Microsoft Dataverse is the data platform that powers Dynamics 365 and the Power Platform. It provides a governed, cloud-based database with 400+ standard tables, enterprise security, and native integration with Power Apps, Power Automate, Power BI, and Copilot Studio. EPC Group has architected Dataverse solutions for Fortune 500 and regulated-industry clients for 29 years.
Key Facts
- 400+ standard tables following the Common Data Model (Account, Contact, Opportunity, Case, and more).
- File and image storage up to 128 MB per file directly in Dataverse.
- Elastic tables backed by Azure Cosmos DB handle IoT and telemetry data at sub-millisecond latency.
- Compliance certifications: HIPAA BAA, SOC 2 Type II, FedRAMP High, ISO 27001/27017/27018.
- Licensed independently via Power Apps plans — no Dynamics 365 license required.
- 10 GB base capacity per tenant; expandable with add-on licenses.
Dynamics 365 Dataverse: Store, Secure, and Build Apps from Core Business Data
Microsoft Dataverse is the intelligent data platform that underpins the entire Dynamics 365 and Power Platform ecosystem, providing a secure, scalable, and governed foundation for storing core business data and building enterprise applications. With 29 years of Microsoft consulting experience, our team at EPC Group has architected Dataverse solutions for organizations ranging from mid-market companies to Fortune 500 enterprises across healthcare, finance, and government.
What Is Microsoft Dataverse?
Dataverse (formerly the Common Data Service) is a cloud-based, low-code data platform that enables organizations to securely store and manage business data used by Dynamics 365 applications, Power Apps, Power Automate, and Power BI. It provides a standardized schema of tables (formerly entities), columns, relationships, and business logic that eliminates the need to build custom databases for every business application.
At its core, Dataverse is built on top of Azure SQL Database and Azure Cosmos DB, giving it enterprise-grade performance, automatic scaling, and geographic redundancy. Every Dynamics 365 application -- whether Finance, Sales, Customer Service, or Field Service -- stores its data in Dataverse, creating a single source of truth across your entire business operation.
Core Capabilities of Dataverse
- Standard and Custom Tables: Dataverse includes over 400 standard tables (Account, Contact, Opportunity, Case, etc.) that follow the Common Data Model specification. You can extend these or create entirely custom tables to model your unique business data without writing a single line of SQL.
- Rich Data Types: Support for text, number, currency, date/time, lookup, choice, image, file attachment, and calculated columns. Formula columns (powered by Power Fx) allow Excel-like expressions that compute automatically.
- Relationships: One-to-many, many-to-one, and many-to-many relationships between tables with referential integrity enforcement, cascade rules, and automatic lookup resolution.
- Business Rules and Logic: Define server-side business rules that validate data, set default values, show/hide fields, and enforce business logic without code. These rules execute consistently whether data is entered through a model-driven app, canvas app, API, or data import.
- Calculated and Rollup Columns: Automatically compute values based on formulas or aggregate child records. For example, roll up all invoice line items to a total on the invoice header.
- File and Image Storage: Store documents, images, and attachments directly in Dataverse with configurable size limits up to 128 MB per file.
- Elastic Tables: For high-volume, low-latency scenarios (IoT data, telemetry, logs), elastic tables backed by Azure Cosmos DB handle millions of rows with sub-millisecond reads.
Enterprise Security in Dataverse
Dataverse provides the most granular security model of any low-code data platform, making it ideal for compliance-heavy industries:
| Security Layer | Description | Use Case |
|---|---|---|
| Security Roles | Assign CRUD permissions per table with organization, business unit, parent-child, or user-level scope | Role-based access (Sales Manager, Finance Analyst) |
| Business Units | Hierarchical organizational units that partition data visibility | Multi-division, multi-country organizations |
| Teams | Owner teams and access teams for group-based record sharing | Project teams, regional teams |
| Field-Level Security | Restrict read/write access to specific columns | SSN, salary, PHI data in HIPAA environments |
| Column Encryption | Encrypt sensitive columns at rest with customer-managed keys | PII, financial data, health records |
| Audit Logging | Complete audit trail of all data changes with user, timestamp, old/new values | SOC 2, HIPAA, regulatory compliance |
Building Applications on Dataverse
Dataverse serves as the foundation for three types of applications within the Microsoft ecosystem:
- Model-Driven Apps: Automatically generate full-featured business applications from your Dataverse data model. The UI is driven by the table structure, forms, views, and dashboards you configure -- no front-end coding required. These apps include navigation, search, filtering, record creation, and inline editing out of the box.
- Canvas Apps: Build pixel-perfect custom UIs using a drag-and-drop designer with Power Fx formulas. Canvas apps connect to Dataverse as a data source and support offline mode, barcode scanning, GPS, camera, and other mobile capabilities.
