Sep 8, 2011
Filed under: #daxmusings #bizapps

If you haven’t heard, this morning is the AX 2012 Virtual Launch event. Keynote from Steve Ballmer and Kirill Tatarinov followed by Gartner analyst Nigel Montgomery. Make sure to head on over to http://www.microsoft.com/dynamics/ax2012launch/ which will also allow you to replay the keynote in case you missed it!

Obviously, Microsoft is making a big deal out of this release. And rightfully so. There have been more changes in this new release than the last three releases combined! If you’ve been following my blog, you’ve noticed all the new technical features which I’ve been explaining. And I’m far from done. Of course, I only blog about technical topics, but there is just as much excitement on the functional side.

Back in the old days, before Microsoft acquired this product called ‘Axapta’, we used to not even bother “deploying” the AX client to customer’s computers. We just copied the executable and some DLLs from the install CD onto a shared folder on the network, and just gave all users a shortcut to the executable. It’s tough to put it all in words, but it’s pretty incredible how far Microsoft has brought this product. To me as a developer, who happened to land a job coding in this small but promising Danish product, it is great to see the progress, and with this 2012 release the type of investment Microsoft has made to push an already leading edge platform and take it to the next level. I’m happy to see my job is safe for quite a few years to come. I worked for VARs that also did other ERPs, and it was sad to see some great functional products getting lost in today’s technology, being bought and sold, with no roadmap or hope for an overdue technology facelift (you know who you are!).

AX has always been at the forefront of technology in the ERP world. And it’s obvious Microsoft is all-in to make sure it stays that way. I was in Fargo this week (one of the major Microsoft campuses for Dynamics) and it is clear there is a vision and a goal. Looking at the changes, both architecturally and technically, it is clear where things are going. Technologies are converging. Using C# with AX (and making X++ a managed language). Sharepoint. SQL Reporting. Office add-ins. WCF. WPF. Workflow.

These are exciting times, and I’m glad to be a part of it. Next stop - the cloud.

 

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