Microsoft Power Platform
Microsoft Power Platform is a line of business intelligence, app development, and app connectivity software applications. It includes Power BI for data visualization, Power Apps for low-code custom business applications, Power Automate for business workflow automation, Power Automate Desktop for robotic process automation and Power Virtual Agents for creating chatbots. Microsoft developed the Power Fx low-code programming language for expressing logic across the Power Platform. It also provides integrations with GitHub and Teams.
Additionally, Microsoft Power Platform includes Microsoft Dataverse which is a cloud-based storage and data management engine. Dataverse is used along with other Microsoft products such as Power Apps and Microsoft Dynamics 365 applications and is built on Microsoft Azure SQL. It allows to use Dataverse as a form of data lake together with Microsoft Power Apps. Dataverse is based on Microsoft’s Common Data Model as its common data model and was rebranded from Microsoft Common Data Service in November 2020.
Low-code
Low-code development platforms (LCDPs) provide a development environment that allows users to create application software through a graphical user interface, rather than writing code. They can reduce the amount of traditional time spent on development and enable accelerated delivery of business applications. LCDPs also enable a wider range of people to contribute to the development of an application, not just those with coding skills. LCDPs have their roots in fourth-generation programming languages and rapid application development tools of the 1990s and early 2000s, and are based on principles of model-driven design, automatic code generation, and visual programming. The low-code development platform market traces its origins back to 2011 and the term “low-code” was first used by Forrester Research in 2014. They are considered “extraordinarily disruptive” along with no-code development platforms.
It provides a visual, drag-and-drop interface, pre-built templates, and connectors to various data sources and services. This makes it easy for non-technical users, such as business analysts and process owners, to create and customize their own applications, reducing the need for specialized IT skills.
Low-code development platforms are designed to be flexible and adaptable, allowing users to create a wide range of applications, including data entry forms, inventory management systems, and customer portals. They can also be integrated with other tools and services, such as business intelligence and automation tools, to create end-to-end solutions that meet the specific needs of a business.
Low-code development platforms are increasingly popular among businesses of all sizes, as they allow organizations to quickly and easily create custom solutions to meet their unique needs, without the need for extensive IT resources.
Power Automate
Microsoft Power Automate is an iPaaS (Integration Platform as a Service) platform by Microsoft for automation of recurring tasks. It was formerly known as Microsoft Flow until November 2019. It is part of the Microsoft Power Platform line of products together with products such as Power Apps and Power BI.
Power Automate was officially released in October 2016, and was intended to replace the SharePoint Designer Workflow as Microsoft’s standard tool for workflow automation. SharePoint environments previously could be created using either SharePoint Designer Workflow or various third-party products. However, in 2019, Microsoft announced the renaming of Microsoft Flow to Microsoft Power Automate, along with the addition of new features such as robotic process automation capabilities.
Power Apps
Power Apps is a tool within the Microsoft Power Platform that allows users to create custom business applications without the need for coding. It provides a drag-and-drop interface and a variety of pre-built templates and connectors to make it easy for users to create forms, apps, and portals. Power Apps can be accessed from a web browser or mobile device and can be used to create a wide range of applications, such as data entry forms, inventory management systems, and customer portals.
Power Apps allows users to create applications that can connect to various data sources, including Excel, SharePoint, and Dynamics 365, and can also be integrated with other tools and services in the Power Platform, such as Power Automate and Power BI.
It’s also possible to use Power Apps to create custom connectors, which allow you to connect to external data sources, such as a database or web service, and use that data in your app.
Power Apps can be used by businesses of all sizes and across various industries, to improve processes, increase efficiency, and automate tasks.
Microsoft Power BI
Power BI is an interactive data visualization software product developed by Microsoft with a primary focus on business intelligence. It is part of the Microsoft Power Platform. It allows to load data from various sources such as databases, web pages, or structured files such as spreadsheets, CSV, XML, and JSON and turn them into coherent, visually immersive, and interactive insights. Power BI provides cloud-based BI services, known as “Power BI Services”, along with a desktop-based interface, called “Power BI Desktop”. It offers data warehouse capabilities including data preparation, data discovery, and interactive dashboards.
The application was originally conceived by Thierry D’Hers and Amir Netz of the SQL Server Reporting Services Team at Microsoft and it was originally designed by Ron George in the summer of 2010 and named Project Crescent. Project Crescent was initially available for public download on 11 July 2011, bundled with SQL Server Codename Denali. Later it was renamed Power BI and it was then unveiled by Microsoft in September 2013 as Power BI for Office 365. The first release of Power BI was based on the Microsoft Excel-based add-ins: Power Query, Power Pivot and Power View.
Microsoft announced on 14 April 2015 that they had acquired the Canadian company Datazen, to “complement Power BI, our cloud-based business analytics service, rounding out our mobile capabilities for customers who need a mobile BI solution implemented on-premises and optimized for SQL Server.” This acquisition helped to develop the visuals of Power BI, which were mostly based on Datazen visuals.
In February 2019, Gartner.com, a software reviewing company, confirmed Microsoft as Leader in the “2019 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Analytics and Business Intelligence Platform” as a result of the capabilities of Power BI platform. This represented the 12th consecutive year of recognition of Microsoft as Leading vendor in this Magic Quadrant category.
Power Virtual Agents
Power Virtual Agents is a tool within the Microsoft Power Platform that allows users to create chatbots and virtual agents. It provides an easy-to-use authoring environment and pre-built templates to create a conversation flow and automate customer service and support tasks.
With Power Virtual Agents, users can create a conversational flow using a drag-and-drop interface and natural language understanding capabilities, which allows the chatbot to understand and respond to user input in a human-like way. Power Virtual Agents also allows users to integrate with other tools and services like Dynamics 365, Power Automate, and Power BI, to provide additional information and perform actions based on the user’s input.
Users can also use Power Virtual Agents to create custom connectors, which allow you to connect to external data sources, such as a database or web service, and use that data in your chatbot.
Power Virtual Agents can be accessed from a web browser, mobile device, or integrated with other channels such as website, Skype, Teams, and others.
Power Virtual Agents can be used by businesses of all sizes, across various industries, to improve customer service, reduce support costs, and automate repetitive tasks. It can also be used to create internal chatbots to automate internal processes or to provide information to employees.
Microsoft Power Fx
Microsoft Power Fx is a free and open-source low-code, general-purpose programming language for expressing logic across the Microsoft Power Platform. It was first announced at Ignite 2021 and the specification was released in March 2021. It is based on spreadsheet-like formulas to make it accessible to large numbers of people. It was also influenced by programming languages and tools like Pascal, Mathematica, and Miranda.
As Microsoft describes the language, it heavily borrows from the spreadsheet paradigm. In a spreadsheet, cells can contain formulas referring to the contents of other cells, if the user changes the content of a cell, the values of all its dependent cells are automatically updated. In a similar fashion, the properties of components in a Power Fx program are connected by formulas (whose syntax is very reminiscent of Excel) and their values are automatically updated if changes occur.
Power Fx was developed by a Microsoft team led by Vijay Mital, Robin Abraham, Shon Katzenberger, and Darryl Rubin. Power Fx is available as Open-source software. The source code was shared under MIT license by Microsoft on November 2, 2021.
