Common Data Service Expands Reach

• The Common Data Service, a hosted database service, has been improved and will be extended to support analytics.
• The service enables creation of data-driven customizations of Office 365 and Dynamics 365.
• It will support popular analytics tools like Power BI and Excel.
• Licensing costs could prevent some organizations from using the Common Data Service to its full potential.

New Common Data Service Offerings

Microsoft has announced changes to the Common Data Service (CDS) that rename the original service and introduce a new analytics component.

Common Data Service for Apps

The Common Data Service for Apps (CDS for Apps), previously called simply Common Data Service, is a Microsoft-hosted database service. It provides standard data schemas (such as “sales order,” “account contact,” and “product category”) and access to data for development tools, including PowerApps, Flow, and Power BI. These three tools are considered the logical successor to business tools like Visual Basic for Applications and Access. (See the illustration “Business Application Platform“.) They enable developers and power users to extend Office 365 services such as SharePoint Online, and they are the primary platform for creating custom applications in Dynamics 365. For these tools, CDS for Apps offers simpler data modeling and development than other database services such as Azure SQL Database. However, it has limitations on the data types and functionality it supports. CDS for Apps has received several new features that could make it more appealing to power users and developers who use it to customize hosted services. Recent improvements to CDS for Apps include the following: