The default environment: TLDR edition

An environment is a container for your organization's business data, apps, chatbots, and flows. It separates apps that have different roles or audiences, security requirements, and target audiences. If you are reading this, you are probably well aware of that. Still, no matter which environment strategy your organization opts to implement, questions around the default environment still abound.

While I do recommend perusing our official documentation, in this day and age you probably just want the TL;DR /Cliffs Notes version-- all in one place.

Here we go.

• When you deploy your tenant, exactly one default environment will be created.
  • No, you cannot have multiple default environments.
  • No, you cannot delete or disable this environment…You cannot delete this environment because it hosts integrations with Microsoft 365 applications such as SharePoint and Project.
• All tenant users that have a user license for Power Apps, Power Automate, Microsoft 365, Dynamics 365, or a free or trial license will be added to the default environment.
  • No, you cannot remove a user from the default environment.
  • No, you cannot assign a security group to the default environment.
• All users in the default environment will have the Environment Maker role.
  • No, you cannot block this role assignment.
  • No, you cannot remove this role or modify it.
  • No, Environment Makers do not mean they can make environments - just resources.
• The default environment will be named [Azure AD tenant name] (default). Rename this to avoid confusion around what the environment should be used for. Which brings me to my next point…
• What should the default environment be used for? Treat this as a user productivity environment for your business groups. An example would be users saving email attachments from messages with a specific subject-line to a SharePoint folder.
• What should the default environment not be used for? Anything that would contain sensitive business data or is mission-critical.
• Although you cannot remove this environment or restrict users from building within it, you can govern this environment with a less permissive data loss prevention policy (DLP). Not sure where to start? We have a recommendation for that, and Power CAT has an excellent video.
• The default environment cannot be manually backed up, but system backups are made continuously.
• You can add a Dataverse database to the default environment, and you can change this default org's URL.

That's it! Comment if I missed an FAQ.

Skylar Shonblom