Data. It’s a small word with massive impact, powering every decision, every strategy, and every customer interaction. Whether you’re a startup or a global enterprise, reliable data is the foundation of how you operate, innovate, and grow.
But simply having data isn’t enough. You need to capture it securely, access it quickly, and analyze it in real-time to drive smarter, faster, and more informed decisions. Unfortunately, many organizations still struggle to unlock the full value of their data. In fact, recent reports show that nearly 55% of collected data remains unused, sitting idle while opportunities pass by.
That’s where Microsoft Dataverse comes in. Designed to help businesses harness their data more effectively, Dataverse offers a secure, scalable, and unified platform for storing, managing, and analyzing information across apps and workflows.
So, what exactly is Microsoft Dataverse, and is all the buzz in 2025 truly justified? Keep reading to find out why Dataverse is becoming a game-changer for data-driven organizations.
Looking Beneath the Hood: What is Microsoft Dataverse, Exactly?
Building a modern data infrastructure that’s secure, scalable, and agile enough to adapt to future demands is no small feat.
Today’s data floods in from every direction, structured and unstructured, from apps, devices, and cloud services. Yet the pressure remains the same: turn it into actionable insights fast, or risk falling behind.
Sure, you could hire a team of developers to build a custom data platform from scratch. But between the cost of development, deployment, configuration, and ongoing maintenance, not to mention the time and effort from your internal teams, you’re looking at a massive investment with no guaranteed return.
Fortunately, there’s a smarter, more efficient path forward: Microsoft Dataverse.
Originally launched in November 2020 (formerly known as the Common Data Service), Microsoft Dataverse was built to simplify how organizations manage and use data. It provides a secure, compliant, and globally available platform that scales with your business.
Dataverse empowers you to unify data from multiple sources, regardless of format, and transform it into real-time, actionable insights. Whether you’re building low-code apps with Power Platform or integrating with Dynamics 365, Dataverse is the engine that keeps your data connected, consistent, and ready for decision-making.
What Versions of Microsoft Dataverse Are There?
Microsoft Dataverse is available in two distinct versions, each designed to meet different organizational needs:
Microsoft Dataverse
This is the full-featured, premium edition that requires a Power Apps premium license. It enables organizations to build scalable, secure, and externally accessible apps across multiple platforms, including web, mobile, and custom interfaces. It supports advanced data modeling, integration, and governance features ideal for enterprise-grade solutions.
Microsoft Dataverse for Teams
This is the lightweight, free edition included with Microsoft Teams. It allows users to build low-code apps directly within Teams, but is limited to internal use and offers fewer customization and integration capabilities compared to the full version.
Microsoft Dataverse is a core component of the Microsoft Power Platform, making it inherently low-code. That means your team doesn’t need deep programming expertise to start building apps, automating workflows, and unlocking powerful data insights, just the right tools and a bit of creativity.
How Does the Microsoft Dataverse Work?
Microsoft Dataverse is a cloud-based relational database platform that powers data storage and management across the Microsoft Power Platform and Dynamics 365. Like any traditional database, it organizes data into tables, commonly referred to as Dataverse tables.
Each table consists of rows (formerly called records) and columns (formerly known as fields or attributes). Every column is designed to store a specific type of data, such as names, dates, numbers, or currency values.
What makes Dataverse especially powerful is its built-in set of standard tables that address common business scenarios, like contacts, accounts, and activities. You can also create custom tables tailored to your organization’s unique needs and populate them using tools like Power Query.
Once your data is structured in Dataverse, your team, including citizen developers, can use Power Apps to build low-code applications that interact with this data. These apps can be deployed across web, mobile, and Microsoft Teams, enabling real-time insights and streamlined workflows without the need for deep coding expertise.
What Kind of Data Does the Dataverse Work With?
As mentioned earlier, Microsoft Dataverse is designed to work with virtually any type of data. It supports a wide range of data technologies your organization may rely on, including structured and unstructured formats, relational and non-relational models, files, images, search indexes, and even data lakes.
To make working with this data seamless, Dataverse includes built-in visual designers that allow users to create, edit, and interact with data models without writing code. These tools make it easy to define tables, relationships, business rules, workflows, and forms, giving you a complete representation of your business logic in one unified platform.
How Much Data Can You Store In Dataverse?
Storage capacity in Dataverse depends on your licensing plan and usage. You can monitor your organization’s storage entitlement and consumption, broken down by database, file, and log, directly in the Power Platform admin center.
While default storage allocations may vary, organizations using Power Apps typically receive baseline capacity with their subscription. Additional storage can be purchased as needed, and premium plans offer expanded limits and capabilities.
If you’re using Power Apps, your license already includes access to Dataverse, so there’s no need for separate licensing. This makes it easy to start building apps and managing data without additional overhead.
Whether you’re storing customer records, managing workflows, or integrating with external systems, Dataverse provides the flexibility and scalability to grow with your business.
Is Microsoft Dataverse Secure?
Absolutely. Microsoft Dataverse is built with enterprise-grade security at its core, ensuring your teams can collaborate and access data with minimal friction—while maintaining strict protection over sensitive information and services.
Dataverse leverages Microsoft Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) for identity and access management. This ensures that only authorized users can access your environment, business data, and reports, using secure authentication protocols and role-based permissions.
