Dynamics AX Overview

The latest minor version of Dynamics AX, Dynamics AX 2012 R3, became generally available in May 2014. The version has new capabilities for warehouse and distribution functions, retail point-of-sale mobile solutions, procurement features to manage vendor requests and proposals, and budget planning improvements such as rule-based allocations and what-if scenarios.

The next version of Dynamics AX is AX 7, code-named Rainier. It will probably become available as a Microsoft-hosted service near the end of 2015 (called AX Online) and on-premises in early 2016. AX 7 will be the first Microsoft-hosted release, residing as a multitenant offering in Azure. Customers planning to deploy AX 7 on-premises will have new requirements, including Azure Stack and Lifecycle Services. Azure Stack is a planned Windows Server add-on that delivers Azure virtualization, APIs, and systems management capabilities. AX 7 can only be deployed through Lifecycle Services, an Azure-hosted environment that controls the deployment, updating, and management of servers in an AX 7 environment. Other priorities include improved user interfaces for both Web and mobile applications that should reduce the dependency on remote desktop for remote users and provide offline updating capabilities.