What is Dataverse and why should you care?

I get a version of this question at least twice a month: "What is Dataverse? Do I need it? Isn't SharePoint good enough?"

Fair questions. Microsoft doesn't make it easy to understand where Dataverse fits, and the official documentation reads like it was written for people who already know the answer. So let me try to explain it the way I explain it to clients here in Fort McMurray, which is to say, plainly.

The short version

Dataverse is a database built into the Microsoft Power Platform. It stores your business data in a structured, secure, and scalable way. Think of it as the proper place to keep your data when SharePoint lists and Excel spreadsheets start falling apart.

That's really it at the core. It's a database. But the reason it matters is what it lets you do that SharePoint and Excel can't.

Why SharePoint lists hit a wall

I've built plenty of solutions on SharePoint lists. They're fine for simple stuff. A list of contacts. A task tracker for a small team. An inventory log with a few hundred items.

But SharePoint lists have hard limits that bite you eventually:

The 5,000 item threshold. SharePoint can technically hold millions of items, but views break at 5,000 unless you index columns and carefully manage your views. Most people don't do this. They just hit a wall one day and wonder why their list is "broken."

No real relationships. You can do lookup columns in SharePoint, but they're fragile. Try building a system where you need to track equipment, which belongs to a site, which has permits, which link to inspections. In SharePoint, that turns into a mess of lookups that break when someone renames something.

Limited security model. SharePoint security is site-based. If you need different people to see different records in the same list based on their role or department, you're fighting the tool instead of using it.

Performance. SharePoint lists slow down as they grow. Power Apps connected to large SharePoint lists can feel sluggish. Users notice and stop using the app.

I wrote about what SharePoint can actually do well if you want the full picture. It's a great tool. It's just not a database.

Why Excel is even worse for business data

I say this with love, because I use Excel constantly. But Excel as a shared business database is a disaster waiting to happen.

Multiple people editing the same file. Version control issues. Formulas breaking. Someone filtering a column and forgetting to unfilter, so the next person thinks half the data is gone. Macros that only work on one person's laptop because they have a specific add-in installed.

I covered this in detail in why your Excel reports are costing you more than you think, but the summary is: Excel is for analysis. It's not for running operations. The moment more than two people need to update the same data regularly, you need something else.

What Dataverse actually gives you

Here's what changes when you move your data into Dataverse:

Real database relationships. You can set up proper one-to-many and many-to-many relationships between tables. Equipment belongs to a site. A site has multiple permits. Each permit links to inspections. This all works cleanly, with referential integrity, meaning the system won't let you create orphaned records that point to nothing.

Row-level security. You can control who sees what at the record level. A field supervisor sees only their crew's data. A regional manager sees everything in their region. An executive sees the rollup. Same table, different views, all controlled by security roles.

Business rules and calculated fields. You can build logic right into the data layer. If a permit expires within 30 days, flag it. If an inspection score drops below a threshold, trigger a notification. This happens at the data level, not in the app, so it works regardless of how someone accesses the data.

Audit trail. Dataverse tracks who changed what and when. For industries like Oil and Gas where compliance matters, this is a big deal. You don't have to build audit logging yourself. It's built in.

Capacity. Dataverse handles millions of records without the performance problems you hit with SharePoint lists. Power Apps connected to Dataverse are noticeably faster than the same apps connected to SharePoint.

Real examples from Oil and Gas

I've built several Dataverse solutions for companies in and around Fort McMurray. Here are three that show where it really earns its keep.

Equipment tracking

An oilfield services company had equipment spread across dozens of sites. They tracked it in a combination of Excel files and a SharePoint list that had grown past 8,000 items and was barely functional.

We moved the data into Dataverse with proper tables for equipment, sites, and maintenance records. Each piece of equipment links to its current site and its maintenance history. The Power App for field technicians loads fast, search works properly, and managers can pull reports in Power BI that actually reflect real-time data instead of last week's spreadsheet.

Incident logging

Safety incidents need careful documentation. Who was involved, what happened, when, where, what corrective actions were taken, and who followed up. In some cases this data gets reported to regulators, so accuracy and completeness matter.

One company was using a SharePoint list for incident logging, but they hit the security problem. They needed different people to see different records based on their role. The safety team needed to see everything. Supervisors needed to see only their crews' incidents. Workers needed to see only their own records. SharePoint just can't do that cleanly.

Dataverse's row-level security solved this perfectly. Same data, different access levels, no workarounds needed. The audit trail also gave them proof of who logged what and when, which matters during investigations and regulatory reviews.

Permit management

Managing permits in Oil and Gas is a headache. Work permits, hot work permits, confined space permits, they all have expiry dates, required signatures, and conditions that need to be met before work can start.

We built a Dataverse solution where each permit is a record with relationships to the site, the crew, and the specific work being done. Automated flows (built in Power Automate) flag permits that are about to expire and block work requests that reference expired permits. The data all lives in one place, with proper relationships, instead of scattered across spreadsheets and email threads.

"But doesn't Dataverse cost extra?"

This is the question everyone asks, and the answer is: it depends on your licensing.

If you have Power Apps per-app or per-user plans, Dataverse is included. If you're running Power Apps through your Microsoft 365 license (which many companies do to start), you get Dataverse for Teams, which is a limited version that runs inside Teams. It works for smaller use cases but has storage and functionality limits.

For most companies I work with, the cost of Dataverse licensing is far less than the cost of the problems they're having with SharePoint lists and Excel. A single incident where someone overwrites critical data in a shared spreadsheet can cost more in lost time and rework than a year of Dataverse licensing.

I'm not going to pretend the licensing is simple, because it isn't. Microsoft licensing never is. But if you're building anything beyond basic apps and flows, Dataverse is usually worth the investment.

When you don't need Dataverse

I want to be honest about this. Not everything needs Dataverse.

If you have a simple list with fewer than 2,000 items, a few columns, and a handful of users, SharePoint is fine. I still build plenty of solutions on SharePoint lists. A contact directory, a simple request form, a document library with metadata. These work great without Dataverse.

The trigger for Dataverse is usually one of these: you need proper relationships between tables, you need row-level security, you're hitting performance limits with SharePoint, or your data is important enough that you need audit trails and backup.

Getting started with Dataverse

If you're already using Power Platform and you're running into the limits I described, Dataverse is probably your next step. Moving data from SharePoint lists into Dataverse is doable, but it's worth planning carefully so you don't just recreate the same problems in a new system.

The best approach I've found is to start with one use case. Pick the one that's causing the most pain (usually the biggest SharePoint list or the most critical Excel file) and move that first. Get it working, let people use it, and expand from there.

If you want help figuring out whether Dataverse makes sense for your situation, I'm happy to talk it through. Get in touch and we'll take a look at what you're working with.