Manage Tables: Freedom and Cost Savings for Administrators 

One of the top asks from our customers has been the ability to select only the tables you need when linking Dataverse and Fabric. Previously, admins had to bring in entire datasets, including unnecessary tables, which drove up storage costs and added complexity. 

With Manage Tables in public preview, administrators now have complete control to include only the required tables—whether from Finance and Operations (FnO) or Dataverse. This drastically reduces storage costs and optimizes performance. 

Confirmation notice:

Currently, this feature is available for existing links, and starting next month, it will also be available during first-time link creation. This solves one of the biggest pain points—giving admins freedom and cost efficiency. 

How to access: Navigate to Synapse Link → Select link → Manage tables in the top ribbon. Workspace Identity (WSI) and Service Principal (SPN): Secure, Credential-Free Connections 

Workspace Identity (WSI) and Service Principal (SPN): Secure, Credential-Free Connections 

We have been eliminating the reliance on user-based credentials for integration. We’re excited to announce support for Workspace Identity (WSI) and Service Principal (SPN) authentication in public preview. 

• Workspace Identity allows admins to use a password-less managed identity for a workspace, reducing overhead and improving security. This is available not only for new setups but also for existing connections, which can be updated to use WSI. 
• Service Principal offers flexibility for organizations that prefer to use their own identity management approach. Simply select “Service Principal” during connection setup. 

These enhancements significantly reduce credential management complexity and strengthen compliance. 

Fast Fabric Rollout: Near Real-Time Sync for Power BI 

Data analysts have consistently asked for near real-time sync between FnO operational data and Fabric for timely Power BI reporting. We’re thrilled to announce Fast Fabric in public preview, now enabled in selected regions. We’re currently rolling out to all regions, and it’ll be completed by November 2025. 

Previously, syncing data could take one to two hours. With Fast Fabric, sync times are reduced to under 15 minutes for most observed cases, enabling near real-time reporting and analytics. This is a game-changer for organizations that rely on timely insights for decision-making. 

To take advantage of Fast Fabric today, unlink and create a new link. We’re also working on an auto-upgrade for all customers, with an ETA of Q1 CY26. 

Get Stated Today

Whether you’re a data professional, a low-code maker, or just curious about what’s possible—there’s never been a better time to explore real-time intelligence with Dataverse and Fabric. 

• Manage Tables for first-time link creation coming next month. 
• Fast Fabric rolling out globally soon. 
• Auto-upgrade to Fast Fabric planned for Q1 CY26. 

Learn more: 

• Read Docs about Link to Fabric
• Learn more about Dataverse
• Join the community forum and connect with experts at aka.ms/FabricLinkforDynamics 

Try Dataverse + Fabric today:  

• Create a developer environment with a free Dataverse. 
• Start a free Fabric trial today 

The post Announcing Major Updates to Dataverse + Fabric Integration  appeared first on Microsoft Power Platform Blog.

While Microsoft’s Power Platform enables individuals in the organization to develop apps for their team’s business needs without relying on central dev teams, a new set of challenges arise around the accessibility and reusability of data and apps across the organization. The lack of a central location for teams to co-develop and work from shared data led the Business Application Group (BAG) team at Microsoft to realize an immediate need to democratize app development within its own initiatives.

Enabling digital transformation through a centralized data hub

Leveraging the very platform that the Business Application Group uses to build and deliver applications to market, the group tapped into the robust capabilities of Power Platform to solve its own internal business problem and enable its goal of digital transformation. The BAG Ops team developed a centralized data hub that enables individual teams to build multiple applications—each with its own development cycles and roadmaps—while leveraging the same key data elements through a shared data model. With Microsoft Dataverse, the hub enables faster development and digital transformation for the BAG both internally and for customers through a continuous, 360-degree flow that supports successful app development—from empowering people to achieve more, to gathering feedback, and then implementing optimizations and product enhancements. From there the cycle continues.

Drawing on the capabilities of Power Platform, the hub provides dev teams with numerous advantages:
1. Shared apps and data: With data stored in a single Microsoft Dataverse instance, many apps can draw from the same data without redundancy (e.g., tables like account, contacts, product, etc. that are widely used across multiple apps). Leverage out-of-the-box common tables, extended attributes, and an open ecosystem enabled by the common data model.
2. Integration with other data sources: For apps that do need data from other systems (like sales data, support data, etc.), integrations are already enabled within the hub and available for any app.
3. Governance for co-development: Governance model enables multiple teams to co-develop at scale on a single platform while ensuring that changes don’t disturb or affect other apps.
4. Application Lifecycle Management (ALM): Easily manage dev environments, deployments, and more to get teams started quickly. Repeatably build, validate, and deploy apps using GitHub and Azure DevOps.
5. Compliance and security: The hub automatically takes care of the compliance, security, and privacy reviews on a regular basis, while leveraging advanced encryption, access control, and deep integration with Azure Active Directory.
6. Support and maintenance: App teams can leverage designated support and live site teams.

Driving impact and app development success

By democratizing app development, the hub enables teams to access the same backend data source and infrastructure to build additional applications while accelerating time to value. Data is centralized and readily accessible using a common framework that streamlines the entire app development process and allows for easy replication and reuse of existing app data. To date, there are 40+ business applications developed by dozens of teams running on the Power Platform-based hub—including high-yield, critical applications for release planning and customer implementations as mentioned below:

• Release planning: Dynamics 365 and Power Platform deliver two major updates annually, and continuous updates are delivered throughout the year providing security, reliability, and performance improvements. The BAG team delivers the early visibility of their releases through a public roadmap, a release calendar, and release plans. This is managed by an app to efficiently coordinate hundreds of their own product features. Right from collecting manual input from hundreds of product managers to developing one Power Apps solution to manage release plans.
• Implementations: At any given time, solution architects in the Microsoft FastTrack team are working concurrently on implementing thousands of projects. The FastTrack team helps their customers deploy Microsoft cloud solutions. They constantly onboard new customers, set project parameters, and check in with their clients at regular intervals to offer support and assess project implementation health.

The unique capabilities of Power Platform enable BAG Ops to achieve balance between agility and governance while achieving its goal of digital transformation. The hub is not only helping Microsoft’s internal development teams, but customers and partners to be even more successful in digitally transforming within their own organizations. With a centralized app development ecosystem, BAG has enabled teams to innovate on Power Platform faster and more freely.

Learn more
Explore more about the Power Platform here.
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The post Democratizing application development inside Microsoft with the Power Platform appeared first on Microsoft Power Platform Blog.

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected higher education institutions in substantial ways. Many were not prepared to move operations, courses, and research remotely. Key research projects were impacted or stalled, as faculty and student access to on-campus laboratories and facilities were restricted due to lockdowns or closures for public health. Tracking how the pandemic closures have impacted those research projects became critical for universities, as well as for Federal agencies and sponsors, to report.

Today we’re pleased to offer higher education institutions a new solution that helps them track the impact of any crises and give visibility of the impact at the project level.

One such academic institution was Purdue University. To address this problem Carrie Berger, Associate Dean for Research at Purdue University, approached Microsoft and asked, “What would be the right solution to solve this issue?”

The Microsoft Power Platform empowers everyone to develop applications and solution templates to quickly meet their goals. The Power Platform and education teams partnered with Purdue University to create a Power Platform solution template for tracking the financial impact related to COVID-19 that could also be used to track the impact of any crises or disruption, and we’re making this solution available to other institutions.

The Power Apps solution is designed to collect data pertaining to sponsored research programs or projects. More specifically, this app enables researchers and faculty members to submit the projected lost effort and loss reason by grant, by employee, and by pay period as shown below. Many academic research departments do not currently have visibility to this project-level detail.

This solution is deployed at Purdue university and is being used by over 1,100 faculty members to report, calculate, and analyze the impact of the disruption on their research projects and funding.

“We would like to understand the impact of COVID-19 on our sponsored programs, and this tool allows us to do that without enormous effort. This type of data was previously only available by developing models and forecasting the impact. The tool allows for a quantitative assessment prepared by those most affected.” – Ken Sandel, Senior Director of sponsored programs at Purdue 

Purdue University published a press release on how the app has helped them in quantifying the financial impact of COVID-19 on research programs.

