When it comes to technology learning, it can often feel as if you are fighting against a constant wave of change, as studying is outpaced by the introduction of new technical innovations. Fighting the tide is often the most desirous outcome to work towards, but it can be understandable why individuals choose to specialise in a particular technology area. There is no doubt some comfort in becoming a subject matter expert and in not having to worry about “keeping up with the Joneses”. However, when working with an application such as Dynamics 365 for Customer Engagement (D365CE), I would argue it is almost impossible to ignore the wider context of what sit’s alongside the application, particularly Azure, Microsoft’s cloud as a service platform. Being able to understand how the application can be extended via external integrations is typically high on the list of any project requirements, and often these integrations require a light-touch Azure involvement, at a minimum. Therefore, the ability to say that you are confident in accomplishing certain key tasks within Azure instantly puts you ahead of others and in a position to support your business/clients more straightforwardly.

Here are 4 good reasons why you should start to familiarise yourself with Azure, if you haven’t done so already, or dedicate some additional time towards increasing your knowledge in an appropriate area:

Dynamics 365 for Customer Engagement is an Azure application

Well…we can perhaps not answer this definitively and say that 100% of D365CE is hosted on Azure (I did hear a rumour that some aspects of the infrastructure were hosted on AWS). Certainly, for instances that are provisioned within the UK, there is ample evidence to suggest this to be the case. What can be said with some degree of certainty is that D365CE is an Azure leveraged application. This is because it uses key aspects of the service to deliver various functionality within the application:

• Azure Active Directory: Arguably the crux of D365CE is the security/identity aspect, all of which is powered using Microsoft’s cloud version of Active Directory.
• Azure Key Vault: Encryption is enabled by default on all D365CE databases, and the management of encryption keys is provided via Azure Key Vault.
• Office 365: Similar to D365CE, Office 365 is - technically - an Azure cloud service provided by Microsoft. As both Office 365 and D365CE often need to be tightly knitted together, via features such as Server-Side Synchronisation, Office 365 Groups and SharePoint document management, it can be considered a de facto part of the base application.

It’s fairly evident, therefore, that D365CE can be considered as a Software as a Service (SaaS) application hosted on Azure. But why is all this important? For the simple reason that, because as a D365CE professional, you will be supporting the full breadth of the application and all it entails, you are already an Azure professional by default. Not having a cursory understanding of Azure and what it can offer will immediately put you a detriment to others who do, and increasingly places you in a position where your D365CE expertise is severely blunted.

It proves to prospective employers that you are not just a one trick pony

When it comes to interviews for roles focused around D365CE, I’ve been at both sides of the table. What I’ve found separates a good D365CE CV from an excellent one all boils down to how effectively the candidate has been able to expand their knowledge into the other areas. How much additional knowledge of other applications, programming languages etc. does the candidate bring to the business? How effectively has the candidate moved out of their comfort zone in the past in exploring new technologies, either in their current roles or outside of work? More importantly, how much initiative and passion has the candidate shown in embracing changes? A candidate who is able to answer these questions positively and is able to attribute, for example, extensive knowledge of Azure will instantly move up in my estimation of their ability. On the flip side of this, I believe that interviews that have resulted in a job offer for me have been helped, in no small part, to the additional technical skills that I can make available to a prospective employer.

To get certain things done involving D365CE, Azure knowledge is a mandatory requirement

I’ve talked about one of these tasks before on the blog, namely, how to setup the Azure Data Export solution to automatically synchronise your application data to an Azure SQL Database. Unless you are in the fortunate position of having an Azure savvy colleague who can assist you with this, the only way you are going to be able to successfully complete this task is to know how to deploy an Azure SQL Server instance, a database for this instance and the process for setting up an Azure Key Vault. Having at least some familiarity with how to deploy simple resources in Azure and accomplish tasks via PowerShell script execution will place you in an excellent position to achieve the requirements of this task, and others such as:

• Integrating D365CE with Azure Logic Apps to accomplish simple/complex integration tasks between different application systems.
• Provisioning and licensing external users to access your D365CE organisation via Azure Active Directory B2B Collaboration.
• Bridging D365CE with the full suite of features within Azure, such as cloud storage, database integration or web applications, via the Azure Service Bus.
• Expanding the amount of storage available on your portal by activating the Azure Storage feature.

The above is just a flavour of some of the things you can do with D365CE and Azure together, and there are doubtless many more I have missed 🙂 The key point I would highlight is that you should not just naively assume that D365CE is containerised away from Azure; in fact, often the clearest and cleanest way of achieving more complex business/technical requirements will require a detailed consideration of what can be built out within Azure.

There’s really no good reason not to, thanks to the wealth of resources available online for Azure training.

A sea change seems to be occurring currently at Microsoft with respect to online documentation/training resources. Previously, TechNet and MSDN would be your go-to resources to find out how something Microsoft related works. Now, the Microsoft Docs website is where you can find the vast majority of technical documentation. I really rate the new experience that Microsoft Docs provides, and there now seems to be a concerted effort to ensure that these articles are clear, easy to follow and include end-to-end steps on how to complete certain tasks. This is certainly the case for Azure and, with this in mind, I defy anyone to find a reasonable enough excuse not to begin reading through these articles. They are the quickest way towards expanding your knowledge within an area of Azure that interests you the most or to help prepare you to, for example, setup a new Azure SQL database from scratch.

For those who learn better via visual tools, Microsoft has also greatly expanded the number of online video courses available for Azure, that can be accessed for free. There are also some excellent, “deep-dive” topic areas that can also be used to help prepare you for Azure certification.

Conclusions or Wot I Think

I use the term “D365CE professional” a number of times throughout this post. This is a perhaps unhelpful label to ascribe to anyone working with D365CE today. A far better title is, I would argue, “Microsoft cloud professional”, as this gets to the heart of what I think anyone who considers themselves a D365CE “expert” should be. Building and supporting solutions within D365CE is by no means an isolated experience, as you might have argued a few years back. Rather, the onus is on ensuring that consultants, developers etc. are as multi-faceted as possible from a skillset perspective. I talked previously on the blog about becoming a swiss army knife in D365CE. Whilst this is still a noble and recommended goal, I believe casting the net wider can offer a number of benefits not just for yourself, but for the businesses and clients you work with every day. It puts you centre-forward in being able to offer the latest opportunities to implement solutions that can increase efficiency, reduce costs and deliver positive end-user experiences. And, perhaps most importantly, it means you can confidently and accurately attest to your wide-ranging expertise in any given situation.