While Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Operations remains cloud-centric, local model broadens reach

Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Operations is reaching its official one year anniversary this month, having formally launched in 137 markets in March 2016.

In that year of Azure-only deployments, Microsoft representatives say they have evolved and improved their cloud ERP capabilities in a range of areas including deployment, performance, and support, as well as in areas like analytics. Within the company, enthusiasm about the product's success so far is "unprecedented", says Microsoft senior product marketing manager Winston Hait, who spoke at an AXUG webcast today.

And with a year of experience and market input, the Dynamics 365 for Operations team has now made the decision to embrace on-premise deployments with the recently announced "Local Business Data" option. General availability for the local model is planned for Q2 2017. 

While Hait suspects the local data option will be called "on-prem" by most customers and partners, he pointed out that the choice of that specific label was made to fully communicate the key difference. A "local business data" deployment will ensure that all business data is stored and managed on the client's own (or privately hosted) hardware, never in the Azure public cloud.

Microsoft explained several other differences of the local model. Disaster recovery is the responsibility of ...