It's an interesting question. Microsoft did not invent Power Pages. They purchased this underlying portal functionality from a company named NAV over five years ago. After MS purchased NAV portals they started a roadmap of portal development that got us to where we are today. Most of the changes are to address accessibility and mobile, responsive design. As a matter of fact, Power Apps Canvas was invented to solve issues in accessibility and responsive mobile design of D365. This is how it all started.
Whats interesting is Business Central was also a NAV product that MS acquired. The irony is that they both live in separate D365 or Power Platform environments.
NAV or Business Central, as it is branded today, is designed for small to mid-sized businesses to run finance and operations. Many companies eventually move to D365 Operations as they grow.
If you are syncing BC with D365 Sales or CS, you can create a portal in the D365 Sales environment and a copy of the finance and operations data will be there.
If you are not syncing with D365 then you most likely will need a connector. Also remember BC has its own portal for invoicing, etc.
Interesting Power Apps trivia. Some of the code in Dynamics 365 and Power Apps model-driven apps, including the Portal Pages dates back to 1987. 🙂
https://www.the365people.com/microsoft-dynamics-navision/timeline
Paul
