards. By accessing unity catalog features, users can monitor data quality, compliance, and health. The catalog supports both SQL and Spark engines, allowing teams to choose the best tool for their needs. Organizing data into multiple lakehouses improves scalability and enables granular permissions, supporting unity across all analytics and AI initiatives in Fabric.
OneLake Catalog in Microsoft Fabric empowers everyone to find and use data with ease. The intuitive interface, strong governance, and seamless integration help users work smarter. Teams can discover trusted data, manage access, and collaborate efficiently.
Ready to explore? Try OneLake Catalog today and share feedback with the community.
Next Steps:
Visit Microsoft Fabric documentation for tutorials.
Join user forums to connect with experts.
Watch demo videos for hands-on guidance.
FAQ
What types of data assets appear in OneLake Catalog?
OneLake Catalog displays a wide range of assets. Users see lakehouses, warehouses, semantic models, dataflows, and AI assets. The catalog also supports new features as Microsoft Fabric evolves.
How does OneLake Catalog help with data governance?
The catalog centralizes security and governance. It integrates with Microsoft Purview for sensitivity labels, access controls, and audit logs. This approach helps organizations meet compliance requirements and manage data responsibly.
Can users set favorites or endorsements in OneLake Catalog?
Yes. Users can mark important assets as favorites for quick access. Endorsement labels, such as Promoted or Certified, highlight trusted data sources. These features help teams find reliable information faster.
How does OneLake Catalog support data lineage and transparency?
OneLake Catalog provides clear lineage views. Users can trace data origins, see downstream dependencies, and review metadata. This transparency builds trust and supports better decision-making.
Is it possible to use OneLake as external location for analytics?
Yes. Organizations can configure onelake as external location. This setup allows teams to reference data stored outside Fabric, supporting hybrid and multi-cloud analytics scenarios.