Help understanding powerapps license changes October 2019

[seanbrogan]

Can anybody shed any light on the new PowerApps licensing plans? I'm having trouble wrapping my head around what is going on.

I specifically went out last year and purchased a number of Office 365 premium licenses as well as the F1 plan for employees in the field, so that we could use powerapps.

I am using a combination of an Azure SQL database(pay as you go license) and SharePoint (under the 365 licensing) to function as the back end for my apps.

Am I now no longer going to be able to develop and distribute Apps to my employees under these licenses? Am I now being asked by microsoft to go out and buy more licenses specific to PowerApps?

Hope this is the right place to ask the 365 messages aren't very clear.

[better]

Power Platform feels dead in the water now, a large chunk of what was good for Canvas apps is now gone.  The price, the accessibility to connectors without paying per person, per month.  Its like trying to charge a business for every dot.net app they make per user, per month as well as hosting as well as database. double dipping if you ask me.

Please leave your CDS/D365 agenda out of canvas apps and bring back free Azure SQL.  Its simply not good value nor will it ever be to charge an organisation ~$40pm per person for 'apps'.  

Who would ever trust this platform again after MS raised prices like this and gone from per year per unit to per month per user... golden hand cuffs are out in force. 

It hurst to say, but back to dot.net and on-prem apps again. at least costs are in our control not someone elses. 

[Anonymous]

One of my apps that was created prior to 1/10/2019 is now asking for a license. This app has a single SQL connector. It was still working fine yesterday until I have modified and published today (22/10/2019). I can no longer get into the app unless I sign up to the "free trial". 

I can confirm that other apps with the same SQL connector is working, I am afraid to touch them until I sort this out with Microsoft. 

I have now saved and published another app that had a creation timestamp of 23/09/2019, 13:56:52. After publishing, the app can no longer be used unless I sign up for the free trial. When I tried to use my Android to open the app, it is sepcifically complaining about "This app uses features that come with a PowerApps premium plan. Start a trial to use the features. Learn more"

Both Apps suffering this issue are only using the SQL Server connector. I have noticed when accessing the app as per norm, it bounces the URL to  https://web.powerapps.com/trial?redirect=player&appId=%2fproviders%2fMicrosoft.PowerApps%2fapps%2fb[...]&connections=premium 

[Bug]

Is it a on-prem SQL through a gateway or is it SQL in Azure?

[Anonymous]

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@Bug wrote:
Is it a on-prem SQL through a gateway or is it SQL in Azure?

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SQL in Azure

[Bug]

Yes. Microsoft has reclassified this connector to a premium connector from October 1st.

[Anonymous]

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@Bug wrote:
Yes. Microsoft has reclassified this connector to a premium connector from October 1st.

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Thanks @Bug, Microsoft also said "In addition, apps and flows created prior to October 1, 2019 which are using these connectors will receive an extended transition period until October 1, 2024. During this time, these qualifying apps and flows will be exempt from the Premium connector licensing requirements for the reclassified connectors.”

[Debug_Bug]

Ok, could you please provide the link to where you found this formulation, I have struggled to find that.

But obviously, the reclassification is, in my opinion a very unfair move. We just completed a 3 month project to move all our on-prem SQL servers to Azure to avoid using premium conncetors (which would increase our licinsing fees with more than 500%) and just after we invested in that - this happens. We are not happy with Microsoft...

[Anonymous]

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@Debug_Bug wrote:

Ok, could you please provide the link to where you found this formulation, I have struggled to find that.

But obviously, the reclassification is, in my opinion a very unfair move. We just completed a 3 month project to move all our on-prem SQL servers to Azure to avoid using premium conncetors (which would increase our licinsing fees with more than 500%) and just after we invested in that - this happens. We are not happy with Microsoft...

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https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-platform/admin/powerapps-flow-licensing-faq

I'll suggest you make a hard copy of the above link and the information 😉 

[Debug_Bug]

Thanks. Yes, well - After the move to reclassify connectors, I don't feel like I can trust anything Microsoft says, even in writing. Apparently they just change it later if they want to and completely undermine businesscases and IT operations cost budgets so the investments their customers have made in application and platform development vanishes.

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@Debug_Bug wrote:

Ok, could you please provide the link to where you found this formulation, I have struggled to find that.

But obviously, the reclassification is, in my opinion a very unfair move. We just completed a 3 month project to move all our on-prem SQL servers to Azure to avoid using premium conncetors (which would increase our licinsing fees with more than 500%) and just after we invested in that - this happens. We are not happy with Microsoft...

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https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-platform/admin/powerapps-flow-licensing-faq

I'll suggest you make a hard copy of the above link and the information 😉 

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[Anonymous]

That link is all well and good, but we've run into the same issue this morning.  An app that we've had for about six months is now requesting premium licensing to be used after a minor change was published, that didn't involve any changes to the connectors.  So apparently "grandfathering" these apps in just meant they could remain in their current form and never be changed and re-published.  I wish they'd made that clear.