What's the big deal with PowerApps and Flow?

Yesterday Microsoft announced the general availability of Microsoft Flow and PowerApps, which enable people to automate workflows and quickly build custom apps that suit their specific needs. This was a super awesome announcement for anyone who had Office 365 and all their data was available in the cloud, but for those of us who had on premise data the apps where absolutely useless marketing fluff.

Microsoft have made some really smart moves as of late and their most recent to really back Hybrid SharePoint is by far the best. PowerApps and Flow will now use an On-Premises Data Gateway, which means that the apps will be able to access data across all platforms. This is super awesome news for everyone, you get PowerApps and Flow you get PowerApps and Flow everyone get PowerApps and Flow!

But wait there is more!

Here is a list of the super awesome cool new features of available to everyone in a hybrid world.

• You’ll be able to launch PowerApps directly from the SharePoint mobile app.
  
• Modern document libraries will be made available as a data source for PowerApps and Microsoft Flow.
  
• For Microsoft Flow, you’ll be able to run any flow on demand for a specific document or list item, in addition to waiting for an automated trigger to fire.
  
• Using the data gateway, PowerApps and Microsoft Flow will work with on-premises data in SQL and SharePoint as simply as cloud-based data.
  
• Deeper integration of Power BI with SharePoint Online. Business process requires more than data and automation. Power BI has been a leader in visualization analytics, and soon you’ll be able to embed visualizations and charts from Power BI directly into a SharePoint team site. 
  

Yes you heard right, you will be able to embed Power BI into SharePoint!

So there you have it, that’s what the big deal is with PowerApps, Flow and let’s not forget Power BI.  Good times 🙂