If it is necessary for Business Central to generate or read files hosted in an On-Premise infrastructure, it is important to note that direct access to local resources is not possible, regardless of whether the system is used in SAAS or On-Premise mode.
Recent versions of Business Central On-Premise must comply with the Universal Code Initiative, meaning that application logic must be cloud-ready compatible.
There are several solutions available to address this need. Below are two commonly used examples:
On Premise Data Gateway
The On-Premise Data Gateway is a Microsoft tool that supports integration between cloud and On-Premise resources. By installing it on an On-Premise infrastructure server, local resources (including SQL databases and file systems) can be made available, for instance, within Power Automate and Logic Apps.
For example, Business Central in SAAS mode can use this solution in the following scenario to read files located in the On-Premise infrastructure:
- The On-Premise Data Gateway is configured to allow access to a local path.
- A Logic App on Azure is set up to monitor a network folder for new files and upload them to Azure Storage Account containers.
- Business Central reads the files uploaded to the Azure Storage Account.
On Premise Data Proxy
The On-Premise Data Proxy is a service included with our File Transfer Manager app. It is installed on On-Premise infrastructure servers to make local resources, such as the file system, available to Business Central On-Premise.
Using this service does not require configuring or paying for additional cloud resources (as in the previous scenario), as all cloud-ready communication takes place directly between Business Central and the On-Premise Data Proxy.
In addition to enabling direct file manipulation, this tool also supports FTP (and SFTP/FTPs) connectivity and read/write operations from local SQL databases.
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