Microsoft Power Platform Enterprise Architecture

A guide for architects and decision makers to craft complex solutions tailored to meet business needs

Robert Rybaric

• Publisher: Packt Publishing
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9781800206854
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Informatica
• Subtopic: Sviluppo software

Publisher's Note: This edition from 2020 is outdated and is not compatible with the new standards of Microsoft Power Platform. A new Second edition has been published to cover the latest patterns, models, and methodologies leveraging the Microsoft ecosystem to create tailor-made enterprise applications. It combines the powers of Power Apps, Power BI, Azure, and Dynamics 365 to create enterprise applications.

Who this book is for

This book is for enterprise architects and technical decision makers who want to craft complex solutions using Microsoft Power Platform to serve growing business needs and to stay competitive in the modern IT world. A basic understanding of Microsoft Power Platform will help you to get started with this book.

Section 1: The Basics

This section will familiarize you with the basics of Microsoft Power Platform. After completing this part, you will have a full understanding of the structure and purpose of the Microsoft Power Platform and the Microsoft Dynamics 365 ecosystem, as well as the two other Microsoft clouds – Microsoft 365 and Microsoft Azure, – since a typical enterprise Power Platform solution is often successfully combined with the strengths and capabilities of the other two Microsoft clouds.

This section comprises the following chapters:

Chapter 1, Microsoft Power Platform and Microsoft Dynamics 365 Overview

Chapter 2, Microsoft 365 and Microsoft Azure Overview

Chapter 1: Microsoft Power Platform and Microsoft Dynamics 365 Overview

Microsoft Power Platform is a quickly growing collection of technologies, frameworks, solutions, and products. In this chapter, you will learn the structure and modules of the Microsoft Power Platform to make qualified decisions about the components necessary for your business solution. This will give you a full understanding of all components of the Power Platform and will enable you to draw a high-level overview of all the components you will need to fulfill your business requirements.

In this chapter, we're going to cover the following main topics:

• Introducing Contoso Inc.
• Microsoft Power Platform
• Microsoft Dynamics 365 CRM applications
• Microsoft Dynamics 365 ERP applications
• Microsoft Dynamics 365 AI, AR, and other modules
• Microsoft Power Platform licensing overview
• Practical example

Introducing Contoso Inc.

Contoso Inc. is a fictitious large global manufacturing and retail company with headquarters in Seattle, Washington, and a number of regional subsidiaries on all continents. Contoso Inc. works in the areas of manufacturing and implementing large machines and factories as well as producing consumer electronic goods. Furthermore, Contoso Inc. operates a chain of retail stores around the globe together with an e-commerce sales channel.

This fictitious company will serve as an example Power Platform customer to present the practical implementation of the concepts presented in this book. In this chapter, Contoso Inc. will familiarize themselves with the Power Platform and Dynamics 365 to decide what components will suit their business requirements.

Introducing Microsoft Power Platform

In this section, you will learn the structure of the Microsoft Power Platform to understand the background technology on which Power Apps as well as all Microsoft Dynamics 365 applications run.

Microsoft made a big mind shift when it introduced the Power Platform. For seasoned Microsoft Dynamics CRM and, later, Dynamics 365 CE experts, the Dynamics product is no longer the centerpiece of this product line but rather a first-party app running on the Power Platform. The change can be illustrated in the following diagrams. The first diagram shows the Microsoft Dynamics 365 high-level architecture before the Power Platform was introduced (not all applications are included for brevity):

Figure 1.1 - Microsoft Dynamics 365 before the Power Platform

The second diagram presents the dramatic increase in complexity and the number of various new products and technologies that are part of the Power Platform today, as documented in this diagram (not all applications are included for brevity):

Figure 1.2 - Microsoft Power Platform

Microsoft Power Platform consists of the following components:

• Common Data Service
• Model-driven apps
• Canvas apps
• Power Automate
• Power Virtual Agents
• Power BI
• On-Premises Data Gateway
• AI Builder
• Power Apps portals
• Dynamics 365 Customer Voice

This new Microsoft Power Platform philosophy suggests that a potential user of a Microsoft-based business solution will need more evaluations and decision making to find the best solution for their business requirements. Some of the examples are as follows:

• Will my workload be better covered by some of the Microsoft Dynamics 365 applications, or should I develop my own Power Apps application?
• Do I need mobile applications at all and if so, can I use the standard Microsoft Dynamics 365 app for mobile, or do I need to develop my own apps using the canvas apps technology?
• Do I need to integrate my business application using any costly legacy integration platform or another Microsoft/third-party integration solution or can I use Microsoft Power Automate?
• Can I use some of the more than 350 public connectors for canvas apps and Power Automate or do I need to develop my own custom connector?
• What are the most effective licensing options to cover my business requirements?

In the following sections and chapters, you will learn what Common Data Service is and what the new role of Microsoft Dynamics 365 apps is in the Power Platform. We will also explore how you can build mobile apps for an internal audience easily and with no code as well as looking at cross-platform automations and what the licensing options are for the various Power Platform components.

Introducing the Common Data Model and Common Data Service

Power Platform introduced the Common Data Model (CDM) and Common Data Service (CDS) and it is important to understand what these two concepts are and what the difference between them is.

Introducing Common Data Model

The CDM is a standardized data model consisting of a metadata system and data schemas. The CDM was developed with the goal of providing a common platform facilitating data integration and application development. It was also presented by Microsoft together with Adobe and SAP as part of the Open Data Initiative (ODI). The expectation is that the ODI will welcome more partners and that all contributing parties will work on extending and further standardizing the CDM.

The CDM consists of a relatively small set of core entities (equivalent to tables in relational databases), which are not directly related to any particular workload, together with a lot of additional entities grouped into typical workloads such as sales, service, and healthcare. An additional CDM extensibility option is the growing set of Microsoft industry accelerators. Currently, there are accelerators for banking, healthcare, education, non-profit, automotive, and media.

Introducing Common Data Service

The CDS can be understood as an implementation of the CDM for the purpose of hosting data for Power Platform applications. But the CDS is much more than just a database. It consists of the following main components:

• Entities with the underlying structure of fields
• Relationships between entities
• User interface elements used in model-...