Microsoft recently pushed several terminology updates to the Power Platform.
Dataverse is the new name of the Common Data Service, the database leg of the Microsoft Power Platform. Its lightweight version that runs in Microsoft Teams is now called Dataverse for Teams.
As expected, Microsoft flooded us with announcements on this first day of the MS Ignite conference. I’ll only cover here my picks, on the collaboration and app building spectrum for desktop. There were a number of improvements on mobile I’ll need to get back to later. For a broader view, for example if you’re more into admin or compliance, I encourage you – just as I did yesterday – to directly browse my Power BI report. I refreshed it at 5pm PST, and won’t change until the refresh for day 2, around noon tomorrow.
I found out that there was another live report available, curated by John White. It offers a different perspective, so you can definitely explore both.
Remember that there are some contests with prizes going on. I already talked about Microsoft Mechanics Sweepstakes yesterday, but my preferred one is the Microsoft Ignite Cloud Skills Challenge which encourages you to learn.
Now to the announcements!
New Power Platform icons: the new look (see above) is more in line with the other products. You can check out the icons for yourself in your own Microsoft 365 waffle.
SharePoint Syntex: part of the broader Project Cortex, this app leverages AI and machine teaching to take on tasks such as document recognition and classification.
Project Oakdale: gives you a Power Platform like experience directly within Microsoft Teams, with the ability to create a table (up to 2 GB of data) and build a Power Apps app on top of it. A benefit of this low-code approach, compared to a Microsoft list for example, is that it is scalable and can later be enhanced by developers.
Project Nucleus: Microsoft Lists hit back by bringing caching capabilities, promising fast response on large lists (bye bye 5,000 item limit) and the ability to work offline.
SharePoint global navigation: a new vertical bar positioned on the left hand side, similar to the experience you get in Microsoft Teams. You set it up on the Home Site.
SharePoint Framework: it now allows developers to build Microsoft Teams apps, in addition to the already available capabilities to build tabs and personal apps.
Microsoft Stream: videos are becoming first class citizens, benefiting from the same features as other files: external and anonymous sharing, integration with Microsoft Search, enhanced analytics, and new controls for security and compliance.
Microsoft Teams: a bunch of new features, including:
Upper limit of 25,000 members per team, instead of 10,000
Path to SharePoint... and Beyond! 