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Microsoft Rethinks Self-Service Purchasing for Power Platform

In response to concerns, Microsoft this week delayed its plans to allow end users to buy Power Platform products outside of IT controls.

According to a Thursday update to Microsoft's self-service purchase FAQ, end users will still be able to buy Power Platform plans without consulting IT departments, but that capability will now start on Jan. 14 instead of Nov. 19, as was previously planned. In addition, IT pros will be able to turn off the Power Platform self-service purchasing capability beforehand "on a per product basis via PowerShell" starting on Nov. 19.

Last month, Microsoft had indicated that was not going to permit Power Platform self-service purchasing blocking by organizations. It changed course, though, in response to "customer feedback," according to the updated FAQ. (Microsoft had originally claimed it had added self-service purchasing because of customer feedback.)

A UserVoice Office 365 thread requesting that Microsoft add the ability to block self-service purchasing for Power Platform products (such as Power BI, PowerApps and Microsoft Flow) had 6,967 up-votes as of press time. Some of those respondents had wanted self-service purchasing turned off by default, which had been the previous policy.

IT departments typically control software purchasing as a security measure to keep end users from buying and using insecure apps, which is dubbed "shadow IT." It's also done to control costs.

There's still no promised graphical user interface available for IT pros to turn off the self-service purchasing capability. Instructions on how to use PowerShell to block Power Platform self-service purchasing wasn't available in the FAQ at press time.

Microsoft indicated at the UserVoice portal that IT pros should "check MC193609 in your Message center to see the details" of its policy change.

Microsoft's obscure FAQ update was noticed on Thursday by veteran Microsoft reporter Mary Jo Foley, who wrote about it in this ZDNet article.

About the Author

Kurt Mackie is senior news producer for 1105 Media's Converge360 group.

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