Two priorities are driving Microsoft PowerApps Portals product and licensing, manager explains

When Microsoft revealed PowerApps Portals earlier this year, people responded by launching a thousand test portals in the first week to see for themselves. That's according to Dileep Singh, principal program manager lead at Microsoft who has been the public face of the product in the lead up to its official launch, which is planned for the October 2019 release wave of the Microsoft Power Platform.

And while interest is not in question, Microsoft's priorities about the future of Portals have remained an open topic of discussion. In a newly released podcast with Microsoft MVPs and portal experts Colin Vermander and Nick Doelman, Singh talked about both the product roadmap and the controversial licensing and pricing model, identifying the priorities that seem to be driving the team's approach for the launch.

Highest among those priorities appear to be simplicity – both in structuring the licensing and in delivering the portal building experience – as well as in aligning with Microsoft's larger sales strategy. Singh explained in the discussion how Microsoft arrived at some of the most consequential decisions. He also emphasized that the October 2019 release is just the beginning for the next phase of Portals.

Understanding the 'why' of Portals licensing

Though the podcast interview was recorded in July, Singh's guidance has remained accurate through to the episode's release. It follows the updated pricing guidance last week by Microsoft which revealed a three-tier pricing model that relies on pre-purchasing access for external authenticated (per session) and anonymous users (per pageview).

Aside from the actual pricing structure, which some experts have warned will make larger legacy portal implementations too expensive to continue hosting, Singh addressed Microsoft's insistence on making it a pre-pay model. He said:

We considered [billing based on consumption], but it boils down to our selling motion. Most of Power Platform or Portals deals you see are driven by Office 365 commerce. Most deals are done in advance for an EA or through CSP, so all those budgets are pre-defined rather than post-event.

And he added:

It is a SaaS service not PaaS … we don't want to go down that route because it will be harder to budget for.