2011 is here, and the Clouds are still forming!

Last year, I wrote this article, to kick off 2010.: The Year of the Cloud: How Coming Microsoft Products Will Make Dynamics AX the Basis of New Solutions


In this article from the start of last year, I declared 2010 to be the year of the cloud. After years of talking and Microsoft as well as Google having 2009 filled with beta's and some releases, 2010 can for sure be marked, at least for Microsoft, the Year of the Cloud.

This can also be said, for other companies as well, as for the Microsoft 'All In' marketing tag line, I can bet more partners and customers of Microsoft learned about 'The Cloud' than in any other previous year.

Ending the year, Microsoft taclked the consumer end of the cloud, with commericals showing off Windows Live services and Windows 7 working together.

Also at the end of the year, there was this article wrote, that questions Microsoft's 'All in - bu Dynamics'. The arctile can be found here.:
Microsoft is “All In” for the Cloud, but What About Dynamics?

Also at the end of the year, there was an article by Richard Hunter, who writes at the following location.: A Buyer's Guide to Accounting Software - Online Accounting Software. The article questions Microsoft's 'All in - but Dynamics'. It can be found here.:
Microsoft is “All In” for the Cloud, but What About Dynamics?

In his article, Richard actually does a good job at taking and laying out why Dynamics ERP is not a true cloud solution yet. Such solutions, when looking at ERP, are smaller ones. Lower end ERP solutions, that don't have the deep product level that products like Dynamics AX has.

Also, for example, cloud based solutions like NetSuite, and others, are very scary solutions. What happens if NetSuite, and their *cough* single point of failure goes belly up? They don't pay their bills? Where do you think that customer data will be?

Getting taking out of the leased Datacenter space, and sold! Scary if you ask me for sure!

Beyond that however, and going back to the fact, that those who are demanding cloud based only ERP solutions are smaller shops. So when hunter points to this fact.:

""Most Importantly, if Microsoft did commit to moving Dynamics to the cloud, would the market be ready?""

He goes on, and I agree, to answer with a sure No! And this is the truth. Sure some companies are, but the fact still remains that trust is an issue with the cloud.

Taking to the point of Hunters post, he asked what is our take? Being involved deeply with the Dynamics Community, and have been writing about cloud computing for nearly 5 years now as it relates to AX, I have the following thoughts.:

Microsoft Dynamics ERP will be 100% cloud only, or on premise - and a hybrid mix of those offerings by choice of module.

Attending Convergence 2010 last April, Hal Howard, and Mike E., both stated in the Future on ERP, that Microsoft Dynamics ERP will be developed actually for the Cloud First. Just as Dynamics CRM is now.

What will run on Azure, and therefore take on the benefits of scale, will also run on-premise, or in a hybrid mode.

And that last peice, the hybrid clouds, where some things are on-premise while others are in the cloud, will be the normal selection for most companies that use the cloud and ERP, for the next 2-3 major release cycles of Dynamics.

Within the next 2-3 major releases, I am predicting that you will see a formal plan for Dynamics ERP.

That is a single source code, development, workflow, that takes and offers - depending on size and needs, the best of breed from all the current Dynamics offerings.

I believe deep now as well, that Dynamics AX, being the flagship of the Dynamics ERP brands, will be what Dynamics ERP mostly looks like, when that 2019-2021 release of Dynamics ERP takes place.

So yes, I am putting a year out there.: 2019-2021 Is when I believe that Dynamics ERP will exist.

By this time, what we know of cloud computing will be changed in a dramatic way. What we view the cloud today, is like viewing the internet now, compared to the dial-up days of the 90's.

In this area and realm, we will see were is truely does not matter to the end customer if it's on-premise or not.

Now take a step back and look towards Dynamics AX '6.0' and what we have been publicly told on this blog and other resources by Microsoft Dynamics Team. SOA within Dynamics AX. That means the ability to split out modules, which is a step to take and this module and that module on-premise or not.

The move for the kernel in AX '6.0' to be wrote in IL, or MSIL, which is to say .Net based kernel. This means, running on Azure, or services possibly running on Azure.

Now I am not saying AX 6, is the cloud version of Dynamics AX. That's never been said by anyone I have interview at Microsoft, and I doubt very seriously that will be the case.

Instead, we are seeing a move, along with the some rate of customer or Market readiness, that allows the creation of services in the cloud, that can be used with a Dynamics AX investment. As these Hybrid clouds build out, and the years go on, more and more can live in the cloud, vs. on-premise...

Still, and most important to understand, a choice will exists. Because even when Cloud Computing of the future, in that 2019-2021 time frame arrives, still then there will be plenty of companies that will not use the cloud as much as others.