- Custom Pages: A hybrid approach that embeds canvas app components within model-driven apps for scenarios requiring both data-driven layouts and custom UI elements.
All three app types share the same Dataverse security model, ensuring consistent data governance regardless of how users access the data.
Integration and API Access
Dataverse exposes a comprehensive set of APIs for integration with external systems:
- Web API (OData v4): RESTful endpoints for CRUD operations, queries, and batch operations from any HTTP client.
- Organization Service (.NET SDK): Strongly typed .NET client for high-performance server-side integrations.
- Power Automate Connectors: Over 1,000 pre-built connectors enable no-code integration with Salesforce, SAP, Oracle, ServiceNow, and hundreds of other platforms.
- Azure Synapse Link: Continuously replicate Dataverse data to Azure Synapse Analytics for large-scale reporting, data warehousing, and machine learning without impacting the operational database.
- Virtual Tables: Present external data (SQL Server, SharePoint, Azure SQL) as native Dataverse tables without data movement, enabling real-time access within apps and workflows.
- Dataverse Webhooks and Service Bus: Event-driven integration for real-time notifications when data changes.
Why Choose EPC Group for Dataverse Implementation
Our 29 years of Microsoft consulting experience includes hundreds of Dataverse implementations across every major industry. We bring enterprise-grade expertise to every project:
- Data model design: We architect Dataverse schemas that are performant, extensible, and aligned with the Common Data Model to ensure long-term maintainability.
- Security architecture: Our consultants design security role hierarchies that enforce least-privilege access while maintaining usability for HIPAA, SOC 2, and FedRAMP compliance.
- Migration expertise: We migrate data from legacy databases, spreadsheets, SAP, Oracle, and custom applications into Dataverse with full data validation and reconciliation.
- Power Platform integration: We build end-to-end solutions that combine Dataverse with Power Apps, Power Automate, Power BI, and Copilot Studio.
- Performance optimization: We tune Dataverse environments for high-volume transactional workloads, ensuring sub-second response times at scale.
Start Building on Dataverse Today
Whether you are launching a new Dynamics 365 deployment or extending your existing environment with custom applications, our Dataverse architects can design a solution that scales with your business. Contact us for a complimentary architecture review.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the difference between Dataverse and a traditional SQL database?
Dataverse is a managed platform built on Azure SQL that adds security roles, business logic, audit logging, API endpoints, and a standardized data model on top of the raw database engine. Unlike a traditional SQL database where you manage schemas, backups, scaling, and security yourself, Dataverse handles all of this automatically. You define tables, columns, and relationships through a visual designer or solution files, and the platform handles indexing, replication, and compliance.
How much data can Dataverse handle?
Dataverse includes a base capacity of 10 GB per tenant with additional capacity available through add-on licenses. Standard tables can handle tens of millions of rows with proper indexing. For high-volume scenarios requiring billions of rows (IoT, telemetry, event logs), elastic tables backed by Azure Cosmos DB provide virtually unlimited horizontal scaling with sub-millisecond latency.
Is Dataverse compliant with HIPAA and SOC 2?
Yes. Dataverse holds HIPAA BAA coverage, SOC 1 and SOC 2 Type II attestations, FedRAMP High authorization, ISO 27001/27017/27018 certification, and over 90 other compliance certifications. Field-level security, column encryption with customer-managed keys, and comprehensive audit logging make it suitable for storing PHI, PII, and financial data in regulated industries.
Can we use Dataverse without Dynamics 365?
Yes. Dataverse can be licensed independently through Power Apps per-app or per-user plans without requiring any Dynamics 365 licenses. This makes it ideal for building standalone business applications with Power Apps and Power Automate. You also get a limited version called Dataverse for Teams included with Microsoft 365 licenses, though it has reduced capacity and feature limitations.
How do we migrate data from our existing systems into Dataverse?
EPC Group uses multiple migration approaches depending on the source system and data volume. For smaller datasets, the built-in Excel import or the Dataverse connector in Power Automate works well. For large-scale migrations from SAP, Oracle, or legacy SQL databases, we use Azure Data Factory pipelines with custom transformation logic. We always perform a pilot migration, data validation, and reconciliation before the final cutover to ensure accuracy.
Dynamics 365 Implementation: 2026 Considerations for Dynamics 365 Dataverse Store Secure And Build Apps From Core Business Data
Dynamics 365 in 2026 is structured into 3 commercial app families: Customer Engagement (Sales, Customer Service, Field Service, Marketing) at $65-$210/user/month, Finance & Operations (Finance, Supply Chain Management, Commerce, HR) at $180-$210/user/month, and Business Central (small/midsize ERP) at $70-$100/user/month. Selection criteria are organization size, vertical-specific functionality requirements, and Microsoft 365 ecosystem fit.
