Dynamics 365 for Customer Engagement April 2019 release - What to know

By Skylar Macromallis, CRM Consultant, Arbela Technologies

The Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement April 2019 update will bring with it an overhaul of how Microsoft updates and manages access to new features. Starting with this release, administrators will be able to validate major updates in a sandbox environment ahead of the update itself to assess the new capabilities and train users. In just two weeks, we will be able to preview the new features coming in the April 2019 release.

Although Production, Sandbox, and Trial instances will all be eligible for enabling the preview features, we would advise against enabling these features in Production initially. Instead:

1. Make a copy of Production as a Sandbox instance

2. Create a backup of the Production environment for restoration (if needed)

3. Enable the new features in Sandbox. The switch will be available from the Power Platform Admin center under Environment > Settings.

Sandbox instances can be reset or backed up without impacting Production. This means no business-critical features will be at risk, no broken customizations to frantically repair, or impacts to production-users’ work flows.

Once these preview features have been enabled, you will not have the option to turn them off for that instance. If you need to go backwards, you must restore the backup that you created to the Sandbox.

The list of features that will be available for preview will be included in the release notes, which Microsoft has scheduled to be published on January 21, 2019. Click here to view. Stay tuned until then!