In my previous blog posts, I have discussed how to connect the custom Angular application to the Microsoft Dataverse through a web API. Today, I am going to compare Microsoft Dataverse to a traditional database management system like MySQL and discuss the main motivations behind using one technology over the other.
| Dataverse | MySQL | |
| Structure | Relational, non-relational | Relational only |
| Authentication | Secured through Azure Active Directory OAuth and OpenID authentication.. | Application security such as OAuth needs to be developed at the application layer. |
| API | OData APIs are supported out-of-the-box. | APIs need to be developed using backend tools like Node, ASP.Net etc. |
| Flexible | Somewhat. | Highly flexible. |
| Data Access | Built-in support for Power Apps.
Through REST APIs for the custom applications. |
Directly through a SQL code or through Object Relational Mappers (ORMs) like Entity Framework, Sequelize, TypeORM etc. |
| Non-structured support | Microsoft claims to use multiple type of storage to meet the specific customer needs. | Not supported. |
| User Management | Supported with user authentication through Azure AD. | Custom solution need to be developed for the user management. |
| Data Auditing | Supported. | Need to be developed. |
| Application Lifecyle Management Tools (ALM) | Supported. | Extra steps required such as migrations while using an ORM. |
| Pre-built UI templates | Metadata driven application design through model-driven Power Apps. | Not supported. |
| Industry accelerators | Microsoft provides pre-built industry verticals for different industries such as education, not for profit, automotive etc. | Through open-source community. |
| Infrastructure | Microsoft responsibility. | Customer’s responsibility. |
| AI-pairing such as GitHub Co-Pilot | Not supported because the data model is designed is mostly through a UI. | Rich support for modern-style pro-developers tooling. |
| Version control support | Supported only at the solution level. | Supported if the ORM is been used in a development workflow. |
| Typical skillset requirements | Understanding of the relational data modelling, familiarity with the cloud concepts. | Pro-developer with a specialized skillset required in relational database design and one of the modern programming language such as JavaScript, C#, Python etc. |
| When to use | The exact answer to this question is really depends on the specific problem you are dealing with. Following been used only as a guidance:
– Organization is already using Microsoft 365 or Microsoft Dynamics. – You want to integrate your app with other Microsoft infrastructure such as Logic Apps, Azure Data Lake etc. – Team is skilled on Microsoft .Net and related tooling. |
Use it
– When you want to control the entire application design. – Requires flexibility. – Not bound to Microsoft Azure.
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About Impulz Technologies LLC
Impulz Technologies, is a Silver Certified Microsoft Partner company. We specialize in the implementation, consulting and development of Microsoft Dynamics and Microsoft Power Platform. Impulz Technologies also provide staff augmentation services all across the US. For more information please contact us at 630-540-6302 or email us at info@impulztech.com