10 key differences between the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online Architecture Vs CRM On Premise

Businesses who choose the cloud over On-premise CRM deployments will eventually want to know what they are actually getting since they can no longer physically touch their investment. They will want to have some level of control over how and where their data is held.  The motivations for businesses to move over to the cloud are many, including reduced infrastructure costs, automated maintenance, High availability and Monthly pay as you go licensing model etc. However there are a few differences between On Premise and CRM Online Deployments from a system Architecture perspective that businesses should be aware of as it could have an impact on the way a solution can be delivered.

I have identified the following 10 keys differences between Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online and CRM On Premise that need to be considered;

1) Shared Services– The CRM Online architecture is comprise of Shared services for the CRM Server roles. The Amount of resources you get is determined by the scale of your crm deployment. However the SQL Server Database is always dedicated to the organisations deployment.

2) The SQL Server – Although each organisational CRM deployment has its own dedicated SQL Server, it is protected and hidden from user access on Microsoft CRM Online cloud, the reasons  for this are quite obvious; The Database is the most venerable to attacks and administrative  mistakes can easily break the CRM from functioning.
•You have to pay for every GB of database usage, if using file attachments it is highly advised to used document storage such as SharePoint rather than using the crm database to store customer docs.
•There is also a maximum limitation of 200 Custom entities, which you are not likely to every exceed.

3) Web Server and IIS – The Application Server  is used to host the CRM web forms and UI, and again for a similar reason to SQL, IIS (Internet Information Services) and the web.config has been hidden from access due to the shared services cloud architecture for Microsoft to manage and prevent users from breaking the system and maintain supported solutions. For Custom UI development for CRM Online, developers have the option of utilising HTML 5 Web Resources via CRM Solution Files. Custom ASPX pages are nopt supported within CRM Online, However UI customisations with Custom ASP.Net pages can be achieved but utilising a Window’s Azure if required. The advantage is that it maintains the supportability of the CRM Solution for feature updates and upgrades.

4) Async Services – The CRM Asynchronous services is whats used for custom business processes and is a shared service, and it is advised to use Synchronous workflows where impact to users is minimal.
•There is a limit of 300 custom entities with Dynamics CRM Online.
•You are limited to 200 Workflows and Dialogs in Dynamics CRM Online.

5) Authentication and AD – Microsoft’s CRM is hosted alongside Active Directory and its Office 365 family on its Azure Data Centre Platform. However there is still capability to utilise an organisations existing On-premise Active Directory implementation with its CRM Online by setting up Single Sign On (SSO) for the online implementation. For more information please see the following article on how to do this;

6) Reporting – Since the SQL Server cannot be accessed directly by users, this means you cannot use SQL to perform queries. Custom Report writing in CRM Online is restricted to Fetch XML queries, and this method is not as flexible as was using TSQL for generating queries. SQL Server Reporting Services Manager is not available on CRM Online, which means it’s not possible to generate Report snapshots or SSRS report subscriptions. Also there is a Limitation to the the amount of Data that can be reported on , if more than 50,000 records exist for a certain view then the dashboard will fail to render.

7)  Sandbox Development Considerations – There are some considerations that need to be taken when extending and customising the functionality and developing plugins for CRM Online implementations,
•Fully trusted plugins are not supported. Whenever you create plugins for Dynamics CRM online always test your plugins in sandbox mode. Dynamics CRM online only support plugins to run in sandbox mode.
•Designed to be transaction as opposed to long running queries
•Plugins will Time Out after 2 mins
•Data queries will timeout after 30 secs

8) Updates – Since the Windows Server is hosted by Microsoft, the CRM version Updates are performed automatically on the Microsoft cloud, meaning you will have the latest version of CRM binaries automatically applied, compared to On-Premise where rollups have to be applied manually. However businesses do have an option to re-schedule or delay major updates just in case they want to hold back before any changes are made.

9) Licensing – The Licensing model is based a Monthly rolling contract that can be ended at anytime. Please be aware there is a minimum of 5 Professional Licences required to signup to Microsoft CRM Online. You can also leverage on the Essential and Basic Licences with a reduced cost aimed at user roles with lesser requirements.

10) Compliance and Security– The European Data Centres are based on Ireland and Amsterdam, all copies and backup are kept within the boundaries to maintain to regulations.