Power Platform Components
The Microsoft Power Platform consists of five integrated components. Power Apps: build custom business applications — Canvas apps (drag-and-drop UI, connect to 900+ data sources, mobile-first), Model-driven apps (data-model-first, built on Dataverse, consistent UI and business logic — CRM-style applications), Power Pages (external-facing web portals with authentication). Power Automate: workflow automation — Cloud flows (trigger-action workflows: automated triggered by an event, instant triggered manually, scheduled on a timer), Desktop flows (robotic process automation / RPA — record and replay UI interactions on desktop applications). Power BI: business intelligence and analytics (covered separately in PL-300). Copilot Studio: build AI-powered chatbots — topic-based conversation flows, integrate with external APIs, publish to Teams, websites, or Dynamics 365. Dataverse: cloud-scale relational database purpose-built for Power Platform — tables, relationships, business rules, security roles, solutions (packaging and transport).
Business Value and Governance
PL-900 covers the business case for Power Platform. Citizen development: empower business users to build their own apps without IT involvement — reduces backlog, increases agility. IT governance: Power Platform Admin Center provides visibility and control — environments (separate containers for dev, test, production — each has its own Dataverse database and data policies), data loss prevention (DLP) policies restrict which connectors can exchange data (classify connectors as Business data only, Non-business, or Blocked — prevent sensitive business data from flowing to personal cloud services). Connectors: the integration layer — Standard connectors (SharePoint, Excel, Outlook — included in all plans), Premium connectors (SQL Server, Salesforce, SAP — require premium licence), Custom connectors (call any REST API). Power Fx: the formula language used in Power Apps canvas apps — Excel-like formulas for expressions, logic, and data manipulation. Pricing: Power Apps per-app plan (one app, one user), per-user plan (unlimited apps per user), Power Automate per-user or per-flow plans.