This is a continuation of a series of articles on Microsoft Azure from an operational point of view that surveys the different services from the service portfolio of the Azure public cloud. The most recent article on Service Fabric discussed an infrastructure for hosting. In this article, we explore the Dataverse and solution layers.

Microsoft Dataverse is a data storage and management system for the various Power Applications so that they are easy to use with Power Query. The data is organized in tables some of which are built-in and standard across applications, but others can be added on a case-by-case basis for applications. These tables enable applications to focus on their business needs while providing a world class, secure and cloud-based storage option for the data that are 1. Easy to manage, 2. Easy to secure, 3. Accessible via Dynamics 365, has rich metadata, logic and validation, and come with productivity tools. Dynamics 365 applications are well-known for enabling businesses to quickly meet their business goals and customer scenarios and Dataverse makes it easy to use the same data across different applications. It supports incremental and bulk loads of data both on a scheduled and on-demand basis.

Logic and validation performed on the Dataverse include business rules, business process flows, workflows, and business logic with code although they are by no means limited to just these. Dataverse is another option when compared to connectors for external data sources and AI processing stacks.

Solutions are used to transport applications and components from one environment to another or to add customizations to an existing application. It can comprise applications, site maps, tables, processes, resources, choices, and flows. It implements Application Lifecycle management and powers Power Automate. There are two types of solutions (managed and unmanaged) and the lifecycle of a solution involves create, updates, upgrade and patch. The managed properties of a solution govern which components are customizable. A solution can be created using the navigation menu of the Power Apps. Microsoft AppSource is the marketplace where solutions tailored to a business need can be found.

Managed and unmanaged solutions can co-exist at different levels within a Microsoft Dataverse environment. They form two distinct layer levels. What the user sees as runtime behavior, comes from the active customizations of an unmanaged layer which in turn might be supported by a stack of one or more user-defined managed solutions and system solutions in the managed layer.  Managed solutions can also be merged. The solution layers feature enables one to see all the solution layers for a component.