Needing standalone premium license for environments with dataverse attached

[PremiumRequired]

Hello Everyone,

Looking for advice. We have all of our users licensed with E3/G3 licenses, so the seed license that comes with that. As we build our standards and governance, we are creating additional environments for groups to build in, as it would not be suited for the default environment (personal productivity). 

What we have been doing, is creating an environment with Dataverse attached. This is required so our makers can use/create solutions to move between environments (dev/prod), along with approvals. Our Makers have the same E3/G3 license. They apps they are making do not use anything premium, only standard connectors, and not using Dataverse for anything, using SharePoint for data. 

This was all on the up and up as far as we knew due to staying with standard connectors and not using Dataverse. However, now MS is coming to us saying that if an environment has Dataverse attached, any user accessing the environment needs to have a standalone premium license. Being due to solutions storing data in Dataverse. This just doesn't add up from everything we are reading on any of the learn.microsoft documentation. Nothing states that what we are doing requires premium in anything I have read. 

Looking to see what others have experienced. We unfortunately do not have funding to get premium for all of our users. This would have significant impact on us, and possibly drive us to another platform (already have some licensing for it already).  What are you doing when you create environments? Do you use solutions? What level of license do you have?

We are in discussions with Microsoft on this with the "license specialist", but things are not matching up, and we are not getting yes/no answers. For instance, they told me Power Automate Desktop is "not allowed" with an E3/G3 license, but yet, if you look at the license guide PDF, it clearly shows desktop flows are included. I understand they are limited, but its far from "not allowed".  

Edit: I will add, that when I am reading the learn.microsoft documentation, nothing in the solutions section says you need premium for instance. What I am being told, and what I am reading on official MS documentation is not matching up. Not to mention, the system is letting me do all of this and not complaining about anything. 

TL:DR: 

• Environment with Dataverse attached
• Solutions are needed to package apps/flows
• No Dataverse usage for data
• Being told seeded E3/G3 license not enough to use these.

Thanks in advance for any advice! Licensing seems needlessly complicated.

[AlbertoCastro · Accepted solution]

Hi,

this doesn't have sense:

"However, now MS is coming to us saying that if an environment has Dataverse attached, any user accessing the environment needs to have a standalone premium"

I have environments with dataverse and users using it to create solution standard and they only have a office365 licenses.

I don't understand this message from your MS contact.

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Alberto

[PremiumRequired]

That's why I'm posting here. Our licensing "expert" and their technical person are insistent on it, but it doesn't make sense to me. We have had a call with our "client executive" as well (they appear to be higher in the chain). When I ask for clarification or for things in writing, they are very non-committal. It has been hard to get solid answers from them. 

[AlbertoCastro]

Then I don't know how I help you ‌. I hope that it's a mistake or missunderstood with this people.

Like I said, in our tenant, we don't need premium licenses to work with solutions.

Please review this recently post:

https://powerplatformuniverse.com/power-apps/when-you-dont-need-power-apps-premium-license/

How about Power Platform Solutions?
You don’t need Power Apps premium license to work with Power Platform Solutions. It’s the free utility of Power Platform that is widely accessible from the Power Apps Maker Portal and not only. I know that Solutions utilize Power Apps’ premium feature, which is Dataverse, but as long as you don’t use any custom Dataverse tables, a premium license isn’t required.

But you may need a Power Apps premium license to gain extra space to create new environments and increase capacity. If you work with solutions, you probably need to import them somewhere. So, if this is your goal, you will need some licenses to guarantee some required database capacity.
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Alberto

[PremiumRequired]

Thank you for the replies. This is what I was looking for, to see what others are doing. This lines up with what I have been reading too. 

Since solutions are standard to use, I would assume PCF components are similar, since I am not using DV directly? 

[AlbertoCastro]

In PCF terms, Premium license may be required:
PCF Licensing
Power Apps component framework licensing requirements are inline with existing connectors and components and are based on the type of data and connections used in your app. More information: Power Apps pricing. To align with the licensing requirements, we will be classifying code components into two types:

- Code components that connect to external services or data directly via the user's browser client and not through connectors are considered as premium. When these components are used in an app, the app becomes premium, and end-users are required to have Power Apps licenses.
- Code components that don't connect to external services or data. When these components are used in an app that uses standard features, the app remains standard, and end- users are required to be licensed at minimum for Office 365. More information: Power Apps pricing
- Code components can be declared as premium components by adding a <external-service-usage> node to the component's manifest file with all the external service domains this component is connecting to.

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/power-apps/developer/component-framework/overview#licensing

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[PremiumRequired]

Thank you again for the replies! Our call went well today, and we had the higher ups on the MS side. They walked back all they had said, and I now in the same boat, that an environment with Dataverse and solutions, as long as I have no premium connectors/features, I am good. Now just damage control internally. This is good for us to move forward and get this out in our org and build the platform. Not to mention my knowledge matches the documentation, which is helpful when explaining to others now.