Microsoft cloud deployment scenarios have the flexibility for every business need

February 24, 2017

In a recent blog by Sri Srinivasan, (General Manager, Dynamics 365, Operations in the Cloud and Enterprise Group), detailed the amazing expansion of cloud based services in mid-sized organisations. The full article can be found here, the following article is a precis of the original. 

The expansion of the cloud 

In the twelve months since the availability of Microsoft’s cloud ERP service (Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Operations) there has been a big increase in the adoption of cloud based applications by mid-sized and large organisations. Microsoft enterprise customers are increasingly choosing Microsoft cloud solutions. In fact, 4 out of 5 now select Dynamics 365.

Sri believes there is now a paradigm shift with respect to business applications. That organisations now prefer “shorter implementations, fewer customisations, repeatable industry or domain solutions and continuous updates. Most noticeable is the shift from systems of record systems of intelligence.”

Microsoft understands that businesses require uninterrupted execution of their mission critical business processes. Dynamics 365 for Operations plans to enable organisations to run their business processes from application servers at the edges. This means transactions are supported by local application services and business data is stored locally. The facility running at each edge is called “My Workplace”. This provides a central node in the cloud that gives a single view of the business across distributed.

Sri explains that the Microsoft cloud connection ensures data aggregation, financial reporting and intelligence. The cloud instance also provides local installation with data fail over in the Microsoft cloud, automated deployment and continuous updates. By Summer 2017, Microsoft will support a single “My Workplace”.

Local business data storage for the those that need it 

Sri acknowledges that not all companies are are ready to store their company’s mission critical data in the cloud. This could due to industry or country regulations, data centre investments or enterprise standards. For these customers Microsoft will be launching a new deployment option that does not require their data to be stored in the cloud. The deployment option “local business data” will support running your business processes on-premise, supporting local transactions and storage of local data, without replication to the Microsoft Cloud.

Selecting the right deployment option

Microsoft want organisations to be able to select the deployment scenario that is flexible. One that caters for today’s situation with the option to change later, with choices ranging from full cloud, to cloud and edge, to local business data.

Table showing side-by-side comparisons of planned scenarios. Image taken from Microsoft 365 Tech blog 

The scenarios “cloud and edge” and “local business data” are planned for release in summer 2017.

Microsoft will disclose more details about the deployment scenarios at the Technical Conference. The  proposed dates are  12th – 15th March at WSSC, Seattle Washington though could be subject to change  The registration page is available here.

You can find the full article from Sri Srinivasan on the Dynamics 365 tech blog here

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