In this full day hands‑on workshop we’ll explore how you can simplify file ingestion in Microsoft Fabric by applying the concepts of a landing‑zone architecture with the implementation of Open‑Mirroring items. Designing and building end‑to‑end patterns to simply structure and unstructured uploads. We all encounter those businesses still relying on Excel as a data source! This is how we tackle it with Open-Mirroring as a easy to implement ingestion pattern for your analytics solutions.

We’ll start from the high‑level design and implement a landing zone workspace with constrained access and data retention processes. Then integrate file source handlers including a local file watcher service to push datasets into Fabric long side standard data gateway ingestion processes. Each driving files into Fabric in a controlled, repeatable way.

You’ll configure Open‑Mirroring (an open mirrored database) endpoint as the ingestion destination, then use Lakehouse storage to stage data, validating it with data contracts before promoting it into a data curation pattern with bronze, silver and gold layers.

Along the way, we’ll compare theory vs practice, exploring schema drift, data contract enforcement, push vs pull ingestion patterns and scaling ingestion throughput for high volume, high velocity file changes.

We’ll finish by packaging changes through deployment pipelines and reviewing operational guardrails with logging and alerting that help teams move fast without sacrificing governance.

If you want a pragmatic blueprint to move Excel/CSV/Access and similar sources into Fabric with less friction this is the session for you. Leaving with working Fabric assets, design patterns and the knowledge to reuse this simplified approach for those businesses still running on Excel!