Power Platform integration is the dominant Dynamics 365 differentiator in 2026: Power Automate workflows, Power Apps custom screens, Copilot Studio agents, and Dataverse as the unified data layer make Dynamics 365 deployments materially more extensible than Salesforce alternatives at the same price point. EPC Group typical Dynamics 365 implementation includes 8-15 Power Platform extensions as part of the base scope.
Decision factors EPC Group evaluates
- Customer Engagement vs Finance & Operations vs Business Central app-family selection
- Migration from Salesforce/SAP/Oracle with phased coexistence
- Power Platform extensibility scope (Power Automate, Power Apps, Copilot Studio)
- Microsoft Cloud for Industry verticalization (Healthcare, Financial Services, Retail, Manufacturing)
- Dataverse data model design for cross-app reporting
EPC Group covers this topic across the relevant engagement portfolio. Reach the firm at contact@epcgroup.net for a 30-minute architect conversation.
Dynamics 365 Dataverse Store Secure and Build Apps From Core Business Data delivered by senior Microsoft architects
EPC Group delivers Dynamics 365 Dataverse Store Secure and Build Apps From Core Business Data as a core practice within the Microsoft consulting portfolio. Engagements are led by senior architects with hands-on Fortune 500 delivery experience and a bench of hundreds of Microsoft-certified consultants spanning SharePoint, Microsoft 365, Power BI, Azure, Microsoft Copilot, and Microsoft Purview.
Every Dynamics 365 Dataverse Store Secure and Build Apps From Core Business Data engagement is engineered for the regulatory and operational environment it serves. Healthcare deployments carry HIPAA controls from day one; financial services deployments meet SOC 2 and FINRA retention requirements; government deployments map to FedRAMP and CMMC controls with audit-ready evidence.
Fixed-fee accelerators with real scope
Predictable scope, predictable price, predictable outcome. Copilot Readiness, Security Hardening, Tenant Health Check, SharePoint Migration, and Teams Governance ship as defined accelerators where Big 4 firms quote open-ended time-and-materials. Most projects land in the $25K-$150K range for accelerators or $150K-$750K for full programs.
How EPC Group engages
Six-phase methodology applied to every engagement, compressed for fixed-fee accelerators and extended for full programs.
- Discovery — two-week assessment of the current estate, gap analysis, risk register, target architecture, costed remediation roadmap.
- Design — senior architect produces the target topology, identity framework, Conditional Access, Purview, governance model, and security posture, reviewed by client leads.
- Pilot — 25 to 100 user pilot in a real business unit. Migrate, apply baselines, test integrations, capture feedback.
- Wave rollout — migrate in waves of 500 to 2,500 users with communications, training, hypercare, and a per-wave retrospective.
- Adoption — role-based training, Champions network, executive sponsor enablement, metrics tracked against a measured baseline.
- Operate — optional managed-services retainer for license optimization, governance reviews, security monitoring, and quarterly business reviews.
Government and defense contractors
For federal agencies and CMMC-regulated suppliers, EPC Group delivers FedRAMP Moderate and High posture, GCC and GCC High tenants, CUI handling, and ITAR-controlled data segregation. Errin O'Connor (CEO and founder) is a contributor to the FedRAMP framework; that direct authorship shows up in how we architect Conditional Access for government endpoints.
Healthcare and life sciences
For hospitals, payors, and pharmaceutical companies, EPC Group enforces HIPAA, business associate agreements, and Microsoft Purview sensitivity labels for protected health information. Epic and Cerner integration patterns are part of our regulated-industry library, alongside 21 CFR Part 11 e-signature controls for clinical trials and validated SharePoint document workflows for life-sciences manufacturing.
Microsoft-only since 1997
29 years of Microsoft-exclusive consulting. Microsoft Solutions Partner with core designations across Modern Work, Security, and Data & AI.
EPC Group was the oldest continuous Microsoft Gold Partner in North America from 2016 until program retirement in 2022. Errin O'Connor authored four Microsoft Press bestsellers covering Power BI, SharePoint, Azure, and large-scale migrations.
Engagement models
Three engagement models cover most enterprise needs. Most clients start with a fixed-fee accelerator and grow into a full program or a managed-services retainer.
- Fixed-fee accelerators — Copilot Readiness, Security Hardening, Tenant Health Check, SharePoint Migration, Teams Governance. Defined scope and price. Typical range $25,000 to $150,000 over four to twelve weeks.
- Project engagements — full migration or governance program with milestone-based billing. Discovery through hypercare. Typical range $150,000 to $750,000-plus over three to nine months.
- Managed services — tiered retainer for ongoing operations. Named senior architect on the account. From $3,500 per month with a twelve-month minimum.
Talk to a senior architect
30-minute discovery call. No pitch deck. Call (888) 381-9725 or schedule a discovery call and a senior architect responds within one business day.