With the rich Microsoft Power BI templatized dashboard, head of departments and other senior faculty members can track the productivity loss happening across various departments and type of programs and grants.

                            
Get the full instructions to implement the Higher Education Crisis Financial Impact Tracker app for your institution.
Watch the Higher Education Crisis Financial Impact Tracker solution video
The solution: This free Power Apps solution uses the Common Data Service (CDS), which empowers you to securely store, integrate, and automate the data for use with other business applications. For example, you can use the supplemental Power BI template provided here, to connect to the Common Data Service and produce interactive reports.

This solution is a sample and may be used with Microsoft Power Platform for dissemination of reference information only. This app is not intended or made available for use as a medical device, clinical support, diagnostic tool, or other technology intended to be used in the diagnosis, cure, mitigation, treatment, or prevention of disease or other conditions, and no license or right is granted by Microsoft to use this app for such purposes. This app is not designed or intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, treatment, or judgement and should not be used as such. Customer bears the sole risk and responsibility for any use of this app. Microsoft does not warrant that the app or any materials provided in connection therewith will be sufficient for any medical purposes or meet the health or medical requirements of any person.

The post Tracking financial impact for higher education – A Power Platform template appeared first on Microsoft Power Platform Blog.

How do I retain my apps, flows and data in the Trial environment near expiration?

We are working on providing the ability to upgrade a Trial environment to a Production environment, so you can continue using your apps, flows, resources, and database in the environment.

Until this upgrade feature is available, if you have received a notification that your Trial environment will be deleted in the next 7 days, and you have important resources and data in the environment to be retained, you must export them to another environment. If you want to retain them for a longer time, we recommend you create a Production or an individual environment (with PowerApps Community Plan) and export the resources to it. More details on this are mentioned below.

Review the following export guidance.

To begin with, we will be deleting Trial environments which haven’t had any activity in the environment databases for 30 days.

How can I create a Production or an individual environment?

You need to have specific PowerApps plans to be able to create a Production environment. Refer here for more details.

You can create an individual environment by signing up for the PowerApps Community Plan. Please note that there are restrictions on sharing of the apps in the individual environment and these environments are meant for personal use only.

If you have any questions, please contact us on the forum.

Thanks,

Business Application Platform Team.

The post Retain your resources and data in Trial environments appeared first on Microsoft Power Platform Blog.

With the initial launch, every CDS database provisioned there was a CDS Management package installed, as displayed below in a screen shot from Dynamics 365 admin center.

The key purpose of this package was to add specific role (Environment Maker role) and user account (Business Application Platform Service account) which were needed to make the expereince seamless across PowerApps and Dynamics 365.

With our latest efforts, on the unification across Dynamics 365 and PowerApps, these roles and permissions come inbuilt by default. Now, there is no need to install the CDS Management package, improving the performance and reliability of the CDS database provisioning. This is how the integration works without needing the package.

1.       Environment Maker role: This was a new role introduced at the time of our CDS for Apps launch, back in Mar’18. Any user needing the capability of creating canvas-based apps and flows in the environment needs to have Environment Maker role assigned to them. The role is displayed in Dynamics 365 admin center for the environments which have a database:

Now, this role is available by default in all the CDS database instances (even without installing the CDS Management Package).

2.       Business Application Platform Service account: This was a system user which operates on behalf of the user to perform the specific operations on CDS.

With the latest updates, there is no more need of this user account hence, we have got rid of this user being added to the environment (with CDS database instance). 

Keep a watch on more updates coming in CDS database provisioning…

Thanks

CDS for Apps team.

The post Continued platform unification across PowerApps and Dynamics 365 – Look behind the scenes! appeared first on Microsoft Power Platform Blog.

·       Provision a database in an environment not in your tenant’s AAD home location

With PowerApps, you can create environments in various regions across the globe, which enable your business in these ways:

·       Store your data closer to your users.

·       Maintain the compliance requirement of your geography.

With the current release of CDS for Apps,  you can create a database for an environment in one region (for example, United States) even if the AAD tenant is in another region (for example, Canada or Europe). But there are caveats:

·       If an AAD tenant is in India, tax laws prevent you from creating a database for an environment in Australia. Conversely, you can’t create a database for an environment in India if the AAD tenant is in Australia.

