What's New in Power Platform - 2022 Release wave 2 - Managed Environments

       It is that time of the year for reviewing what's new in Microsoft Power Platform for the 2022 Release Wave-2. In addition to the many enhancements to the existing functionality there are also new features that are being added. In this blog I am reviewing the new capability of Managed Environment.

As the Power Platform is becoming mainstream in the enterprise domain, there is the need to set boundaries and maintain governance. Just like the new shiny toy that every kid on the block wants as present, the power platform, once introduced to the users, they will want to play with it. The power users want to try, make and see what is the realm of possibilities with and within the platform. They will find out sooner that it has a lot to offer and all with no code or less code. This can get out of control very fast same as the gold rush!!

Microsoft has realized the problem at hand and provided apps and guidance for managing the power platform. This guidance came in the form of the excellent - Power Platform Center of Excellence kit. To add to that Microsoft is also releasing the Managed Environments capability.

What is a Managed Environment ?  Managed Environments is a suite of capabilities that allows admins to manage Power Platform at scale with more control, less effort and more insights. Basically to do more with less.

Note - One of the requirements for an environment to be enabled as Managed Environments is that all the users in the environment should have premium usage rights for example - a Power Apps or Power Automate - per user or per app per user stand alone plan. 

Managed Environments elements

Currently there are 3 elements of Managed environments and I hope more are added in the near future.

1. Limit Sharing - This helps to prevent makers from sharing Canvas Apps with security groups and also limit the # of people the app can be shared with by the makers.

Limit Sharing

This is useful in a Dev environment you want the maker to to limit sharing and test it before sharing the app to other users. This will also limit the # of apps that a user sees in the environment.

2. Usage Insights - This provides a weekly email digest for Power Platform admins and Dynamics 365 Services Admins on the Managed Environments. The email gives insights as below -

Active apps / flows / users in the last month

This shows how is the adoption rate of the apps. A graph of the active app users will be more useful to show the growth of adoption over time.

Last time the app was used

This shows what apps are no longer being used. IT can ask the maker to remove / delete the app if it is no longer being used. Good for keeping the environment clean and useful.

Most useful apps and flows

This shows the top run apps and flows. Makers can learn from the top used apps / flows and update their apps.

3. Data policies - This shows all the data policies applicable to the managed environment. 

Applicable Data Policies

I will update my blog as new elements and capabilities are added for Managed Environments a step in the right direction to do more with less. I hope this helps you in deciding upon and enabling Managed Environments capability.

Thanks for reading. 

@mihircrm | 365WithoutCode