Modernizing the Analytics Environment at Colonnade Insurance
A Microsoft Fabric migration case study — more than 400 Power BI workspaces moved to Fabric F64, with proactive monitoring and alerting for SQL and Azure SQL, and no disruption to day-to-day reporting.
When Microsoft retired Power BI Premium P SKU capacities, Colonnade Insurance needed to move a mission-critical analytics estate to Microsoft Fabric. The platform supported essential reporting processes and more than 400 workspaces. The brief was unambiguous: complete the migration without interrupting users, while improving cost predictability and control over resource consumption — and laying a foundation for analytics, monitoring, and Data & AI.
Challenge: Secure Migration to Microsoft Fabric
The primary objective was to migrate Colonnade Insurance’s analytics environment from Power BI Premium to Microsoft Fabric following the retirement of P SKU capacities. Scale and operational importance defined the risk. Reports and data refreshes had to remain fully available throughout the change, so that day-to-day operations continued without disruption.
At the same time, the transition was intended to improve cost predictability and provide greater control over resource consumption. That combination — continuity for the business, and a more controllable platform for the future — is what made this a transformation project rather than a like-for-like platform swap.
A Fabric migration at this scale succeeds only if reporting stays available, permissions stay intact, and the new capacity can be governed as the estate grows. Technical cutover is not enough; the operating model has to move with it.
Proactive Monitoring and Alerting
The engagement also covered Azure SQL Database and SQL Server databases running on virtual machines — the layer that supported applications, portals, and reporting processes. Full observability of the data layer was required: identifying performance issues and detecting resource saturation before they affected infrastructure, business applications, or end users.
The optimized monitoring solution was complemented by proactive alerting, designed around faster identification of potential failures. The intent was to move from reacting after an incident to spotting the conditions that precede one.
Proactive alerting only works when it is grounded in the signals that actually matter: CPU, memory, IOPS, disk throughput, availability, failover, and overnight data-loading — not a generic dashboard disconnected from how the business runs.
How the Project Was Delivered
The objective was to modernize Colonnade Insurance’s data and analytics platform through a migration to Microsoft Fabric Capacity. Delivery was supported by APN Promise’s experience in analytics platform migrations and Microsoft’s Azure Innovate program.
Analytics environment assessment and pilot migration
The first phase focused on evaluating the compatibility of the existing Power BI environment with Microsoft Fabric and preparing the target Fabric F64 capacity. Migration was preceded by a comprehensive audit of all workspaces, including workspace identifiers, ownership, capacity assignments, and dependencies. APN Promise then prepared and configured the target environment.
The pilot involved migrating a group of 10 Power BI workspaces — including reports, data refreshes, and permissions — to validate the migration approach and ensure operational readiness before the estate moved at full scale.
Full migration and solution validation
A key milestone was the migration of over 400 workspaces to Microsoft Fabric. To accelerate and automate the technical migration, APN Promise leveraged Fabric Notebooks, Semantic Link, Apache Spark, and PySpark. Following migration, comprehensive validation verified report functionality, data refresh operations, and user permissions in the new environment.
The Colonnade Insurance team also received post-implementation support and strategic recommendations for the ongoing development of the analytics platform — so the new capacity could be operated, not only occupied.
Assessment of future analytics platform scenarios
In the next stage, APN Promise analyzed potential development paths for Colonnade’s analytics environment across Power BI Embedded, Microsoft Fabric, and monitoring capabilities. The assessment compared functionality, costs, and limitations between Power BI Embedded and Microsoft Fabric, and evaluated Row-Level Security mechanisms, report response and rendering time, and user session observability. Additional recommendations covered Application Insights, Azure Monitor, Log Analytics, and the Power BI Metrics App.
For SQL database monitoring, APN Promise assessed needs for CPU utilization, memory consumption, IOPS, disk throughput, availability, failover processes, and overnight data-loading activities. The objective was a proactive alerting approach capable of identifying issues before they affected infrastructure resources, business applications, or end users.
Recommendations included Azure Monitor, VM Insights, Data Collection Rules, Diagnostic Settings, Log Analytics Workspace, and Kusto Query Language (KQL)-based monitoring — the foundation for alerts, dashboards, and end-to-end observability across the environment.
Results of the Microsoft Fabric Migration
The migration to Microsoft Fabric enabled Colonnade to build a modern analytics environment with greater scalability, improved control over resource utilization, and readiness for future data-driven initiatives. This was a transformational project rather than merely a technical platform change.
| Benefit | What changed |
|---|---|
| Scalable architecture | Deliberate scaling of the platform as users and business processes grow |
| Proactive monitoring | Greater stability and better cost control |
| SQL observability | Shift from reactive incident response to proactive detection affecting resources and applications |
| Platform readiness | Foundation for further Microsoft Fabric adoption and advanced analytics |
- The new architecture enables deliberate scaling of the platform in line with the growth in the number of users and business processes.
- Proactive monitoring provides greater stability and better cost control.
- A shift from reactive incident response to proactive detection of issues affecting resources and applications, enabled by the optimization of SQL Server and Azure SQL Database monitoring.
- Creation of a foundation for further adoption of Microsoft Fabric as a platform for advanced analytics scenarios.
Colonnade Insurance on Its Cooperation with APN Promise
The greatest value of our cooperation with APN Promise was the combination of a strong understanding of our environment and a secure, well-structured approach to the migration. The project was completed without disruption to users or key reporting processes, while at the same time we received practical recommendations that help us further develop our data platform, better control costs, and respond more quickly to potential performance issues.
Dariusz Durka, Application Manager, Colonnade Insurance
About Colonnade Insurance S.A.
Colonnade Insurance S.A. is an international insurance company specializing in property and casualty as well as personal insurance, operating across Central and Eastern Europe. The company is part of the Fairfax Financial Holdings group and was established to develop insurance operations in the region.
The company operates in Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, and Slovakia, among other countries, and employs more than 500 specialists. Colonnade offers a broad range of insurance products, combining local market expertise with international experience and specialist knowledge.
If your organization is retiring Power BI Premium P SKUs or needs a secure, well-structured path to Microsoft Fabric — with monitoring that finds issues before they reach users — talk to APN Promise about assessment, migration, and proactive alerting.
Contact APN Promise →