·       You can’t provision a database for an environment in the United States First Release region, regardless of where the AAD tenant is.

·       Users in South America can now provision databases

If your AAD tenant is in South America, you can provision a database for an environment in any region except Preview (United States). Our backlog includes work to create a region for South America, but it’s not yet available.

·       Provision a database in an environment for individual use (using Community Plan)

If you sign up for the PowerApps Community Plan, you can provision a database in the individual environment that the plan provides.

Watch out for more updates on CDS for Apps.

Thanks,

CDS for Apps team

The post Updates on provisioning database with Common Data Service for Apps appeared first on Microsoft Power Platform Blog.

PowerApps updates the platform and its capabilities every few days or weeks. PowerApps Preview program is a way to get early access to those upcoming functionalities and updates, prior to, them being available in rest of the regions (where customer’s production apps are deployed).

With this, customers using PowerApps can:

• Try out, learn, and dogfood upcoming functionalities. Many functionalities will be rolled out first in the preview, for few days, to get feedback. By participating in Preview program, users can learn about new functionalities sooner, and as well provide feedback on it. Also, users will be ready to quickly take advantage of new functionalities as soon as they reach regions where their production apps are created.
• Enable business continuity by ensuring their current apps will continue to work with the upcoming updates (vNext) of PowerApps.

What all in PowerApps is available for preview?

To access the preview functionalities across PowerApps, you need to be in context of a preview environment (More details on the preview environment are given in the next section).

Currently we will be rolling out preview for following scenarios across PowerApps.

1.    Creating apps: Customers can create canvas-based apps using the next version of PowerApps. This can be done by creating apps in a preview environment. Current limitations include – Model driven apps can’t be built in preview program and we are working on it. It is in our backlog to support this scenario.

2.     Managing apps: You can manage and share apps using PowerApps web portal. To access the preview functionalities, all you need to do is to be in context of the preview environment, and it should take you to the preview version of PowerApps web portal.

3.     Playing apps: You need to play the apps, in a preview environment, using web player. When you do that, you will be automatically taken to preview version of web player. (Apps will play with the vNext version of PowerApps web player). Current limitations include – PowerApps Mobile for iOS, Android, and Windows are currently not available for preview. If you play the apps created in the First Release environment, then they might not work. It is in our backlog to support this scenario with preview program.

4.     Administrating PowerApps: Admin experiences are available for preview using the preview version of PowerApps admin center

How to get early access to the upcoming updates?

For PowerApps, all the apps and related resources are stored in an environment. So, early access to all the preview functionalities are also available with an environment created in a region where the vNext (preview) bits are deployed. For now, there is only one region which is called Preview (United States), as shown in the image below:

On selecting the region for the environment as Preview (United States) and accepting the consent for joining the Preview Program, you can create the environment to get access to the next version (vNext) of PowerApps.

All the apps and other resources created in this environment are on vNext version of platform (SAAS).

How to learn about the latest updates?

           You can get aware of the new functionalities which are available for preview at What’s new in PowerApps. The functionalities which are just available in the preview have a ‘Preview’ tag.

Key scenarios to test with the preview program

1.       Validate your production apps with the upcoming PowerApps updates (vNext)

You might like to verify your production apps, to be working fine with the next upcoming updates on PowerApps. You can copy the apps from production environment to an environment in First Release and play the apps to test out the scenarios. Please note, all the other necessary resources like CustomAPI, Flow, etc. will also need to be moved along with it. This should just create another copy of these apps and required resources, and you can start testing out the newer updates not just for playing an app, but also while editing and managing the apps.

2.       Trying out the new functionalities available in preview

We will be launching many new functionalities initially in the Preview (United States) region. You can try out the new functionalities prior to it being available in rest of the regions (which might impact your production environment).

How to provide feedback to the product team?

           You can provide feedback on the PowerApps forum and as well open contact support for it.

What are the known issues and limitations?

1.       PowerApps portals and clients which are not available in preview

There are certain functionalities, services and portals which are available in preview:

2.       Accessing apps created in First Release environment from the Desktop Studio in Windows

As mentioned above, desktop studio in Windows is not available in preview. Hence, creating or editing of the apps in the preview environment might not be compatible with your Desktop Studio and shows the following error message.