Security roles in Dataverse are grouped and assigned based on business units, teams, or individual users. This allows for flexible access control across your organization, tailored to specific responsibilities and data needs.
For even more granular control, Dataverse supports column-level security, enabling you to restrict access to specific fields within a table, perfect for scenarios where sensitive data must be tightly managed.
Dataverse also includes two hierarchical security models:
- Position Hierarchy: Allows data access across business units, ideal for customer service or operations teams where managers need visibility across multiple departments.
- Manager Hierarchy: Restricts access to data within the same or parent business unit, making it a better fit for finance or compliance-driven organizations that require tighter data boundaries.
With these layered security features, Microsoft Dataverse empowers organizations to maintain control, ensure compliance, and protect data integrity, without compromising productivity.
Dataverse vs. Common Data Service: Out With the Old, In With the New
If everything you’ve read so far sounds familiar, that’s because Microsoft Dataverse isn’t entirely new. It’s the evolved version of what was previously known as the Common Data Service (CDS). And if you’re just now hearing about the name change, you’re not alone.
Before we go further, let’s clarify one common point of confusion: CDS is not the same as CDM (Common Data Model). CDM refers to the standardized data schema used to ensure consistency across apps and services, while CDS, now Dataverse, is the platform that stores and manages that data.
The name change to Dataverse was introduced to make the platform more approachable and better aligned with Microsoft’s broader Power Platform vision. Briefly rebranded as Microsoft Dataflex in 2020, the name was quickly updated to Dataverse, which has since become the standard.
So, what’s the real difference between Dataverse and CDS? Functionally, not much has changed. The core capabilities remain the same, secure, scalable, low-code data management across Microsoft apps. However, the branding and user experience have been refined to make the platform more intuitive and accessible.
Even today, you may still encounter references to CDS within the Microsoft ecosystem, but rest assured: Dataverse is the future, and it’s here to stay.
What Are the Primary Benefits that the Dataverse Brings Forth?
Microsoft Dataverse offers a wide range of benefits that modern organizations simply can’t afford to overlook. Yet many teams still aren’t fully aware of the platform’s powerful capabilities. Let’s take a closer look at some of the most impactful advantages Dataverse delivers in 2025:
1. Endless Integration Possibilities
Dataverse is unmatched when it comes to integration. It connects seamlessly with Microsoft 365, Dynamics 365, Power Platform, and countless third-party systems. Whether you’re pulling data from spreadsheets, syncing with CRM tools, or building low-code apps, Dataverse makes it easy, often with little to no coding required.
With pre-built connectors like the Microsoft Dataverse Connector and Dynamics 365 Connector, enterprise-level scenarios become simple to execute. That means fewer manual tasks, faster workflows, and more time spent on strategic work that drives results.
2. Simple and Secure Management
Dataverse simplifies data management while giving you confidence in its security and reliability. Once set up, managing your data and metadata is straightforward. Everything is stored securely in the cloud, reducing the burden on IT teams and eliminating the stress of data loss or mismanagement.
No more late-night troubleshooting or emergency calls, just reliable, centralized data management.
3. Powerful Analytics and Insights
Data-driven organizations outperform their peers, and Dataverse helps you get there. With native support for Power BI, you can quickly generate paginated reports, interactive dashboards, and visualizations that turn raw data into actionable insights.
This empowers your team to make smarter decisions, faster, without needing a data science degree.
4. Real-Time Data Sharing Across Apps
Dataverse excels at unifying data across applications. If your organization uses Dynamics 365, you’ll love how effortlessly data flows between apps, no more switching tabs or juggling disconnected systems.
This real-time data sharing enables smarter, faster decision-making and creates a more agile, responsive business environment.
5. Enterprise-Grade Security
Dataverse embeds security into every layer of its architecture. With role-based access control, column-level security, and integration with Azure Active Directory, you can manage permissions with precision and confidence.
Whether you’re authenticating users or restricting access to sensitive data, Dataverse gives you full control, without compromising usability.
6. Infinite Extensibility
Have a unique business function and are worried whether Dataverse can cater to it? Fret not, as Dataverse was built with that bottleneck in mind.
The Dataverse schema is flexible and scalable, easily extended or customized to support any function, regardless of complexity. Specifically, several extensibility options are built into the platform, including business process flow, business logic extension using plugins and workflows, and Power Automate.
Granted, you need this level of flexibility and extensibility to push your workflows to the next level.
Are You Ready to Get Started?
You’ve made it this far. So clearly, Microsoft Dataverse has already sparked your interest. The good news? You’re still early enough to ride the Dataverse wave and start unlocking its powerful benefits before your competitors do.
Understanding the value of this transformative Microsoft technology is just the beginning. The next step is knowing who to trust to help you implement it effectively and maximize its impact across your business. Luckily, we’ve got you covered.
At IncWorx Consulting, our team of senior-level, Gartner-recognized experts knows Microsoft Dataverse inside and out. We’re here to guide you through every step, from strategy and setup to optimization and scaling.
And we don’t stop at Dataverse. We’re also specialists in Power Automate, Microsoft Power Apps, Office 365, and Power BI, ready to help you unleash the full potential of the Microsoft ecosystem.
Reach out today, and let’s make your Microsoft technologies work smarter for you—not the other way around.
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