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.

[v-xida-msft]

Hi @seanbrogan ,

Yeah, there would have some updates within PowerApps license and Microsoft Flow license on October 2019. Please check the following article for more details:

https://powerapps.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/new-licensing-options-for-powerapps-and-flow/

Based on the scenario that you mentioned (an canvas app using Azure SQL and SharePoint List as data source), I afraid that you would not be able to develop and distribute Apps.

Effective October 1, 2019, the Azure SQL connector will be reclassified from Standard to Premium. If you want to access all Premium, on-premises and custom connectors within your PowerApps, you must purchase a standalone PowerApps or Flow plan license.

Note: Office 365 license includes PowerApps would not be able to access the Premium, on-premises and custom connectors within PowerApps.

If you want to get more details about the updates within PowerApps license and Microsoft Flow license on October 2019, please consider submit an assisted support ticket through the following link:
https://powerapps.microsoft.com/en-us/support/pro

Best regards,

[datamaster]

@v-xida-msft  So if we have existing apps using the newly classified Azure SQL premium connector will no longer work in 30 days or so? Shouldn't we have more time to prepare for this change? I thought I heard somewhere that existing customers would be grandfathered in until 2024. Can you please provide more clarification.

[seanbrogan]

This is crazy.

This is not just a change to Powerapps licensing this is a major change to Office 365 licensing.

Microsoft are taking away a feature I already have access to, and that I rely upon heavily.

And to top it off they are giving only a months notice to make this change.

To say I'm not happy is an understatement.

[Andy77-2]

Re "Azure SQL connector will be reclassified from Standard toPremium"  - I can't find this specified anywhere in the documentation. Will existing apps be grandfathered? Also from Oct, will exiting powerapp users accessing apps with standard connectors need to have one of the new per app/user Powerapp licenses if they are currently getting access using their O365 license alone?

[seanbrogan]

@Andy77-2 

If you go in to the admin centre and go to the acive messages you will see the following under this particular message...

MC189149, Plan For Change, Published date: 29 Aug 2019

Update: Announcement

Applies To: All customers

Effective October 1, 2019, changes will be made to PowerApps and Flow licenses, including those available as part of Office 365 subscriptions and the general purpose PowerApps and Flow plans. The changes are as follows:

• The SQL, Azure and Dynamics 365 connectors listed below will be reclassified from Standard to Premium. A standalone PowerApps or Flow plan license is required to access all Premium connectors.
• Azure Application Insights
• Azure Automation
• Azure Blob Storage
• Azure Container
• Azure Cosmos
• Azure Data Factory
• Azure Data Lake
• Azure DevOps
• Azure Event Grid
• Azure Event Grid Publish
• Azure File Storage
• Azure IoT Central
• Azure Kusto
• Azure Log Analytics
• Azure Log Analytics Data Collector
• Azure Queues
• Azure Resource Manager
• Azure SQL

[OneThing]

The Pricing for this change is going to make our use of PowerApps difficult to impossible.

Currently we are using approximately 20 PowerApps through our 365 Licences (1600 Staff).

Azure SQL instance for ~£400 / Year all connected to this.

Our new costs to develop 20 PowerApps after October and the change to premium will be $40 / User / Month.

So $768,000

That is a hell of a Jump! and basically means we can no longer use powerapps.

What are others in this situation planning to do. Change to MySQL, sharepoint?

The main issue is the data source becoming premium which we were repeatedly told by microsoft would never be changing from Standard!

Out plan of migrating a lot of our smaller App's to PowerApp's is basically unworkable now.

[OneThing]

This change to PowerApp's Connectors is basically killing our use of the platform.

We currently have about 20 app#s connected to a couple of Azure SQL instances.

~£400 / Year

Under the new pricing I'd been to pay $40 / user / month so with 1600 staff that makes $768,000.

This is beyond crazy!

[seanbrogan]

@OneThing 

FYI my plan is to move everything to SharePoint. I will not be sanctioning any more money going to microsoft off the back of these changes.

I expect to lose some functionality in the apps but it's either that or completely decommision them, and that would just be a complete waste of the last year of my life.

[Andy77-2]

Thanks for your reply. I think it is a very regretable decision by Microsoft as it pretty much screws a lot of existing PowerApp users. And I really struggle to understand how a stock standard connection like SQL Server can be considered "premium". It just stinks of greed and I think it will backfire.