Microsoft Azure SQL Data Sync is now generally available, and Dynamics NAV users may have a common use case

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Microsoft has announced the general availability of Azure SQL Data Sync. The service supports unidirectional or bidirectional synchronization of data between Azure SQL Database and SQL endpoints, including in hybrid SQL deployments that span cloud and on-premises. Thus, local data can be accessed from on-premises applications and Azure, with the ability to deploy synchronized copies of local data for different regions.

With the release, Microsoft aims to increase application response time and boost reliability by decreasing the potential impact of network connection failures, and latency. Microsoft has published documentation for prospective users, including guidance on set up, best practices, troubleshooting, monitoring with log analytics, and samples for PowerShell.

Topology and planning

Microsoft MVP and Dynamics NAV blogger Stefano Demiliani has taken an early look at the service and explained how Azure SQL Data Sync can be used to transfer on-premises NAV data to Azure SQL Database for reporting purposes.

As Demiliani explains, SQL Data Sync relies on a hub and spoke topology. When pairing an on-premises Dynamics NAV database with an Azure SQL instance, the cloud database would be the hub, but the on-prem "spoke" would be configured to sync data to the cloud. With the connection made through the respective firewalls, the cloud database is ready to receive key fields and tables to meet your analysis needs.

For setup and configuration details, you will want to ...