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MSFT is just doing so well at getting "enterprise" lock-in, that I'm reluctant to conclude they are getting anything at all "mixed up" in their messaging to dec

MSFT is just doing so well at getting "enterprise" lock-in, that I'm reluctant to conclude they are getting anything at all "mixed up" in their messaging to decision-makers. At present they seem to be doing it exactly right for their business goals. I have worked at and know of so many place that are "no, you can't spend money on that product, you have to use the equivalent from MSFT that is already included in our deal." Which is one reason it might be in MSFT's benefit to convince you that their thing is in the same class as some other thing you could spend money on, or may already be spending money on. And also, yeah, they are indeed convincing decision-makerse that they meet everyone's use-case and is whatever you want it to be, it's working....

ajcp 5y ago
I agree. I think that's also true of all the cloud players these days honestly.
7952 5y ago
I work in an enterprise and use flow and other Power platform stuff. The sense I get is that management look at the headline features and see it as essentially safe. But Microsoft have included some features that will be exploited in unexpected ways that create a maintenance and security problem. A good example is that Flow/Power Automate can be triggered using an API end point. That can then be configured to provide a http response (including headers). It makes it super easy to setup APIs that have no security and expose corporate data. I think the Power platform is like a modern Excel. Simple and inoffensive at first glance. But full of features that let unskilled users do risky things that will quickly become business critical. But the convergence of Office 365, SharePoint, Flow, PowerBI and dynamics is unstoppable.
- russdpale 5y ago
  Ah yes, the one spread sheet that everyone uses but no one knows how it works! I've seen that so many times.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- zerkten 5y ago
  > But full of features that let unskilled users do risky things that will quickly become business critical. Isn't the answer the same as it has always been? That is, maintain a relationship with the business where you are trusted. When IT and the business units trust each other (to some extent) then you see better feedback cycles. This is an infrequent occurrence because of the attitudes of IT. When trust exists, the business areas will share information on their apps and partake in exercises to properly productionize apps. IT break trust in multiple ways often simultaneously. They try to stamp out apps without giving the business an interim solution, fail to communicate well, implement security policies which aren't grounded in good practice, etc. These are just a litany of missteps that you have to unravel when you are asked to recover situations like these.

ajcp 5y ago

I agree. I think that's also true of all the cloud players these days honestly.

7952 5y ago

I work in an enterprise and use flow and other Power platform stuff. The sense I get is that management look at the headline features and see it as essentially safe. But Microsoft have included some features that will be exploited in unexpected ways that create a maintenance and security problem. A good example is that Flow/Power Automate can be triggered using an API end point. That can then be configured to provide a http response (including headers). It makes it super easy to setup APIs that have no security and expose corporate data. I think the Power platform is like a modern Excel. Simple and inoffensive at first glance. But full of features that let unskilled users do risky things that will quickly become business critical. But the convergence of Office 365, SharePoint, Flow, PowerBI and dynamics is unstoppable.

russdpale 5y ago
Ah yes, the one spread sheet that everyone uses but no one knows how it works! I've seen that so many times.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
zerkten 5y ago
> But full of features that let unskilled users do risky things that will quickly become business critical. Isn't the answer the same as it has always been? That is, maintain a relationship with the business where you are trusted. When IT and the business units trust each other (to some extent) then you see better feedback cycles. This is an infrequent occurrence because of the attitudes of IT. When trust exists, the business areas will share information on their apps and partake in exercises to properly productionize apps. IT break trust in multiple ways often simultaneously. They try to stamp out apps without giving the business an interim solution, fail to communicate well, implement security policies which aren't grounded in good practice, etc. These are just a litany of missteps that you have to unravel when you are asked to recover situations like these.