What factors should be considered when choosing between Dataverse, SharePoint, and SQL Server as a Power Platform data source?
Question
Consider whether the solution needs advanced business logic, transactional processing, document management, or integration with existing enterprise databases.
Licensing, governance, ALM, data ownership, and long-term maintenance should also influence the decision.
The key is to select the data source that best fits the business requirements and future scalability, rather than simply choosing the easiest connector.
Answers
The choice should be driven by data characteristics, business requirements, security, scalability, transaction requirements, integration needs, and the capabilities of the Power Platform rather than simply choosing the technology a team already knows.
Dataverse is generally the strongest choice when the solution is centered around business applications, especially model-driven apps, Dynamics 365, relational business data, security roles, relationships, business rules, auditing, and integration with Power Platform services. It provides a platform-native data model with capabilities such as granular security, choice columns, relationships, business units, teams, and managed solutions.
SharePoint is better suited for document-centric scenarios, collaboration, lists, libraries, and relatively straightforward business data. It can work well when users already operate heavily within Microsoft 365 and the requirement is closely connected to documents and collaboration. However, using SharePoint lists as a substitute for a relational enterprise database can introduce limitations around complex relationships, transactional requirements, and large-scale data operations.
SQL Server/Azure SQL becomes particularly attractive when organizations already have enterprise relational databases, require complex SQL capabilities, need integration with existing applications, or have workloads where database-level control and performance optimization are important. With Power Platform, however, SQL connectivity can involve additional considerations around licensing, gateways for on-premises environments, delegation, security, and architecture.
A useful decision framework is:
Business application + relational Dataverse-native requirements → Dataverse
Documents/collaboration/simple lists → SharePoint
Enterprise relational data/legacy integration/advanced SQL workloads → SQL Server/Azure SQL
Expert takeaway: Don't ask "Which connector is easiest?" Ask "Where should the system of record live, and which platform provides the required security, transaction model, scalability, governance, and integration capabilities?" Also consider whether Power Platform should own the data or simply consume data owned by an existing enterprise system.