Microsoft Power Platform environments are containers used to store, manage, and share business data, apps, flows, and other resources. These environments help the university segment their development, testing, and production efforts, enforce security boundaries, and manage access and lifecycle operations effectively.

The environments available at Virginia Tech are: Personal Productivity, Developer, Sandbox, and Production. Each environment is tied to Virginia Tech’s Microsoft Entra tenant and has its own benefits and restrictions.

General Notes

• If you need to utilize premium or third-party connectors in the Developer, Sandbox, or Production environment, please submit a request at Marketplace App Requests. The Personal Productivity environment does not allow integrations.
• If you have user or environment-based licensing questions, please submit a request to discuss you situation at CCS Services Consultation.

Personal Productivity Environment

Also known as the Default environment, this is a predefined type of environment intended for experimentation, exploration, and lightweight app trial development. The Personal Productivity environment doesn't provide any backup guarantees and shouldn't be used for production workloads. [i]

• Purpose:
  • Automatically created for each tenant
  • Limited environment shared by all users
• Characteristics:
  • Intended for personal productivity apps and flows
  • All users are added to the Maker role by default
• Limitations:
  • Cannot share with anyone else
  • Cannot use 3^rd party or premium connectors
• Best Use: Lightweight apps, personal automation, and experimentation
• Access: Go to make.powerapps.com for Power Apps and select Personal Productivity under the Environment dropdown

Developer Environment

Developer environments are special environments intended only for use by the owner for learning, prototyping, and early app development.[i]

• Purpose: Personal development and prototyping
• Characteristics:
  • Available with the Power Apps Developer Plan license which is included in an A5 license
  • Each user can self-provision a developer environment
  • No additional cost for app or Dataverse use
  • 3^rd party or premium connectors can be requested at <LINK>
  • You can share an application with up to 4 Virginia Tech individuals
• Limitations:
  • Not suitable for team-based, production apps, or large audiences
  • Cannot add pay-as-you-go subscription
• Best Use: Learning, building personal apps, and testing features
• Access:
  • Go to one of these environments. Your Developer environment will be deployed for you if this is your first time accessing one of the links above.
    • make.powerapps.com
    • flow.microsoft.com
    • powerautomate.microsoft.com
    • powerplatform.microsoft.com
  • Select Developer under the Environment dropdown. 

Sandbox Environment

This is a nonproduction environment, which offers features like copy and reset. Sandbox environments are used for development and testing, prior to production. Provisioning sandbox environments is restricted to admins. [i]

• Purpose: Testing and User Acceptance Testing (UAT)
• Characteristics:
  • Isolated from production
  • Can be reset to a clean state
  • Supports advanced development and testing scenarios
  • 3^rd party or premium connectors can be requested at <LINK – Premium connectors SCE>
  • You can request a production (for release to your department or larger university audiences) environment when testing is complete. Please check with your IT department first to determine if one already exists.
  • You can share an application with up to 10 Virginia Tech individuals
• Limitations:
  • Not suitable for team-based or production apps
  • Requires a consultation for deployment
• Best Use: Validating app features, testing integrations, and experimenting safely.
• Access:
  • Go to make.powerapps.com
  • Select Sandbox under the Environment dropdown

Production Environment

This is intended to be used for permanent workflows in an organization. It is for approved, licensed, and fully supported apps, flows, and agents that are ready for departmental or broad university use. It can be created and owned by anyone with a Power Apps license, provided there's 1 GB available database capacity. [i]

• Purpose: Hosting live business applications.
• Characteristics:
  • High availability and performance.
  • Intended for stable, operational apps.
  • Supports full lifecycle management.
  • Shareable with larger audiences (department, university, etc.)
• Limitations:
  • Requires a license to operate
  • Requires a consultation for deployment
  • Direct edits are not allowed
• Best Use: Mission-critical apps, enterprise workflows, and customer-facing solutions.
• Best Practices:
  • Restrict access to admins and makers.
  • Monitor usage and apply governance policies.
• Access:
  • Go to make.powerapps.com
  • Select Production under the Environment dropdown

References

[i] learn.microsoft.com