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By: Janina Criador
- IT Consulting
- February 14, 2023
- Comments 0
Navigating the New Power Platform Admin Center
Nowadays, we crave an all-in-one place. After all, the unnecessary time spent using different tools and switching between piles up over time. For administrators of organizations, streamlining processes is critical. Instead of having multiple tabs open to keep track of and manage different tools, there’s a better way: to use one central platform with an intuitive interface for managing it all.
As the leading developer of software systems and applications, Microsoft is known to lead this convenient yet all-encompassing system. One of their most recent introductions is the Power Platform Admin Center, an improved version of the PowerApps Admin Center. It revolutionizes the way administrators approach their tasks. Through its all-encompassing, centralized interface, this resource provides an effortless source of control over essential business tools and assets – empowering admins to manage while achieving ultimate convenience. Let’s learn more about the new Power Platform Admin Center. For easier reading, navigate the links below:
- What is the Power Platform Admin Center?
- Who can create an environment in Power Platform Admin Center?
- How do you Create an Environment in the Power Platform Admin Center?
- Create an environment with a Dataverse database
- Create an environment without a Dataverse database
- How to manage users on the Power Platform Admin Center?
- What are the features of the Power Platform Admin Center?
What is the Power Platform Admin Center?
The Power Platform admin center provides administrators access to a central hub of tools allowing them to easily manage and configure environments for apps like Dynamics 365 Sales, Customer Service, Field Service, Marketing & Project Automation. Moreover, they can quickly enable automation with Microsoft’s powerful Power Apps and Power Automate features.
Who can Create an Environment in Power Platform Admin Center?
Part of the Power Platform admin center is the environment. It is a secure space where sharing, managing, and storing your business apps, data, and flows become possible. Additionally, it acts as a container to group apps with various roles, security needs, or target audiences. Each tenant’s default environment is automatically created by Power Apps and shared by all users within that tenant. Your license unlocks your potential to design and build inspiring, productive workspaces.
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License | Trial | Production | Developer |
Microsoft 365 Plans | No | No | Yes |
Dynamics 365 Teams Plans | No | No | Yes |
Power Apps Developer Plan | No | No | Yes |
Dynamics 365 trial | Yes (one) | No | Yes |
Dynamics 365 Plans | Yes (one) | Yes | Yes |
Power Apps plan | Yes (one) | Yes | Yes |
Power Apps trial | Yes (one) | Yes | Yes |
Power Virtual Agents trial plan | Yes | No | Yes |
Power Virtual Agents plan | No | Yes | Yes |
Sign in to the Microsoft 365 admin center and follow the instructions in Assign licenses to multiple users on the Active users’ page to find out which license a user is using.
How do you Create an Environment in the Power Platform Admin Center
When creating a new environment in the Power Platform Admin Center, you have two options:
- Create an environment with a Dataverse database
- Log on to the Power Platform Admin Center as an administrator (Global, Microsoft Power Platform, or Dynamics 365 admin)
- View the left-side navigation pane, choose Environments, then click New.
- Details such as the name of the environment region, type (production, trial, or sandbox), and purpose will be required for you to fill out. After completing everything, select Next.
- You will receive a prompt like an image below. After filling out all the details, click Save and you’re done!
Creating an environment using your own data store is possible as well. The only requirement for this is a 1GB available database capacity.
- Go to the Power Platform admin center link: https://admin.powerplatform.microsoft.com as an admin.
- Choose Environments in the navigation pane and click New.
- Your name, region, type of environment, and purpose will be asked. Click Save after filling out the details, and you’re good to go.
How to manage users on the Power Platform Admin Center?
If you’d like to enforce additional security measures and assign specific users to manage the Power Platform Admin Center, here’s how to do it:
- In the top right corner, click the “Gear” icon of the Power platform admin center to access the Power platform settings.
- To access the settings editor, click Power platform settings. You have two choices: “Who can create production and sandbox environments?” and “Who can design test environments?” The default setting is set for everyone’s access, which tells you why a regular user armed with a valid license can create an environment.
- To change it, you can use the option “Only specified admins” to limit environment creation to only admins. Make sure you choose that option and save the adjustments.
- When the non-admin user attempts to create a new environment, you will receive an error message like this:
- Users can continue to log in and browse the Power Platform admin center. The “NEW” option can still be seen, but restrictions will be implemented.
What are the features of the Power Platform Admin Center?
Though still in Preview, the Power Platform Admin Center offers different features that are worth anticipating:
Manage your Environment
The Power Platform admin center enables users to view and manage their organization’s apps and flows, furthering the legacy of the classic admin center. There are various methods for configuring your apps. Accessing this page will depend on how you want to set up your apps. You can develop single or multiple distinct environments based on your business requirements.
To control the environment settings for your business, sign into the Power Platform admin center > Click the Environments page > Select Settings.
Easy Access to Your Organization’s Metrics
This feature highlights the rebranded version of the old admin center Common Data Service, Microsoft Dataverse. Unlike the prior service, you are not required to install a separate program to view your business’s stats and create reports. With Microsoft Dataverse, Power Platform admins can stay on top of their organization’s performance with the new and improved dashboard. Instantly view essential metrics such as active user count, storage usage breakdowns, and more from one centralized location. Get a comprehensive overview of your environment to make informed decisions quickly.
Control your On-Premises Data
The Power Platform Admin Center gives organizations a secure and agile way to integrate their on-premises data into the powerful tools offered by PowerApps Services. Administrators can easily observe critical information about installed gateway clusters, such as user access privileges and system status, giving them complete control over how their organization’s gateways are used.
With Tenant administrator enabled, Azure AD Global Administrator role and Power BI service administrators can securely manage all gateways across the entire organization. At the same time, users view a restricted list of gateway resources allowing for increased data control and security.
Data Security
As an administrator, you want to ensure that your business’s data is secure and losses are minimized. Take advantage of the PowerApps admin center by creating DLP policies to restrict sensitive information from unexpecting parties. Ensure any unauthorized access does not compromise organizational data with this preventative measure.
With the implementation of Data Loss Protection, you can ensure that your organization’s data is managed uniformly and safeguard confidential information from being misappropriated. Through the Power Platform admin center, admins may use intelligent policies to protect business-critical assets across all settings – tenant or environmental.
The Power Platform admin center is the ultimate tool for administrators working with multiple products. By unifying management systems, admins can easily and quickly access their organization’s data like never before – leveraging advanced features from its predecessor, the legendary PowerApps admin center.
Your Business, in the hands of a Professional.
As mentioned, the Power App Admin Center is still in Preview mode, but that doesn’t mean you cannot explore its features. ECF Data works closely with Microsoft, and as a Gold-certified partner, we can only be assured that more changes are coming. Power Platform has revolutionized transformation, allowing clients to utilize the related technologies available today fully. Our decades-long experience equips us with the expertise needed to make this a reality.
ECF Data’s Power Platform services offer an all-encompassing solution to digital transformation – from crafting a strategic plan and leveraging data and analytics insights to bringing designs into the world of technology and transitioning them with managed services.
Ready to experience the power of Power Platform services? Take your business productivity and operations to the next level with integrated AI, analytics, automation, and more. Get started today and unlock the potential of the Power Platform!
