Inquiry on Best Practices for Managed Environments and Native Pipelines in Power Platform

[tocri]

Hello Team,

I am reaching out because since I learned about the end of AA4PP, I have started working with managed environments and native PPF pipelines. The work done is top-notch, and the ease of use and setup of the pipelines is truly enjoyable, especially for citizen developers. In short, I really like it.

Now, I would like to get back to basics, because although I would love to deploy managed environments to all my clients, the reality is that this has a cost since a premium Power Apps and/or Power Automate license is required even for consumers. I really wished that a pay-as-you-go approach would be sufficient.

I also have clients who need to create apps that must be accessible to all consumers... and here we're talking about 5,000 consumers.

So, my question is:

How do you manage your environment models? For IT, for example, is it better to stay on unmanaged and they will do deployment with AzDO pipelines? And for citizen devs who want to create apps for their units, would it be better to start with a managed environment and they use the native pipelines?

Previously, I mainly used AA4PP for both IT and Citizen Dev but now, my heart leans towards managed environments which is the future, but also my rational side tells me that money doesn't fall from the sky.

I am very curious to hear about your experiences. (@Jenefer-Monroe @Grant-Archibald-MS )