Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement( CE) is the CRM application suite. In this blog we talk about the architecture of Microsoft Dynamics CE application and its different layers.

Understanding Dynamics 365 CE Architecture

Microsoft Dynamics 365 CE has a N-tier architecture which hasn’t changed for a long time. 

This N-tier architecture can be extended with the help of UI tools and code means developers can customize the standard CRM functionality by developing workflows, plugins and custom workflow activities. 

Knowing the architecture of Dynamics 365 CE is quite important for the developers to extend/customize the application.

The 3 tiers ( or layers) of the Dynamics 365 CE architecture are:

1. Web Tier

2. Application Tier

3. Data Tier

Web Tier:

Web Tier handles the web pages of the applications such as CRM entity forms, views, charts, dashboards and all other UI components. The web tier or web layer is configured on the IIS server which is responsible for the rendering of the web components.

Application Tier:

Application tier manages the business logic of the application such as plugin, processes, security and data elements. The access to the application layer is controlled through the web services, means to access any of these components the user has to be authenticated. 

Data Tier:

The data or database layer is responsible for the storing the data and metadata of the Dynamics 365 CE application. The database used is SQL Server and the database will be configured when we install the CE application. 

For every entity in the application there will be a corresponding table available in the application.

What is Microsoft Dynamics 365?

Microsoft Dynamics 365 is the enterprise application suite combines both CRM and ERP applications. Dynamics 365 has CRM package called – Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement. And there are two ERP packages – Dynamics 365 FNO and Dynamics 365 Business Central(BC).

Microsoft launched Dynamics 365 back in November 2016 combining its existing Dynamics stack of applications ( legacy Dynamics applications). These are Dynamics Axapta(Ax), Dynamics Navision (NAV), Dynamics GP ( Great Plains), Dynamics C5.

Applications in Dynamics 365 CE

Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement has 5 applications in it. These are

Sales

Customer Service

Marketing

Field Service

Project Service Automation

Using these business applications organisations can manage their customer engagement (CRM) activities end to end.

Revisiting Dynamics 365 CRM Architecture

In the following YouTube video from Dynamics 365 Academy we are discussing about Dynamics CRM architecture. Different layers of the architecture such as presentation, business logic and data layers.

Learn Dynamics 365 CE

If you are looking forward to learn Dynamics 365 CE and PowerApps please do check out Dynamics 365 Courses and PowerApps course on Dynamics 365 Academy.