LSEG unifies 30 data systems, reducing product development time with Fabric

Global finance depends on accurate, trusted data. LSEG, partner to top financial institutions, wanted to simplify its complex, fragmented data landscape to deliver a consistent, unified experience and reduce the time to create new data products.

Using Microsoft Fabric, LSEG is building a unified data platform, consolidating 30 systems, 1,200 datasets, and 33 petabytes of data to accelerate product development, improve data quality, and enable AI readiness.

LSEG reduced product development timelines from years to months, delivering faster, cleaner data to empower customers—from global firms to individual traders—to optimize the financial future of their organizations and the world.

The challenge of powering global finance with trusted data

For centuries, LSEG has been a cornerstone of global finance. LSEG’s heritage is built on powering the world’s financial decisions with data that is timely, accurate, and most importantly, trusted. Its solutions are deeply embedded in the global financial ecosystem, helping customers make informed decisions.

This reputation for excellence has made LSEG a trusted partner to the world’s largest financial institutions, with 44,000 customers in more than 170 countries, underpinning the global economy with disciplined innovation and resilience.

“The world’s economy depends on our data being available and people having confidence in our data,” says Dave Byrne, Group Head of Data Platforms at LSEG. Customers, ranging from hedge funds to investment banks, use LSEG’s data services for an array of functions that include risk modeling, regulatory compliance, and investment decisions.

“Partnering with Microsoft gives us confidence in long-term innovation and investment. This strategic collaboration goes beyond a vendor relationship, enabling co-innovation and shared learning.”

Dave Byrne, Group Head, Data Platforms, LSEG

But behind the scenes, LSEG was dealing with petabytes of data across 30 systems and 1,200 datasets, across a variety of longstanding systems—each product having its own tech stack, distribution method, and data model. LSEG wanted to offer a more unified customer experience that ensured a consistent level of capabilities across its breadth of product offerings. Given the impact that LSEG’s data had on its customers’ decision-making, the company understood its undertaking went beyond customer satisfaction. “If our products aren’t stable and resilient, it is an economy-wide issue,” says Byrne.

LSEG knew it needed a new foundation—one that could unify its data, scale to meet demand, and support innovation.

A strategic shift to unified data architecture

LSEG partnered with Microsoft to co-engineer a strategic, unified data platform built on Microsoft Fabric, a lakehouse architecture that could ingest, transform, and distribute data across clouds and formats. The goal: to modernize LSEG’s data infrastructure and accelerate time to market.

By uniting its legacy and reputation with the cutting-edge technology of Fabric, LSEG honors its tradition of delivering data excellence that empowers customers to execute with confidence in a rapidly evolving financial landscape.

“We’re reshaping our business around technology,” says Srimanth Rudraraju, Group Director of Engineering, Data Platforms at LSEG. “Microsoft Fabric gives us a self-contained ecosystem that interoperates with Snowflake, Databricks, SQL Server. There’s no duplication of data, no multiple copies. Data lineage becomes better, data trust becomes better, and data quality becomes better.”

The open table format of Fabric and seamless interoperability with OneLake allowed LSEG to consolidate its data into a single, governed environment. With Apache Spark on Fabric, Apache Airflow in Fabric, and Microsoft Purview, the team built scalable pipelines and embedded data quality checks directly into the development life cycle.

Introducing Fabric did more than shift the technical approach of LSEG’s employees. It also broadened their awareness of the platform’s capabilities for the future. Team members who had been unaware of Fabric began to see its potential. “Changing perceptions has been my biggest win,” Rudraraju adds. “Users are excited about the new technology and innovation.”

“Fabric gives us a self-contained ecosystem that interoperates with Snowflake, Databricks, SQL Server. There’s no duplication of data, no multiple copies. Data lineage becomes better, data trust becomes better, and data quality becomes better.”

Srimanth Rudraraju, Group Director, Engineering, Data Platforms, LSEG

Delivering faster, cleaner data—and a competitive edge

“Our main concern was really understanding how best to scale development of data products for customers,” says Phil Cheetham, Group Head of Data Content at LSEG. “We quickly came to the realization that by building long-term capabilities, we could federate out building the products to the teams themselves.”

LSEG accelerated launching its ESG and Fundamentals data products on Fabric, cutting development timelines dramatically. Today, onboarding data and creating a new product happens in months.

The scale is impressive: LSEG uses Spark on Fabric to process around 80,000 files daily, consuming approximately 280,000 capacity units per day. Usage is growing rapidly, with month-on-month consumption increasing by more than 50%, signaling the start of a transformative journey.

With faster ingestion, improved lineage, and centralized governance, the company is delivering cleaner, more reliable data—virtually without friction. In a world where financial decisions hinge on milliseconds, LSEG uses Fabric to meet evolving market demands with confidence. Spark on Fabric and OneLake are at the heart of LSEG’s platform, scaling to help ensure that no matter what financial events happen, LSEG’s customers are able to get the data they need.

LSEG is taking advantage of the Autoscale Billing model, a feature of Spark on Fabric, eliminating the need for always-on capacity. LSEG now uses a true pay-as-you-go model, where Spark compute dynamically flexes to meet demand. This agility not only optimizes cost but also helps ensure performance for unpredictable workloads, giving LSEG the freedom to innovate without worrying about capacity constraints. In short: maximum elasticity, zero idle cost, and full control over spend.

Building AI-readiness

LSEG is adopting AI to reimagine how financial services professionals work. By hosting Model Context Protocol (MCP)-powered data in OneLake and harnessing Fabric, LSEG has built an AI-ready foundation designed for speed, scale, and intelligence. This interoperation powers agentic workflows through Copilot Studio, enabling financial professionals to create and deploy custom AI agents directly into Microsoft 365 experiences. With 33 petabytes of trusted financial content and taxonomies readily available, LSEG and Microsoft are shaping the future of financial services—highly secure, governed, and built for what’s next.

“With Fabric, we're able to unleash the depth of data we have within LSEG and produce new products and services for customers with unwavering quality.”

Phil Cheetham, Group Head, Data Content, LSEG

This transformation supports LSEG’s strategic goal of enhancing access to trusted data and analytic models, integrating insights directly into the tools that financial professionals use every day.

“Partnering with Microsoft gives us confidence in long-term innovation and investment. This strategic collaboration goes beyond a vendor relationship, enabling co-innovation and shared learning,” says Byrne. As an early adopter of Fabric, LSEG has influenced product development and delivered improvements like optimized Spark workloads—shaping the future, not just embracing it.

“With Fabric, we’re able to unleash the depth of data we have within LSEG and produce new products and services for customers with unwavering quality,” concludes Cheetham.

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