Pros and Cons of Concurrency Control in Power Automate Flows

For CRM professionals leveraging Power Automate to streamline their workflows, understanding the nuances of concurrency control is crucial.

What is Concurrency Control in Power Automate?

Concurrency control in Power Automate allows you to manage how many instances of a particular flow can run at the same time (concurrently). Power Automate concurrency control is disabled by default and can be found within the trigger settings of your flow (click on the ellipsis and then Settings).

When it is off, Power Automate will run as many instances of this flow at the same time as possible.

When you turn it on, the default Degree of Parallelism is 25, which means that 25 of these flows could run in parallel, that is, at the same time. You can change the Degree of Parallelism from 1 to 100. Choosing 1 means no concurrency: a second instance of this flow will only run once the first instance finishes.

Concurrency and the degree of parallelism can significantly impact the efficiency and reliability of your automation processes. Below, we outline the pros and cons of implementing concurrency control, helping you make informed decisions to optimize your CRM workflows.

Pros of Concurrency Control

When you limit the number of concurrent flows, the effects depend on what degree of parallelism you allow. Allowing 1 flow is quite different from allowing 25 flows.

Nonetheless, in general, setting these limits has the following advantages:

1. Ensure data integrity: By limiting the number of concurrent flows, you reduce the risk of multiple flows modifying the same data simultaneously and creating data conflicts.
2. System Stability: If you get the degree of parallelism just right, this will correspond to an optimal use of system resources, preventing overload and maintaining consistent performance.
3. Simplified Troubleshooting: With fewer concurrent processes, identifying and resolving issues within flows becomes easier. For this purpose, it makes sense to reduce the degree of parallelism to 1.

Cons of Concurrency Control

Let’s now look at the potential disadvantages of concurrency control in Power Automate:

1. Slower Processing Times: Restricting concurrency can lead to slower task execution, especially when the degree of parallelism is low and the flow deals with high-volume workflows.
2. Potential Bottlenecks: Limited concurrency might cause delays and bottlenecks, affecting overall workflow efficiency.
3. Manual Adjustment Needs: Finding the optimal concurrency level may require manual adjustments and continuous monitoring to balance performance and stability.

For point 3, it is important to note that because concurrency control changes how new runs are queued, enabling it cannot be undone. The only known workaround if you want it disabled once you have enabled it is Manually removing Concurrency Control Limits from a Power Automate Flow.

In Short

Removing concurrency control in Power Automate flows can greatly enhance performance but requires careful management to avoid potential pitfalls such as data conflicts and resource overload.

 

By Ana Neto

 

Software engineer since 1997, she is now a technical advisor for Connecting Software.

Connecting Software is a producer of integration and synchronization software solutions since 2004. We operate globally and we are also a proud “Top Member” and “Top Blogger” at CRMSoftwareBlog.

References and Further Reading

Microsoft Learn –  Concurrency, looping, and debatching limits

CRM Software Blog – Guide | Dynamics 365 Document Management

CRM Software Blog – Using a SharePoint Integration? Be Aware of the SharePoint Document Library Limits

 

Recommended Connecting Software blog posts:
Automating Azure Resource Elevated Role Requests with Power Automate and Azure Automation
Dynamics 365 Success Stories

 

 

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