Look no further! Catch up on the recommended implementation practices across Customer Engagement and Finance & Operations apps. The content is created and shared by the solution architects from Dynamics 365 engineering team. This is good starting point: https://github.com/rshanthini/Dynamics-365-FastTrack-Architecture-Insights.
Then you know that we have the default learning on https://learn.microsoft.com, but did you know that most of the content/documentation is stored on GitHub? As well as some specific Partner related resources….
Recently I was looking for the latest documentation on Customer Insights and I found the following page: https://microsoft.github.io/PartnerResources/skilling/d365-academy/business-applications/customer-data-platform/customer-insights.
Looking at how the url is constructed, you udnerstand that there’s additional content to be found here.
Following this url you can find Microsoft Partner resources around what they call: Academies and Partner Showcases.
Most interesting would be the Academis covering:
– AI & ML
– Azure Data
– Developer Velocity
– Dynamics 365
– Azure Infrastructure
– Modern Analytics
– Partner Onboarding
– Security
– Teams
– Nonprofit Resources
Have a look for your self and hope this helps!
In the “couloir” we already knew since a couple of years that Microsoft was investing in Playwright.
Customer, partners, peers,… looking at test automation for Power Platform or Dynamics 365 CE always wondered why EasyRepro is using Selenium and why there is no Playwright version of EaysRepro.
I suspect that in these odd cases it always boils down onto roadmap challenges. But no worries, the FastTrack team has you covered with a open-sourceproject to start your initial Dynamics 365 Customer Service testing.
Read all about this here: Set up test automation with Playwright – Dynamics 365 | Microsoft Learn
No worries, this recent blog post from the Azure Integration Services gives you all the possible approaches and examples. Another hidden gem that can save you some time when architecting these types of challenges.
Main questions answered?
Find out everything here: https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/azure-integration-services-blog/designing-and-running-a-generative-ai-platform-based-on-azure-ai/ba-p/4223092
My personal note, don’t underestimate the power of Azure API Management. During my recent projects in terms of B2B and/or B2C interactions and having Dataverse/Dynamics 365 in the back, it was already a productivity saver and an essential proposed component of the architecture. With the introduction of new Generative AI services, it can play even a more central internal role.
AAD Kill chain (aadinternals.com) discusses the Azure AD (now Entra ID) and Microsoft 365 kill chain, a collection of reconnaissance techniques and hacking tools for Microsoft cloud services. Here are the key points:
In summary, good reading for the people needing a security update on what is configurable on M365 level!
Recently I came across this open-source initiative. Certainly helps when you’re having those one or multiple tenants conversations with larger customers.
What is Microsoft365DSC?
Microsoft365DSC is an open-source initiative led by Microsoft engineers and maintained by the community. It allows administrators to define, automate, and monitor the configuration of Microsoft 365 tenants using PowerShell Desired State Configuration (DSC).
Key Features:
Why It Should Be of Interest:
This tool is a game-changer for Microsoft 365 administrators looking to streamline their configuration management processes!
Reference: microsoft365dsc.com
Continuing the Application Insights topic, on some engagements we propose to leverage Azure API Management in front of Dataverse Custom API’s or Azure Logic Apps or Azure Functions.
Setting up APIM is not that hard, but getting the next level insight on what’s happening via Application Insights can be a bit more tedious (if you don’t use Application Insights every day of the week which is the case for myself 😊).
So, I recently found this Azure API Management Hands on Lab including a chapter on how to setup and configure the Application Insights integration. Have fun with it!
Once you start pouring telemetry data from Dataverse into Application Insights, it’s time to review what’s happening. As we aren’t Application Insights experts, it’s always good to have some pre-defined examples. Well look no further!
The AzureMonitorCommunity created some Alerts, Dashboards, Queries and Workbooks that can get you started. Hereby the direct link towards the Dataverse assets: https://github.com/microsoft/AzureMonitorCommunity/tree/master/Azure%20Services/Dataverse
Besides Dataverse, you’ll find numerous other samples for other Azure services. Happy monitoring!
This is one that I forget regulary, meaning I know that this has to be done to ensure my Service Connection in an Azure DevOps Pipeline (classic or yaml) can for example execute a Dataverse backup.
So, first create the App Registration on Azure Entra ID.
Add the App Registration as Application User onto the Dataverse environment
In PowerShell, register the Application user as a “Management Application”:
New-PowerAppManagementApp -ApplicationId $ApplicationIdOnce this is done, the SPN/Application User, Management Application, Application Registration (what’s in a name….) can execute these more administrative actions.
No luck,the old site hosting didn’t want to play anymore. Probably due to the initial config pointing towards subfolders and the Direct Admin tool wasn’t able to manage that directly in combination with WordPress (if it works, don’t touch it!).
Anyway, I downloaded my original posts and I’ll retro post them here (for good old times sake).
If any time left, let’s see if we can post something worth while interesting.
Till the next time!
Philip