Sharing Power Apps
When using a group to share a Power App, both security groups and Microsoft 365 (M365) groups are options.
Each type of group has its own benefits and limitations, depending on your needs.
In this post, we’ll explore the advantages and key differences between sharing a Power App with security groups V Microsoft 365 groups.
Advantages of Sharing with a Security Group
Simplified Access Control
- Security groups are purely about access control. They don’t come with the added features (or complexity) of M365 groups, making them a good fit when you only want to control access to the app.
Control & Scalability
- Security groups are commonly used across various Azure AD-integrated applications, offering more flexibility when dealing with complex security scenarios like conditional access policies or MFA requirements for specific apps. They are a scalable solution for environments where collaboration features aren’t necessary.
External Users
- If your Power App is being shared with external users (guests), security groups can manage access to the app without also granting access to collaboration tools like a mailbox or SharePoint, which would be the case with M365 groups.
Auditing & Compliance
- Security groups provide straightforward management and might be preferred for auditing purposes, especially when access needs to be tightly controlled and monitored.
Advantages of Sharing with an M365 Group
Collaboration Tools
- M365 groups come with a full suite of collaboration tools, including a shared mailbox, calendar, SharePoint site, and Teams integration. This makes M365 groups a good choice when app users also collaborate using these resources alongside the app. This approach would be beneficial when the Power App is just one part of a larger collaborative eco-system.
- Sharing Power Apps with M365 groups is especially useful if your app is embedded within Microsoft Teams, as the group will have access to the Teams environment.
Dynamic Group Membership
- Dynamic Microsoft 365 (M365) groups are groups in Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) where the membership is automatically managed based on user attributes, rather than manually adding or removing users. Rules are defined to include or exclude members based on these attributes, such as department, location, job title, or other custom properties in Azure AD. For example, a dynamic M365 group could be created where all users with the “Department” attribute set to “Sales” are automatically added. As new users join or leave the organization or change roles, their membership in the group is updated dynamically without manual intervention.
- Dynamic M365 groups can be especially helpful in large organizations where manual group management would be too time-consuming. If Dynamic M365 groups are used in your organisation, using them to share Power Apps could be a good choice, rather than creating a separate security group.
Conclusion
Choosing between security groups and M365 groups for sharing Power Apps depends on the context in which the app will be used. If wider team collaboration is important and particularly if M365 dynamic group membership is already in place in your organisation, M365 groups are the ideal choice. However, if you’re focused purely on securing app access with minimal overhead, security groups offer a cleaner, more direct approach.
Security groups come with less complexity so should be the default choice, but both options have their place in the Power Platform ecosystem.
Evaluating the existing technical landscape of your organisation and understanding the needs of your users will help you make the best decision for your organization.