Hosting Microsoft Dynamics NAV on Azure: Complexity & customizations no barrier to cloud

Hosting Microsoft Dynamics NAV on Azure is one of the fastest ways to implement an ERP solution. Speed and cost are critical considerations for small businesses when deploying ERP, and hosting on Azure caters to both of these factors.

Still, small businesses have unique requirements and rarely use ERP out of the box. For Dynamics NAV user companies, this raises the question: can I host my Dynamics NAV solution on an Azure infrastructure, all while retaining the ability to adjust NAV to our company needs, and without a huge price tag attached?

Microsoft Azure: The public cloud

Microsoft Azure is a public cloud, and can host any software running on Microsoft Windows Server (though other OSs are also supported). As Dynamics NAV runs on Windows Server, in turn, any Dynamics NAV installation can be hosted on Azure.

When hosting Dynamics NAV on Azure, you can install modifications to NAV as if it were installed on an on-premise or local server in a single-tenant configuration. Therefore, Azure presents no limitation upon customizations.

Customization is also possible in a multitenant configuration, which is important to an ISV running its add-ons for multiple customers on a single environment setup. But customization in a multitenant configuration is limited to the scope of Extensions, the separate customization functionality introduced in Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2016. While Extensions limit the scope, in most cases multitenant configuration is coupled with a better price and an easier upgrade, which is important when running a solution on the public cloud.

Are your add-ons ready for the public cloud?

Microsoft Dynamics NAV as an ERP solution is commonly integrated ...