Differentiate cloud and on-premises architecture
An understanding of the underlying architecture of finance and operations will help you appreciate the rich functionality of the user interface. Some architecture components can vary between cloud and on-premises deployments. The on-premises deployment is named Dynamics 365 Finance + Operations (on-premises).
Cloud deployments offer a service that is fully managed by Microsoft, while on-premises deployments are deployed locally within a customer's data center. Methodologies differ between cloud-hosted and on-premises deployments. The deployment that a business uses will be based on who the desired data trustee is and who will manage the application lifecycle.
Finance and operations apps cloud deployment
A cloud deployment provides multiple benefits, including reduced implementation time, lower hardware and infrastructure costs, and less invasive development. One of the main benefits of choosing a cloud deployment is that the ERP service is fully managed by Microsoft. Therefore, cloud deployments are a software as a service (SaaS) offering. This enables organizations to easily scale up or down depending on the needs of the business. Cloud deployments also allow customers to stay current in a consistent, predictable, and seamless manner. This cadence, which allows continuous updates of the application, aims to lower upgrade costs, provide everyone access to the latest capabilities, improve performance, and offer a better support experience.
Finance + Operations (on-premises) deployment
When deciding which type of deployment your organization should use, you should consider the overall approach of the implementation and the management of the infrastructure. Additional considerations include the organizational preferences to meet regulatory and compliance needs of the business. In these types of situations, an on-premises deployment might be chosen.
Organizations that choose to deploy Finance + Operations also need to take ownership of various tasks that would have otherwise been carried out by Microsoft. These tasks include configuring high-availability solutions, disaster recovery solutions, and sandbox environments. Keep in mind that there are functionality differences between on-premises deployments and cloud deployments.
For more information about the differences between cloud and on-premises architecture, see the link in the Summary unit at the end of this module.