The following table (taken from the Microsoft announcement on Feb 2017 located at https://community.dynamics.com/b/msftdynamicsblog/archive/2017/02/23/the-right-cloud-option-for-your-business) compares all three deployment options in terms of use cases, compute and data residency, data trustee, capabilities, and business intelligence options:
| Cloud Scenario | Full cloud | Cloud and Edge | Local business data |
| Use-case scenarios |
Fully managed by Microsoft cloud service Systems of Intelligence Planned multi Instance federation Elastic scale out |
Cloud – MS managed, Edge – customer managed Multiple local compute and storage workplaces for retail, shop floor and warehouse while utilizing cloud for scale, master data mgmt., data aggregation Local data residency in addition to cloud |
Disconnected data center Local data residency Capitalize HW investments Single instance only |
| Compute and data residency | Cloud | Cloud and customer or partner infrastructure | Customer or partner infrastructure |
| Data Trustee | Microsoft | Microsoft and Customer | Customer |
| Application management |
Fully managed by Microsoft Customer access to ALM and telemetry via LCS |
Cloud managed by Microsoft, Edge managed by customer or partner with Cloud-based ALM and telemetry via LCS | Infrastructure managed by customer or partner with Cloud-based ALM and telemetry via LCS |
| Cloud capabilities |
HA and DR included Sandbox environments Cloud-based intelligence |
Data Federation and Master Data Management HA and DR included sandbox environments Cloud-based intelligence |
Automated deployment intelligence as optional Cloud-based add-on |
| Intelligence | Cloud-based | Cloud-based | Optional cloud add-on |
| Continuous updates and health monitoring | Cloud-based, LCS | Cloud-based, LCS | Cloud-based, LCS |
| Planned availability | Available | Availability: Q4 CY2017 | Availability: Q2 CY2017 |