In such a case, we recommend you use Web Studio to create or edit an app in the preview environment.

3.       Database cannot be created in Preview region.

Currently, you cannot create a database with Common Data Service for Apps in an environment in Preview (United States) region. This is in backlog.

The post Announcing PowerApps Preview Program appeared first on Microsoft Power Platform Blog.

Here is the announcement made for these new functionalities today. To leverage these new functionalities, you need to create a database with the latest version of the Common Data Service.

How do you create a database with the latest version of Common Data Service

1.     Sign in to the PowerApps Admin center. Make sure you have PowerApps Plan 2 or PowerApps Plan 2 trial. In case you don’t have one, sign-up for a PowerApps Plan 2 Trial.

2.     Click on the New environment in the upper right corner, to create a new environment. It will launch a modal dialog, and you can enter the name for the new environment.

3.     Select the region you want to create the environment in. The region defaults to the Azure Active Directory Tenant home region.

4.     Select the Type of the environment –Production or Trial, depending on the purpose you are creating this environment for.

• If you want a permanent environment to develop apps and store data for your organization, then you should create a Production environment. If you have a PowerApps Plan 2 license, you can create up to two Production environments.
• If you are just trying out the Common Data Service, PowerApps, or Microsoft Flow, then you should create a Trial environment. If you have a PowerApps Plan 2 Trial license, you can create up to two Trial environments. Trial environments will expire after 30 days.

5.           Once the environment is created, proceed for creating a Database. Select the currency and language for the data stored in the database and click on Create database.

It might take up to few minutes to provision the database.

Learn more on how to manage an environment in admin center.

How can I manage the security and permissions for this environment and database? In the new update, you can manage the security for your environment and database with enhanced functionalities like Row Level Security, Field Level Security and more. Learn more on how to leverage these functionalites for your environment.

What happens to my current environments and databases? ​If you have an existing environment, then you can land in one of the following situation:

1. No database is yet provisioned in the environment: Creating a database in these environments, will provision a database with the latest version of the Common Data Service and you can very much leverage the new functionalities available with the update.
2. ​Database is already provisioned in the environment:  If you have already provisioned a database (before today), then the new functionalities will not be available in this environment. You need to create a new environment and database to leverage the new functionalities. Your existing database, will continue to work as is. Watch out for an update from us on how to upgrade an existing database to the latest version of Common Data Service.

Leverage other functionalities, which comes with your new database, by reading here.

Thank you,

Business Application Admin Center Team

The post Create a database with the latest version of the Common Data Service appeared first on Microsoft Power Platform Blog.

Admins will be able to do the following:

• Update the app permissions. Add or change the users with whom an app is shared with.
• Delete an existing app, which is not used by any user.
• View the data sources used by an app.
• (Coming soon) Update the owner of the app.

How to manage the app

1.  In the PowerApps admin center, click on Environments near the left edge and select the environment for which you want to view the list of apps:

2.  Select Resources from the horizontal navigation, select Apps and then select the app that you want to view or manage

3.    View and manage the app

You can perform following kinds of operations:

· Delete the app.

· View connection, flows and other details associated with the app.

· View and modify the users with whom the app is shared with.

Watch out for more updates on this functionality on PowerApps blog and let us know if you have any specific ask over here.

The post View and Manage the apps being built by your organization! appeared first on Microsoft Power Platform Blog.

Download the list of apps

1.      In the PowerApps admin center, click on Environments near the left edge and select the environment for which want to view the list of apps:

   

2.      Visit Resources from the horizontal navigation and select Apps. Download the list of apps by clicking the Download the list of apps button as shown below:

   

3.      Wait a few minutes for the .csv file to download, and then open it in Excel.

   

What information is in the .csv file?

In an example of the Apps .csv file:

The first column represents the Environment Name in which you can find these apps, followed by App Id and Display Name of the apps. Number of Connections and Connection References indicates the data connections used in the app.

We are working on adding more details and enhancing this functionality. Let us know if you have any feedback or suggestions, along with your requirements.

The post Get visibility into the apps that your organization is building! appeared first on Microsoft Power Platform Blog.