May 2, 2011 10:45 GMT  ·  By

Keeping up the pace with the evolution of technology, on-premise to Cloud migration scenarios are increasing in number, however, sometimes businesses might need to go the other way around as well.

If this is the case with the on-premise and Cloud flavors of Microsoft Dynamics CRM, customers can access a free resource from the Redmond company designed to guide them along.

The Microsoft CRM Online Data Migration to Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 on-premises whitepaper is now live on the Download Center, offered free of charge.

The official label of the download is nothing short of a dead giveaway of its contents, and customers will find exactly what the title promises in the whitepaper.

According to Microsoft: “The purpose of this document is to summarize the steps needed to migrate from a Microsoft CRM Online deployment to a Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 on-premises deployment. The steps include information on the following:

• Restore a copy of the Microsoft CRM Online SQL database

• Apply required hotfixes

• Create a new Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 organization

• Install optional hotfixes.”

It’s critical to note that in order for a migration from Dynamics CRM Online Data to Dynamics CRM 2011 to be successful, customers will need to be running the same technology in their organization as Microsoft does on its servers.

This is particularly true when it comes down to restoring a Dynamics CRM Online SQL database.

“The backup of your Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online SQL database must be restored by using a server running the same (or a newer) version of Microsoft SQL Server as is running in Microsoft’s data centers. At the time of this writing, Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online data centers are running Microsoft SQL Server 2008,” the company stated.

Microsoft also underlines the fact that companies performing Dynamics CRM Online Data to Dynamics CRM 2011 migrations need to make sure that their infrastructure can handle the move.

This is why environment diagnostic checks are provided in the System Requirements window ahead of actually giving green light to the import operation. The software giant notes that all red alerts must be dealt with before the import task is started.

“Due to versioning differences between Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online and Microsoft Dynamics CRM on-premises, a warning may be received. This warning is expected and will not prevent the import from completing. After you complete the steps in this document, the versioning will be in correct,” the company informs.