Cloud concepts
Microsoft Azure is combined with finance and operations apps to power many of its built-in capabilities, such as search and intelligence. The following sections review Microsoft Azure concepts and other cloud concepts that you should consider when upgrading to the Dynamics 365 cloud solution.
Microsoft Azure considerations
Consider the following concepts when working with Microsoft Azure:
Select an Azure datacenter - Consider where you want to deploy your data center with Azure and what makes the most sense for your organization. For more information, see Dynamics 365 and Microsoft Power Platform availability.
Additional considerations for choosing your datacenter should include legal and geo considerations, data sovereignty, Azure speed test (latency), and Microsoft Azure ExpressRoute. It’s important to consider that finance and operations apps can be deployed to a subset of Azure regions. For more information, see the Service availability in Azure regions section of Cloud deployment overview.
Learn how authentication works in Azure - Consider how you are going to authenticate with Azure. Two types of application authentication are supported through Microsoft Entra ID: Native client application authentication and Web application authentication.
Reconsider your solution design with Microsoft cloud - Reevaluate your current architecture in AX 2012 and ensure that you are following the most up-to-date Microsoft best practices. You should also consider new Dynamics 365 functionality with which you can replace your AX 2012 customizations. With the Microsoft tools and services in the Microsoft cloud, your upgrade to Dynamics 365 offers an opportunity to modernize your solution architecture by using purpose-built apps and services outside the finance and operations apps. For example, what has been developed on top of AX 2012 as a custom integration or a custom module might move today into an Azure integration services or a purpose-built app on top of Microsoft Power Apps.
Azure regions
finance and operations apps can be deployed into a subset of Microsoft Azure datacenters by using Microsoft Dynamics Lifecycle Services. Azure is generally available in datacenters and geographical locations around the world. With finance and operations apps, customers can specify the region or datacenter where their customer data will be stored. Microsoft might replicate data to other regions for data durability, but you will not replicate or move customer data outside the geographical location.
For more information, see Dynamics 365 and Microsoft Power Platform availability.
After you have considered when you want to have your Azure datacenter, you should consider the location of your production facilities, the warehouse, your users, or most of your customer base. These location factors should be decided before the implementation begins. You can change regions later in the project, though this effort is significant and can include downtime.
Azure ExpressRoute
Azure ExpressRoute is an optional tool that is used on your premises or in a collocation environment to create private ties between Azure datacenters and infrastructure. ExpressRoute links are not accessible on the public internet and provide greater reliability, higher speeds, and lower latencies than standard internet connections.
ExpressRoute helps you to build dedicated, highly efficient connections between your on-site locations and Azure datacenters. An ExpressRoute circuit is a logical link through a networking provider between the on-site network of a customer and Microsoft cloud services. ExpressRoute connections don't go over the public internet, and they offer more reliability, faster speeds, and lower latencies than typical internet connections. Keep in mind that ExpressRoute needs to be configured for every country/region where you have this requirement.
For more information, see Azure ExpressRoute and finance and operations apps, and the Network requirements section of System requirements for cloud deployments.
Microsoft Entra ID
Finance and operations apps use Microsoft Entra ID for all identity management and authentication needs. Microsoft Entra ID supports simple connection for cloud applications and federation with other directories, including Azure on-premises. Microsoft Entra ID has its own management portal for user management, while also exposing APIs for user management. Microsoft Entra ID is a primary identity provider. To access the system, users must be provisioned into a finance and operations instance and should have a valid Microsoft Entra account in an authorized tenant. Microsoft Entra ID also supports single sign-on (SSO) with other services that are using the same tenant (for example Office 365 and Dynamics 365 Sales).
For more information, see Manage identity and access in Microsoft Entra ID.
Microsoft Power Platform
Microsoft cloud introduces many new concepts that offer new ways of designing your solution. Dynamics 365, Microsoft Power Platform, and Azure have a rich ecosystem outside the finance and operations apps that you can take advantage of to extend and seamlessly integrate with your solution.
Microsoft Power Platform is a product family that delivers innovative business solutions across one seamlessly integrated platform. Power BI, Power Apps, Power Automate, and Microsoft Copilot Studio allow any business to analyze and visualize real-time business performance, quickly build custom apps, automate workflows, and integrate AI capabilities.
Microsoft Power Platform provides a low-code interface for any user to quickly create custom apps while simultaneously providing robust tools for professional developers. This provision makes it possible for you to integrate innovative solutions across Azure, Microsoft 365, Dynamics 365, and standalone applications. At the intersection of these products lies digital transformation, which gives the customer power to innovate anywhere while unlocking value everywhere.
Dataverse
Microsoft Dataverse is a low-code, cloud-based data service and app network that lets you use the improved security and connectivity of Microsoft services. Dataverse connects to all facets of Microsoft Power Platform so that the company can be completely managed, automated, and improved. With standard entities and fields, and the ability to define relationships between your data, Dataverse is built for powerful, scalable solutions.
Dataverse is built to connect to finance and operations apps. You can use built-in tools, like dual-write, that enable you to share data across Dynamics 365 apps seamlessly and quickly.
In addition to the dual-write feature, all OData entities in finance and operations apps are available as virtual entities in Dataverse. Now, you can build experiences in customer engagement apps with data directly from finance and operations apps with full create, read, update, and write capability, without having to copy to Dataverse. You can use Power Pages to build external-facing websites that enable collaboration scenarios for business processes in finance and operations.
Virtual entities provide a mechanism for you to use Microsoft Power Platform with finance and operations apps without having to physically copy data to Dataverse. Use this guidance to determine if the requirements will need dual-write or data integrator or virtual entities. Virtual entities and dual-write/data integrator are complementary technologies, meaning that they can be used together, if required.
Azure plus Microsoft Power Platform equals no limits
Microsoft continues to provide services within Azure and Microsoft Power Platform that empower your people and organization to do more. Moreover, you have no limits with Power Apps because it has extensive connectivity into Azure for compute or API services, like Azure Functions, API Management, or Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS). Power Apps can also connect to all Azure data services, such as Azure SQL, Azure Cosmos DB, or SQL Data Warehouse. Additionally, all standard development tools work. You can use Visual Studio to write plug-ins, write code to write custom controls, and use Azure DevOps to deploy.
