The answer to life, the universe and everything else is 42 (check out The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy if you want to know where this comes from), so when a customer asks a question about Dynamics 365 and Power Platform licensing, I would also like to just be able to answer 42.
Having worked with Microsoft products for over 20 years now, the single constant seems to be that Microsoft licensing is in a continuous state of flux. This is especially true for cloud platforms so make sure that you involve the necessary experts to help you in making the correct decisions and keep you up to date.
In this blog post I am trying to shed some light on some interesting licensing updates for Microsoft Dynamics 365 and the Power Platform. I will also provide some links to excellent posts/videos from other community members - this is by no means an exhaustive list.
Power Platform and Dynamics 365 request limits and allocations
I recently wrote a blog post about the Update to Power Platform and Dynamics 365 request limits and allocations . Microsoft has finally released a preview of the Power Platform requests reporting in May 2022.
As noted in the official docs - What are the timelines for Power Platform Request limits? - enforcement of these limits will be activated at least 6 months after reports have been made GA. In my opinion, things like requests limits and allocations are quite hard for customers to understand and also difficult to design for.
Pay as you go licensing for Power Platform
In March 2022, pay-as-you-go licensing for Power Platform reached general availability. With apay-as-you-go plan, customers can use an Azure subscription to pay for Power Apps based on active usage of the apps instead of purchasing and allocating licenses in advance. If you compare the unit pricing you will see that for similar workloads - the pay-as-you-go licensing price per unit is higher. So this will make an interesting balancing act for customers.
Scenarios combining Microsoft Teams and Dynamics 365
Don't get me wrong; I am really excited about the integration scenarios between Microsoft Teams and Dynamics 365 but announcements like Bring Dynamics 365 into the flow of work with Teams - at no additional cost generate a lot of excitement with customers but once you try to implement it you will notice that users do need a Dynamics 365 team member license. Be cautious and take big announcements with a grain of salt and always validate them yourself. When a user has a valid Dynamics 365 license, you are now able to view and edit Dynamics 365 records inside Microsoft Teams.
Integration scenarios with Microsoft Teams are a great feature but the obscurity of Microsoft licensing around this, makes the discussion for consultants harder than needed.
References:
- Power Platform licensing revisited
- Power Platform licensing, November 2021 updates
- PowerApps Pay As You Go licensing model - compare and configure (Youtube) from @ShaneYoung
- Is Dynamics 365 data now "free" in Microsoft Teams by @Jukkan
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