What is a Microsoft Release Wave?
Microsoft is now releasing a “release wave plan” for the Microsoft Power Platform and Microsoft 365 Dynamics for the third year. The second release wave of the year includes the new features that will be rolled out between September and March of the following year.
The updates to the Power Platform are of course over Power BI, Power Apps, Power Apps Pages, Power Automate, Copilot and AI Builder. Of course, this includes the Copilot and AI updates, but issues such as full-code development, governance and security are high on the agenda.
By the way, via the link above, you can also find the entire release schedule with all data, updates and how you can possibly get earlier access to the beta to experiment for yourself.
Our Top 3 of Release Wave 2 🏆
Ok, these are the developments that we are most excited about:
1. Source code for Canvas ⚒️
The source code of canvas apps could always be accessed by exporting solutions, unpacking them and then viewing the individual yaml files, but that was always a lot of extra work. With the latest update, it is possible to update the full source code automatically stored in a git repository. That means we can start thinking about automatically generating canvas apps and that AI tools like GitHub Copilot can now access that source code, which will improve AI functionality for canvas apps.
A few more advantages: from now on, you can update your apps without the need for the designer and you can link your own processes to these apps even more easily.
We develop a lot of canvas apps, so in our opinion, this is the most promising release wave update.
2. Upload image for Copilots 📷
This new feature in Copilot makes it possible to provide image-based responses with generative AI. This is because Copilot gets full support for uploading files and images in a conversation.
“But wait a minute,” we, as developers, immediately think. “That also means that we can start making great things with uploads in our own co-pilots.” Think of uploading receipts, which we can then scan, process and declare automatically based on generative AI or our own AI models.
And so, we still have a few ideas for how to use this new feature.
3. Security posture 🔓
Of course, you know that security is an important topic. With the new security options in the Power Platform Admin Center, you now get pre-configured security settings as a starting point, while the Action Center guides you in implementing the necessary security measures. So you can now tailor a proactive security policy to your specific requirements and minimize risks before they occur.
But with reactive governance you also get customized insights. Based on how your environment looks, the Admin Center then gives you targeted recommendations and tasks to improve your security.
But the list is much longer!
Release Wave 2 brings us a whole list of Power Platform improvements and enhancements. You can view the full overview here. You now know our top 3. I wonder what your top 3 looks like!
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