Your finance team may be comfortable with Dynamics GP while your IT team is ready to stop maintaining the servers behind it. Aging hardware, remote access requirements, and competing IT priorities can make hosting worth considering.
Cloud hosting allows your organization to keep GP while changing where it runs and who manages agreed parts of the environment. Whether that move makes sense depends on your current costs, application requirements, and plans for replacing GP.
Before committing, understand what the hosting agreement includes and how it fits your longer-term ERP decision.
Key Takeaways
- Cloud hosting changes how your GP environment is delivered and maintained.
- Costs, security responsibilities, integrations, and recovery arrangements need review before the move.
- Hosting should fit your ERP plan, including Microsoft’s support timeline.
What Is Cloud-Hosted Dynamics GP?
With cloud-hosted GP, the application and supporting infrastructure run in a provider-managed environment rather than on servers your organization maintains on-site.
The division of responsibilities depends on the agreement. A provider may manage infrastructure, backups, monitoring, and application maintenance, but you should confirm each service rather than assume it is included.
Your organization still needs people responsible for user access, accounting processes, data quality, and coordinating system changes.
When Does GP Hosting Make Sense?
Hosting is worth evaluating when infrastructure management has become a problem but GP continues to meet your business needs.
Common reasons to consider it include:
- Servers need replacement. Compare the cost of new equipment and maintenance with a hosting proposal.
- Internal IT capacity is limited. Identify which responsibilities a provider would take over and which would remain.
- Employees need dependable remote access. Review how users will connect and what the experience will be like.
- Recovery arrangements need improvement. Establish what the business needs after an outage and whether the proposed service can meet it.
- Your ERP transition needs more preparation. Assess whether hosting provides enough near-term value to justify another project before migration.
If you are still weighing continued support against replacing GP, start with your next steps for Microsoft Dynamics GP.
What Changes When GP Moves to Hosting?
| Area | What to establish before the move |
|---|---|
| Infrastructure | Who maintains servers, operating systems, SQL Server, and capacity |
| GP maintenance | Who schedules, tests, and installs application updates |
| User access | How employees connect, authenticate, and receive appropriate permissions |
| Backups and recovery | What is protected, how often it is backed up, and how restoration is tested |
| Connected applications | Which integrations and add-ons need changes or separate support |
| Support | Who handles incidents, during which hours, and under what response commitments |
Ask for these responsibilities in writing. A clear agreement helps finance, IT, and the provider resolve issues without uncertainty about ownership.
Five Questions to Ask a GP Hosting Provider
1. What Is Included in the Price?
Request a proposal that separates setup costs, recurring charges, and work billed separately.
Ask about storage growth, additional users, software licensing, GP upgrades, after-hours assistance, recovery services, and the cost of leaving the arrangement.
Compare that proposal with your full current cost, including internal staff time. Hosting does not automatically reduce spending.
2. How Will Our Existing Applications Work?
Inventory everything that connects to GP, including reporting tools, payroll applications, document management systems, custom integrations, and scheduled imports.
For each connection, confirm:
- Whether it is supported in the proposed environment.
- Who will configure and test it.
- Whether it requires additional licensing or access.
- Who will troubleshoot it after the move.
This overview of integration and custom software development can help frame the discussion.
3. Who Handles Security and Access?
Ask how the provider manages authentication, administrative privileges, monitoring, and access removal. Establish who approves new users and reviews existing permissions.
Your organization should also confirm which GP licenses and access arrangements apply. Review these Dynamics GP user types and licensing considerations with your partner before changing the environment.
4. What Happens During an Outage?
A backup schedule alone does not explain how quickly your team can resume work.
Discuss how much data the business could afford to lose and how long it could operate without GP. Ask the provider to explain recovery targets, testing, communication procedures, and any exclusions.
Include your internet connection and employee access in that discussion. The hosted application may be available while your team still cannot reach it.
5. How Will We Retrieve Our Data Later?
Agree on how your organization can obtain databases, documents, reports, and other required records when the arrangement ends.
Clarify formats, timing, assistance, and fees. Your hosting decision should account for a future migration, a provider change, or the need to maintain historical access.
Could Hosting Reduce the Work of Maintaining GP?
Start with the responsibilities your team wants to transfer and the applications your business needs to keep working. LBMC Technology Solutions offers Dynamics GP hosting, maintenance, and support and can discuss how those services fit your environment.
How Does Hosting Fit Microsoft’s GP Support Timeline?
Microsoft will end product enhancements, regulatory and tax updates, and technical support for Dynamics GP on December 31, 2029. Security updates and patches, if needed, will remain available until April 30, 2031. Older versions have their own support requirements and dates.
Moving GP to hosting does not extend those dates. Include the expected length of your hosting agreement and your ERP transition schedule in the same planning conversation.
Prepare for the Move
Before scheduling a cutover:
- Document the environment. Record your GP version, companies, databases, add-ons, integrations, reports, and users.
- Confirm compatibility. Assign responsibility for validating each application and connection.
- Agree on testing. Include representative transactions, reports, imports, and user access. Include user sign-ins in your cutover testing. A server change may require Dynamics GP password resets and access checks.
- Plan the cutover. Establish downtime, communications, validation steps, and a rollback approach.
- Assign ongoing owners. Identify who approves changes and coordinates support after the move.
Use the review to identify process problems as well. Hosting will not, by itself, resolve duplicate entry or unclear workflows. These underused Dynamics GP features may provide useful topics to discuss with your GP team.
Dynamics GP Hosting FAQs
Is cloud-hosted GP the same as Business Central?
No. Cloud-hosted GP remains Dynamics GP. Moving to Business Central replaces the ERP application and requires a separate implementation.
Will hosting make GP more secure?
The outcome depends on the environment, controls, and responsibilities. Evaluate the proposed safeguards against your current arrangements rather than relying on the hosting label.
Can we keep our customizations?
That requires an environment-specific review. Ask your GP partner and relevant software vendors to confirm compatibility and testing requirements.
Will hosting make a later ERP migration easier?
It may change how your environment is managed, but migration still requires planning for data, processes, integrations, and training. Do not assume hosting removes that work.
Ready to Review Your GP Hosting Options?
Tell us what is creating work for your finance and IT teams and how long you expect to keep GP. We can discuss hosting alongside your support needs and longer-term ERP plans.
