The cloud deployment option of Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations uses the Azure SQL Database for primary read and write workload, and Azure Blob Storage to store files. Cloud deployment utilizes Azure SQL's ReadOnly Secondary feature to offload read-only workload. Azure SQL geo-replication is used for disaster recovery scenarios.

The following diagram shows the various data layer components used in Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations and their purposes:

In the cloud deployment, application and transaction data can be synchronized to the customer's own CDS, BYOD (short for bring your own database) Azure SQL Database, and Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2 for integration, reporting, and analytical workload.

The following diagram shows the data layer in an on-premises deployment option. It uses SQL Server as a primary database and the SMB 3.0 storage cluster for unstructured data such as files:

Optionally, customers can configure EntityStore as a dedicated database for the analytical and reporting workload.