Microsoft Power Platform Enterprise Architecture: Design tailor-made solutions for architects and decision makers to meet complex business requirements, 2nd Edition 2nd Edition

First off, let me state that this book surprised me again and again with it's content. For example, I was initially expecting a book that really focused heavily on just Power Apps, Power Automate, Power Virtual Agents and Power Pages with maybe some light treatment of Power BI. Imagine my surprise then when in the first couple of chapters, the author introduces those topics but then also covers the full breadth of Dynamics 365 for Sales, Finance, Supply Chain and every other Dynamics module.Imagine my further surprise when the author then provides an overview of all of Microsoft 365 and Azure. Now, the coverage of all of these additional topics is not in-depth, generall just a paragraph and some bullet points but I greatly appreciated this and think this was a smart decision by the author.Power Platform doesn't exist in a vacuum and some people don't realize that Dynamics 365 is, to one degree or another, really built upon the same foundational components as the Power Platform. In fact, you can actually run Dynamics 365 Sales with just a Power App license. You'd be violating license terms but you can do it. And speaking of licensing, the author provides light coverage of the licensing for all of these products. In any case, the author does a nice job at the end of chapter two showing how the Power Platform pieces leverage this broader ecosystem in which it lives.Again, the coverage isn't particularly deep on all of these additional products and some may find that off putting. I liked it because the description of the products was clear and concise and I've never found anything that covered the entire ecosystem in a single place. Enterprise architects can't be technically deep in all technologies, rather they need a broad understanding of everything and how all the pieces fit together. So, for me, the author's approach here is outstanding.The third chapter is all about Power Platform Architecture. Topics include covering user, group and license management, environments, the various clients available, administration and monitoring and best practices. Again, the coverage is super deep but the breadth of topics and products covered is impressive and the author blends in a practical side by explaining all of these topics and products in the context of Contoso at the end.Chapter 4 is all about development and customization tools and techniques. The author starts by covering the different developer personas and then proceeds to cover all of the configuration, customization, development and lifecycle management tools for citizen developers as well as pro developers. And I mean all. Power Apps Studio, Power Automate Maker Portal, AI Builder, Dataflows designer, Visual Studio, XRMToolBox, CRMRestBuilder, and many others. The chapter ends with a practical example using Contoso as the model.Chapter 5 goes into much greater detail around application lifecycle management. There is a ton here including environments, solutions, managed properties, patching and upgrading, etc. Azure DevOps is covered as well as GitHub, Power BI, and other products. Finally, the chapter ends with best practices and a pratical Contoso example.Chapter 6 covers implementation. This means implementation approaches, estimation, project management, project phases, roles and responsibilities, constraints and even the bidding and negotiation process. I personally did not get a ton out of this chapter but I live this every day as a consultant for the last 30 years implementing Microsoft technologies within customers so someone that hasn't lived and breathed this for their entire career will likely find the information here extremely helpful.Chapter 7 is all about security. As you might expect, it is extremely heavy on the various options for authentication and authorization for all of the various products. The chapter again ends with best practices similar to Chapter 5 and a practical Contoso example.Chapter 8 covers extensibility. Here the author clearly defines standard, configuration, customization and custom development and then proceeds to focus on customization and custom development for the remainder of the chapter. This includes Dataverse and model-driven apps, canvas apps, Power Pages, Power Automate and Power BI. Again, a practical Contoso example is presented as well as best practices.Chapter 9 covers integrations with a host of other Microsoft products in the Microsoft 365 and Azure families. However the author also includes various frontend and backend integration patterns and solution approaches which I really liked. Again, best practices and a Contoso example are provided.Chapter 10 was another surprise, covering data migration. Such an often overlooked topic but one that is so incredibly critical to the success of many projects. Really good coverage of the tools, techinques, challenges and best practices here. My go to book for this for years has been Practical Data Migration by Johny Morris. This chapter does a nice job of relaying similar concepts and techniques but specifically within the context of the Power Platform.Finally, at the end of the book was yet another surprise. An appendix of all of the architectural, lifecycle managmeent, security, extensibility, integration and data migration best practices presented throughout the book! Genius! Loved seeing this included for fast reference. Includes some of the best graphics and figures from the entire book.Overall, I was really happy with this book. Incredibily comprehensive coverage and much more breadth than I was expecting. Again, some may find that light treatment of many of the products and topics a bit off-putting but for me, the book definitely hits the mark from an enterprise architect perspective.

As stated in the book this is not for beginners, you should have a some exposure to MS Power Platform tech.This book is an excellent reference if you need an overview of MS PP, its architecture and how to implement it.As someone who works primarily in Power BI desktop it is interesting to learn more about the "back-end". As I progress more in my data analytics career this book will be an invaluable resource to keep on hand to reference any questions pertaining to this subject.I would highly recommend this book to my colleagues at work!

Imagine this scenario: You're an experienced software architect who has never delved into the realm of low-code technologies, and the emergence of Microsoft Power Platform catches your attention. Despite your unfamiliarity, you're determined to master this technology from scratch.While there are numerous resources available, such as Microsoft Learn, blog posts, and videos, wouldn't it be valuable to access all this information in one comprehensive location? This book stands out as the finest resource I've encountered, offering a one-stop solution for gathering all the essential knowledge required to comprehend the role of a Low-Code Architect.The book takes you on an encompassing journey, starting from the fundamentals of Azure infrastructure, delving into the intricacies of security, and even exploring project management concepts. It's a true guidebook for those venturing into the world of low-code architecture.Hats off to Robert Rybaric for crafting this exceptional book. It's a definite must-have for anyone looking to excel in this domain.

Right out of the gate, when you read the table of contents, you realize that when Robert says "Enterprise," he really means enterprise. A lot of folks tend to think of Power Platform in terms of a vacuum--a few Power Apps, a handful of flows, some PBI dashboards, but don't really consider where they fit inside the entire ecosystem of Microsoft products and services--from Azure identity, storage, and microservices to interacting with stalwart applications like SharePoint and Exchange that we've relied upon for decades.The first five chapters really give you the lay of the land of how everything in the Microsoft ecosystem connects together, bringing you up-to-speed with foundational concepts, terminology, and management concepts with a holistic perspective.Even for those of us who are well-seasoned in the Microsoft stack, Robert's presentation reminds us to really look at the long view--from business concepts, considering the core things like identity and data storage, and operational requirements. Whatever you develop or work on with Power Platform, you'll need to touch a lot of other pieces if you want it to be successful.If you're looking for tutorials on how to build apps, this isn't the book for you. There are plenty of other resources that can do that. What none of those do (and this book does masterfully) is help you solve the big business, technical, security, and operational issues before you ever drag a control onto the canvas or add an action to a flow.

This book by Robert is a complete guide for architects who wok with Power Platform in their day-to-day life. If you are looking for a place where you can learn about what should be your approach while designing an enterprise power platform solution, then this is the book.The best part of this book is the use-cases and examples used to explain decision making and designing thinking around the solutions. I like that it covers a lot about Azure and all areas of Power Platform.Highly recommend this book, if you want to start your journey with designing enterprise level solutions for customers and also as a reference for experienced architects.