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Dynamics 365 Community / Forums / Small and medium business | Business Central, N... / Shifting to Dynamics 3...
Small and medium business | Business Central, N...
Suggested Answer

Shifting to Dynamics 365 BC

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Posted on by Jayant maggoo 5

Hi All,

My Organization is shifting from Navision to Dynamics 365 BC. Currently we are using Sql Server as our database and we have Power bi reports that are extracting data from sql server. 

My questions are:-

1) When we will shift to Dynamics 365 will all our data be shifted to microsoft Azure cloud database ?

2) Will all the column names and data types remain same after shifting the data?

3) In power bi reports do we only have to change the data source link from sql server to Azure or any other thing is also required?

I have the same question (0)
  • Suggested answer
    JAngle Profile Picture
    JAngle 133 on at

    depends on whether you're migrating to SaaS (cloud BC) or On-prem (your own server or a cloud VM). In the case of the former you do not get access to Azure SQL. In the case of the latter you do.

    Column names between SQL and BC can differ. Not for all but for many I doubt it will be a simple switch over if you go to SaaS.

  • Suggested answer
    Steven Renders Profile Picture
    Steven Renders 5,672 Moderator on at

    Basically in BC Saas your data is in an Azure SQL database, but you do not get access to it. So PowerBI can not query that database directly. You will have to redevelop your PowerBI reports to use the APIs instead. These can be standard APIs or custom APIs.

    An alternative is to go to BC On Prem and continue to work with PowerBI on the SQL database, but this is not recommended at all. At some point your customer will want to go to BC Saas...

    Another solution is to develop an app that uploads data from BC Saas to an Azure Sql database, kind if a datawarehouse, and then connect PowerBI to that. There are also third party solutions out there that can do that or something similar to this approach.

    Dataflows is also an alternative, but it does not have a connector, yet, for BC.

  • Jayant maggoo Profile Picture
    Jayant maggoo 5 on at

    On premise basically means our own server which we are currently using?

  • Suggested answer
    JAngle Profile Picture
    JAngle 133 on at

    It can mean that. Or it could be a cloud server you pay for and don’t maintain (PaaS or IaaS)

  • Steven Renders Profile Picture
    Steven Renders 5,672 Moderator on at

    Yes, that's usually what it means. BC On Prem is BC installed on a server (local or hosted), where you have access to the NST and DB.

    So in an on prem architecture you have access to the DB and can use it in PowerBI. However at some point you might then decide, in the future, to move to BC Saas, where you no longer directly have access to the DB.

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