Introduction

Many organizations need a way for external partners to send files securely into their data platform—without manual effort.

Despite the rise of real-time systems, many business processes still rely on batch file transfers over SFTP. Instead of forcing a different pattern, it’s often better to design something that works with these systems while remaining secure and scalable.

Here’s a simple approach using Microsoft Fabric:

🎯 The goal

• Secure file transfer
• No manual handling
• Ready for downstream processing
• Fits a Medallion Architecture

🏗️ The solution

• Enable SFTP on ADLS Gen2
• Use SSH key authentication
• Expose data in Fabric via a Shortcut

🔄 The flow

• External partner uploads via SFTP
• Files land in ADLS Gen2
• A Shortcut exposes the data in the Bronze layer
• Data is processed through Bronze → Silver → Gold

💡 Why this works

Shortcuts allow Fabric to read the data directly from ADLS without copying it into OneLake.

• Simpler architecture
• No unnecessary duplication
• Clear separation of storage and compute

Simple, secure, and scalable—often that’s all you need.

#MicrosoftFabric #Azure #DataEngineering #Lakehouse #ADLS #SFTP #DataArchitecture

About the author

M, Kumar (09/07/2026) A simple Microsoft Fabric architecture for secure file ingestion. (1) A simple Microsoft Fabric architecture for secure file ingestion | LinkedIn