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Justin's Digital Garden

Microsoft Power Platform Architecture

Source: My notes from Microsoft session led by Sravani Seethi on 2023-02-23

Agenda

Section titled “Agenda”
  • Power Platform pillars and solutions
  • Design:
    • Selection of applications, automation, data storage
    • Applications classification

Pillars and Solutions

Section titled “Pillars and Solutions”
  • Pillars: Power Pages, Power Apps, Power Automate, Power BI, Power Virtual Agents
  • Tools: Connectors, Dataverse, Power Fx, AI Builder
  • Pro developers can also use all Azure and data services

Solutions

Section titled “Solutions”

  • Packages all Power Platform pieces into one place, packaged as a unit

  • Types:

    • Managed
      • Solution is locked, cannot be edited
      • Used for deployments
    • Unmanaged
      • Open folder so more things can be added like flows, Power Platform assets

  • Solutions help with migration, collaboration, consistency

  • Lifecycle: Make changes, export, install, patch, roll up patches and start changes again

Designing

Section titled “Designing”

Application Selection

Section titled “Application Selection”

Canvas vs Model-driven Apps

Section titled “Canvas vs Model-driven Apps”
  • Canvas:
    • For user experience
    • Visually appealing
    • Mobile and table apps
    • Can use all connectors
    • Limited capabilities are included in Office 365 licenses
    • Security and access is managed on data source
    • Can use entities in Dataverse
  • Canvas pros and cons
    • Good for business and pro developers
    • Personal to enterprise use
    • Data source flexibility
    • Custom UX
    • Gaps and alternatives:
      • Reporting - use PowerBI
      • Performance - use multiple canvas/model apps
      • Time to build - use reusable components, containers, generate apps from images/figma file/API
      • Delegation - use with data model design
      • Limited UX controls, though purposely limited for accessibility - use custom Power Apps Custom Framework (PCF) with Typescript
      • External non-guest users - use with Power Pages
  • Model-driven:
    • Start with Dataverse database
    • App building using set components
    • Web and mobile apps
    • Tied to Dataverse tables
    • No capabilities within Office 365 licenses
    • Security is role based and row level security to data
    • Can use business process flows, code add-ins. real time work flows
  • Model-drive pros and cons
    • Business and pro developers
    • Out of box controls, rules and processes
    • Data ETL tools
    • Built in Excel and Word generation
    • Hybrid canvas/model
    • Needs Dataverse
    • Gaps and alternatives
      • Large data volumes - virtual entities
      • Limited UI modification - custom controls, canvas app, JS, PCF
      • Limited to Dataverse - use canvas app
      • External non-guest users - Power Pages

Selection Guide

Section titled “Selection Guide”
  • Non-dataverse, use canvas app
  • Complex data, use model driven
  • Minimal licensing, use canvas app

Power Virtual Agents

Section titled “Power Virtual Agents”
  • Low code
    • SaaS hosted low/no-code
    • Using Azure bot service
    • Voice channels
  • Pro code
    • Open source framework
    • Build bots from code
    • Composer offers visual authoring

Automation Selection

Section titled “Automation Selection”

Power automate and custom connectors

Section titled “Power automate and custom connectors”
  • Flows
    • Like automations, work flows, validations
    • Alternatives to meet gaps:
      • Logic Apps
      • Dataflows
  • Custom connectors
    • For pro developers
    • Reuse API, use APIs
    • Alternatives to meet gaps:
      • Azure API, functions

Power Automate Flows

Section titled “Power Automate Flows”

Use different triggers

  • Cloud flows:
    • Uses different triggers
    • Automated, instant, scheduled
    • Use case: process automation and batch processing
  • Desktop
    • Use case: UI and desktop automation
  • Business process flow (BPF)
    • Use case: Business process automation
    • Works with Dataverse
  • Can be limited by licensing for calls. Consider logic apps for high volume of calls

Data Selection

Section titled “Data Selection”

Data Flows

Section titled “Data Flows”
  • ETL tool to extract data, tranform data, and load to destination like Dataverse
  • Use DAX language

Scalable Data

Section titled “Scalable Data”

Evaluate security, capacity, complexity to choose data sources. Common ones are:

  • SharePoint
  • Dataverse
  • On premise data
  • Cloud storage

  1. Sample Use Cases

    • Simple team app: SharePoint or Dataverse with canvas app
    • Small organization app: Dataverse or SharePoint with smaller data with canvas or model app
    • Complex business application: Dataverse, SQL with canvas/model app
    • Enterprise, large applications: SQL with canvas/model app

Power Apps Delegation for Data

Section titled “Power Apps Delegation for Data”
  • Power Apps will delegate data processing to the data source rather than doing processing locally
  • Power Apps is limited to 500-2000+ records to local device / browser

Solution Complexity Drivers

Section titled “Solution Complexity Drivers”

Drivers:

  • Number of:
    • Users and stakeholders
    • Customizations
    • Business rules
  • Organization(s)
  • Requirements maturity
  • Data volume
  • Testing needs
  • Deployment
  • Support model (app owner to large technical team)
  • Delivery model like citizen developer, pro developer, to team development
  • Development cycle
  • Time allowed for MVP
  • Change frequency
  • Return on investment / “payback”
  • Suitability to Power Apps use cases
  • App criticality to business based on above drivers