Dynamics Community Forum Thread Details

D365 Deployment Types

Greetings all,

I represent a company that does MS D365 implementations. I was trying to understand the changing landscape of the Dynamics 365 stack and came up with the idea below.

1. Legacy/Old Deployment – “Classic Finance & Operations”

Deployment: On-premises or cloud-hosted via LCS (Lifecycle Services).
Customization: Mostly X++ code in Visual Studio.
Focus: Finance & Operations (F&O) module-heavy, monolithic architecture.
Limitations: GUI customizations limited; integrations need custom code or services; difficult to extend outside F&O.

2. Modern Deployment – “Platform + FO”

Deployment: Cloud-first, via PPC (Platform + Power Platform Components).
Customization:
- Configuration in GUI (data entities, forms, workflows, etc.).
- Code via VS Code FO plugin (X++ or extensions).
Focus: Hybrid approach — easier maintenance than classic F&O, supports extensions rather than overlayering.
Advantages: Better separation between customizations and core code; supports upgrades more smoothly.

3. Latest Deployment – “Full Power Platform / Dataverse Approach”

Deployment: Cloud-first, highly integrated with Power Platform (Power Apps, Dataverse, Power Automate, etc.).
Customization:
- All major customizations can be done in Power Platform with low-code/no-code.
- Dual-write allows syncing Dataverse and F&O.
Focus: Extensible, cross-app integrations, low-code innovation.
Caveats:
- Some features are still evolving (can be “unstable”).
- Performance and governance need careful planning.

Can someone please confirm that the above is correct?

Our plan is for all future implementations to be done on latest platform to avoid outdated practices.

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