Pipelines in Power Platform is Generally Available (GA)

by HubSite 365 about Microsoft

Software Development Redmond, Washington

Citizen DeveloperPower SelectionPower PlatformM365 Release

Explore the general availability of Pipelines in Power Platform, offering an approachable application lifecycle management for all developers.

Summarizing General Availability of Pipelines: Unveiling Features & Updates

Microsoft is thrilled to announce the commencement of the general availability of pipelines within its Power Platform. The goal of pipelines is to democratize application lifecycle management (ALM) for Power Platform and Dynamics 365 customers by providing deployment automation capabilities that are friendly for all users — makers, admins, and developers.

Configuring pipelines is made swift and simple, and it's designed to run directly within development environments or PAC CLI. The experience educates citizen developers on proper ALM practices and simplifies complex procedures with automatic safeguards.

Data connections, environment variables, and deployment pre-validations have been built into the analysis, ensuring that citizen developers and the applications they deploy are more successful.

The general availability of pipelines comes earlier than initially planned, mainly owing to overwhelmingly positive customer adoption and feedback. The team at Microsoft has made several updates during the preview to enhance overall quality and reliability while ensuring backward compatibility for future releases.

Microsoft is confident in its ability to support your production workloads at any scale. The roadmap remains intact, and it plans to continue supporting larger scale projects. Several new features for pipelines and experience improvements are currently in the works.

Soon, customers would have the option to schedule deployments. This would allow them to deploy updates during non-business hours, reducing risks of impacting end-users during their workday. Automation allows more frequent updates to be released on a scheduled basis, and it avoids the need for the team to work on weekends for deployments. Learn more about it here.

Other upcoming features include pipelines extensibility, which allows you to run custom logic before and after a deployment. The powerful Automate cloud offers over 900 built-in connectors and the option to develop custom connectors.

You would be able to incorporate automation within other systems, such as committing to a source code repo or running automated tests, which can be managed at a fraction of the setup and maintenance cost when compared to running standalone DevOps tools.

Soon, there would be a provision to prevent makers from customizing directly in production. Only the service principal would be required to have production permissions. These use cases will become supported within pipelines. This feature will become available after scheduling and extensibility.

Lastly, pipelines require access to one or more Managed Environments. The timeline for enforcing the use of Managed Environments in pipelines remains as originally planned, anticipated to be added in the second half of 2023, aiding admins in compliance. Developers can now use Managed Environments in pipelines for development and QA through the Power Apps Developer Plan license.

The team values the overwhelming support and customer feedback received during the preview and encourages it to continue on the Power Apps community.

A Brief on Microsoft's Power Platform

Microsoft's Power Platform is a robust suite of business application platforms combining Power Automate, Power BI, Power Virtual Agents, and Power Apps. It enables businesses to analyze, act, and automate the business procedures, driving innovation efficiently. Power Platform supports larger scale applications, regardless of the skill level of the user - be it a developer or a business user, ensuring successful deployments.

Its user-friendly features, such as pipelines, contribute to its objective of democratizing understanding and practice of application lifecycle management. With automation capabilities built-in, the Power Platform ensures effective, reliable, and quality deployments. The addition of features like scheduling deployments and pipelines extensibility further enhances its functionality, contributing to the success of citizen developers and the applications they deploy.

Read the full article General Availability (GA) of Pipelines in Power Platform: Key Features & Updates

Power Platform - Key Features & Updates in Pipelines: Power Platform GA

Learn about General Availability (GA) of Pipelines in Power Platform: Key Features & Updates

Microsoft has ushered in a new era of application lifecycle management with the launch of the much-anticipated Pipelines in Power Platform. The main objective of this feature is to simplify and democratize ALM for Power Platform and Dynamics 365 users by introducing deployment automation abilities in managed environments. What this means, in essence, is that it makes the process of deployment user-friendly for all - whether they are makers, administrators, or developers.

Makers are able to configure Pipelines quickly and share them with others, with the process executed either within development environments or PAC CLI. Notably, the entire process has been designed intuitively to guide the deployment, thereby educating citizen developers in healthy ALM practices. The brings about an enhancement in the understanding of the process, thanks to automatic safeguards applied and complexities abstracted by the system. For example, connectivity, environment variables, and deployment pre-validations are integrated into the experience, ensuring a higher success rate for citizen developers and the applications deployed.

The general availability (GA) of Pipelines coincides with enormous customer response and feedback during its preview stage. There is a high degree of confidence in Microsoft’s ability to support production workloads of any scale, including numerous signals that are constantly monitored. Notwithstanding this, Microsoft is in the process of developing new features for Pipelines and continues to enhance its user experience.

One exciting feature to look forward to is 'Schedule deployments' that would allow users to deploy updates during non-commercial hours and thus reduce the overall business risk. This feature will automate smaller, more frequent, updates on a set schedule. Also in the pipeline, is the much-requested 'Pipelines extensibility’ feature which would enable custom execution before and after a deployment using Power Automate cloud flows. In-built connectors would assist in this task along with the ability to develop custom connectors.

Another upcoming feature that deserves mention is the 'Delegated Deployments' that can prevent makers from customizing directly in production. Currently, some clients use service principals within Azure DevOps and GitHub to deploy solutions. Soon, the same will be supported within Power Platform pipelines. Yet another noteworthy aspect is the Managed Environments essential for Pipelines, which are slated for the official enforcement in the second half of 2023.

For those keen on learning more about Pipelines, Microsoft has a range of resources that include documentation on setting up and running a pipeline, a comparison of different tools available for ALM with Power Platform and various instructional videos.

Microsoft extends its gratitude for the customer feedback and continued support received during the preview phase of Pipelines. They eagerly await more such feedback and interaction in the Power Apps community. Take your ALM practices to the next level with the new Pipelines in Power Platform!

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