Which component in Microsoft Fabric is used to trigger downstream processes in response to events?

• A. Activator
• B. Pipelines
• C. Notebooks
• D. Real-Time Intelligence

Answer: (A)

When you want something to start automatically because something happened, you’re dealing with event-driven orchestration. Activator is the component in Fabric that does exactly that: it listens for events and triggers downstream work in response, such as starting pipelines or other processes when data arrives, a status changes, or a message is received. This makes workflows reactive and loosely coupled, so upstream events drive the next steps without manual intervention.

Pipelines, while they orchestrate sequences of steps, aren’t primarily the event trigger—they’re the workflows that do the work once triggered. Notebooks are for interactive analysis and ad-hoc computation, not for automating production triggers. Real-Time Intelligence focuses on streaming insights and analytics, not on initiating downstream processes in response to events.