Microsoft Power Suite of Tools

In the fast changing world of software programming and business intelligence, Microsoft has been the leader for three (3) decades now. It’s Visual Studio platform for developing software first in C, then C++, and now C# and support for many other languages and scripts continues to remain extremely popular among programmers. It’s SSRS (SQL Server Reporting Service) and SSIS (SQL Server Integration Service) tools with their tight integration with SQL Server backend database have been used extensively to build integrations and dashboards.

In this edition, briefly discuss three (3) new technologies that Microsoft has introduced as PaaS (Platform as a Service) in what is popularly referred to as Power Platform. Their low entry points and tight integration with Office 365, which is already ubiquitous, are making them very popular in the business world.

1) Microsoft Power BI: Introduced to the public in 2015, Power BI is a business intelligence platform that allows for connecting with data from disparate sources and interactively visualizing them. There are five (5) essential parts to Power BI: (i) Power BI Desktop, (ii) Power BI Service (SaaS), (iii) Power BI Mobile Apps, (iv) Power BI Report Builder, and (v) Power BI Report Server. Which components of Power BI one needs depends on his/her role in the enterprise. For example a business development executive may need Power BI Service and Phone App to view reports on desktop and mobile, whereas an analyst responsible for creating reports and may need all 5 components to build proper dashboards. It’s low price point (of first 2- tiers) combined with powerful features, and ease of building attractive dashboards and interactive visualizations, have catapulted Power BI to the top of the list of available BI platforms in the industry. There are, however, a few limitations of Power BI that organizations considering this platform should take into account. One such limitation is the costly on-premise storage and processing (often due to industry compliance), which would require Report Server available in the Premium plan that starts at around $5K per month. The other is the limitation of 1GB data set limit, which for most data analysis situations should not be a problem, however, going beyond this threshold may necessitate going with the Premium plan.

2) Microsoft Power Apps: Introduced by Microsoft in 2017, PowerApps is a low-code, no-code environment that allows for rapid development of cross platform and cross-browser apps by developers with little to no coding knowledge. The platform itself takes care of the differences between operating systems and browser compatibility. One can build and deploy an app on Windows, iOS, and Android and run on different browsers without having intimate knowledge of the intricacies that go into making an app fully functional on a given platform (hardware, OS, and browser). The drag and drop feature allows you to add different controls and also to connect with external data sources, as well as managing data within the app itself (Dataverse platform). PowerApps platform does have its limitation. It is designed for building and deploying apps for internal use in a business and not for general consumer use.  This is due to the licensing model, as well as technical limitations with sharing with external users. Additionally, the “no-code” feature quite literally limits one from customizing and/or adding new code, whether HTML, C#, or Javascript. However, through interfacing with RESTAPIs, one can provide custom business logic to be part of the solution set. The PowerApps platform supports two (2) development models: 1) Canvas App, where one starts with user experience (UI) and the connects to backend data sources (more than 200 types available), 2) Model driven App, where one focuses on data model and processes that then give rise to responsive UI.

3) Microsoft Power Apps: Power Automate is online development platform designed to allow developers to automate processes and tasks with little or no coding. The automation may also include connecting two (2) or more apps, moving data from one to the other, and performing repetitive business processes. Almost 300 pre-defined connectors, allows for integrating applications like Outlook, Sharepoint, Dropbox, Facebook, Google Drive, etc., whether on-premise or in the cloud.  The desktop version from Microsoft is now available for Windows 10 users at no additional cost. The desktop allows for creation of desktop-centric workflows, which Microsoft refers to as “attended RPA” (Robotic Process Automation) using prebuilt actions as well custom scripts to automate repetitive and time-consuming tasks.