Gulf BI Analytics

Gulf BI Analytics
Microsoft Fabric · Dubai, UAE & GCC
Microsoft Fabric · Architecture Design Workshop

Settle your Fabric architecture before you build it.

A facilitated working session where your team makes every major platform decision together, and leaves with a documented architecture, the reasoning behind each choice, and a plan to build from.

See how it runs Decisions, not dashboards.
The cost of skipping this step

Rebuilding a platform is far more expensive than designing it properly once.

Decisions on record

Every choice is written down with its reasoning, so the next engineer, auditor or new hire can see why.

A plan your team can build

A blueprint with sequence and ownership, ready for delivery rather than another slide deck.

Your data stays yours

The workshop works from architecture choices, not from your production data.

The target architecture

One path from source system to executive report.

Sources
Systems you already run
→
Bronze
Raw, as received
→
Silver
Cleaned and conformed
→
Gold
Business-ready data
→
Semantic model
Star schema, DAX
→
Reports
Dashboards for decisions
What we decide together

Five decision areas, 27 steps, each one resolved and recorded.

Platform setup

The foundations that every later decision depends on.

1
Primary region
Where your data lives, and what that means for residency and latency.
2
Capacity model
One shared capacity, or separate capacities by environment or business unit.
3
Capacity size
The starting size, and the signals that tell us when to scale.
4
Surge protection
Limits so one heavy workload cannot starve everything else.
5
Licensing
Who needs a full licence and who can simply view reports.

Data layers and delivery

How data moves from source to a report an executive trusts.

6
Source inventory
Every system that feeds the platform, its owner and its refresh needs.
7
Ingestion pattern
Pipelines, mirroring, shortcuts or dataflows, chosen per source.
8
Bronze layer
Rules for landing raw data exactly as it arrives.
9
Silver layer
How data is cleaned, conformed and de-duplicated.
10
Gold layer
Business-ready tables, kept to production only.
11
Storage choice
Lakehouse or warehouse for each layer, and why.

Modelling and reporting

Turning curated data into models and dashboards people rely on.

12
Semantic model approach
Shared models or one per report, built on a star schema.
13
Storage mode
Direct Lake, Import or DirectQuery, matched to each use case.
14
Report workspaces
Keeping reports separate from the models they read.
15
Distribution
Apps, sharing and embedding for different audiences.
16
Self-service boundaries
What business users may build, and what stays with IT.

Security and governance

Access and accountability designed in from the start.

17
Identity model
Entra security groups as the single basis of access.
18
Workspace roles
Who is an admin, member, contributor or viewer in each workspace.
19
Row-level security
Group-based rules so each person sees only their data.
20
Sensitivity labels
Classifying data and carrying the label through to reports.
21
Retention and recovery
How long data is kept and how it is restored.
22
Audit
Who can review activity, and how often.

Operations and cost

Keeping the platform healthy and affordable once it is live.

23
Environments and release
Dev, test and production, with Git-backed deployment pipelines.
24
Capacity alerts
Thresholds and who is told when usage climbs.
25
Failure notifications
Who owns a failed refresh and how fast they hear about it.
26
Cost monitoring
A regular view of spend against the plan.
27
Architecture review
A scheduled check that the design still fits the business.
How it runs

Three working sessions with your decision-makers.

Session 1
Platform foundations

Steps 1–5. Region, capacity sizing, surge protection and licensing.

Session 2
Data layers, models and reports

Steps 6–16. Sources, Bronze to Gold, semantic models and distribution.

Session 3
Security, governance and operations

Steps 17–27. Access, labels, retention, release, alerting and review.

Format: on-site or online · Three focused sessions · With your IT, data and business leads.

What you receive

Three documents your team can use on day one.

Architecture blueprint
The agreed design of workspaces, layers, security and operations.
Decision log
Each decision, the options considered, and why one was chosen.
Build roadmap
A sequenced plan with owners, ready to hand to delivery.
Why Gulf BI Analytics

Engineering-grade BI for GCC mid-market teams.

Gulf BI Analytics is led by a senior Power BI and Microsoft Fabric consultant with more than ten years of experience. We work with UAE and GCC organisations across banking, pharma distribution, manufacturing and hospitality.

Our delivery rests on proper star-schema modelling, clean DAX, and IBCS-aligned reporting, so what gets designed in the workshop is what actually gets built.

Book your architecture workshop

A fixed-fee engagement, scoped to your team and goals. Request a proposal and we’ll send you the fee, format and available dates.

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