Even with it's ability to scale, the cloud, like all ways of creating, consuming and serving software and services - has it's pros and cons.

We also must look at a product like Dynamics AX, which sits on the top of the Microsoft stack, and see that it must lag behind Microsoft's move into the cloud. Technologies must be developed, frameworks must exists and be tested, so that when released, a business system, or system of record like Dynamics AX, is released and it works!

When it comes to the CEO, the Product Manager, the Buyer, the CFO. Technology is great, but it better work. If it does not work, or is not trusted... it can be the best, but it will only be the best peice of crap that company will never use.

To finalize, Richard has a timely post, and one that I hope makes everyone question and think. However I do believe we know how this is playing out for Dynamics, and that Microsoft is doing this correctly. Building this out, as the rate the market is ready for it.

"Visit the Dynamics AX Community Page today!"

Microsoft SharePoint 2010 now compatible with Dynamics AX

I just saw this today when checking around, but the Dynamics AX Sustained Engineering team on Thurs of last week did a blog post about how Microsoft SharePoint 2010 is now compatible with Dynamics AX 2009 SP1.



The direct link to that can be found here.:
Dynamics AX Sustained Engineering Team is pleased to announce the compatibility of Microsoft SharePoint 2010 with Dynamics AX 2009 Service Pack 1

From the post.:
"Please notice the following system requirements for SharePoint 2010:
- .NET 3.5 and only in 64 bits mode
- Windows Server 2008 SP2 and R2 Standard and Enterprise Edition
- SQL Server 2005 SP3 with latest cumulative Update or SQL Server 2008

For Upgrade from MOSS 2007 or WSS 3.0 please notice the *Service Pack 2* is required.
Also, the side by side installation of SharePoint 2010 against any previous version is *not* supported."

I personally have a few clients I am working with that are very interested in this. I have been waiting to hear when this was going to happen. Its good to see it take place.

This is great news, because now all the great features like PowerPivot, etc. can be taking advantage of, in a more native setting.

That's all for now, check back soon!

"Visit the Dynamics AX Community Page today!"

PartnerCompete Spotlight and How Not to Annoy Your Consultants

Let me first say I love PartnerCompete, which can be found here.: www.PartnerCompete.com. It is very informative, and targeted at Microsoft Dynamics Partners.

You have to pay to be a member, and I am a "news" member, which means they send me emails, for recaps on recent story's and publishing that have taking place on their site. This site is a must to check out for any Partner that lives and works in the Microsoft Dynamics Ecosystem.

Now with that splotlight said, an area I cover a lot with this blog is actually focused around Microsoft Partners. A lot of the technical post, can be both partners and customer focus, but still I have a lot of content that is focused around partners. One thing that caught my eye, fromt he Recent PartnerCompete newsletter, was this "The Death of Reason" blog.

The top entry right now, actually caught my eye, as it's focused on Partners, specifically consultants that work for, and are a part of Microsoft Partner companies.

The direct link to the blog post I am talking about, can be found here.: How Not to Annoy Your Consultants

The author of this post, is a fellow Dynamics Blogger - Mark Polino, who focuses mostly on the Dynamics GP brand. He recently joined the "Death to Reason" blog, and I believe he has some great insights.

The basis for this blog post he did, was around the book called.: Making Things Happen by Scott Berkun.



In this post, Mark goes on to have Ch. 10 of this book really catch his eyes, in which he believes the topics apply to Consultants for a Microsoft Partner Company. This is a really good list, and I believe Mark is really speaking for the Mind and Heart on this one.

One section, which is just great, can be seen here.:
Waste a consultant’s time

"A consultant’s time is precious, they know exactly what it’s worth. It appears on a bill every week. Most consultants I know only have two types of time, billable and family. Anything that wastes either of those is really annoying. When consultants have to over document because management is over protective, it’s annoying. When there are flip flops on important decisions its annoying. When poor management decisions lead to rework and wasted time, it’s annoying. When consultants have their time wasted in unnecessary meetings, it’s annoying."

I love the fact, that the time split up is so true and to the point. We are either billable or family time marked, that's the split. :-)

The summarized list from his post, can be found here.:

• Assume a consultant is an idiot


• Don’t trust a consultant


• Waste a consultant’s time


• Manage Consultants without respect


• Make consultants listen to or read stupid things

I highly recommend you read the post in full, and I have never read that book, so I will be downloading it to my iPad for reading later.

I want to leave with Answering Mark's question, in that.: "Can your firm say the same thing about your consultants?"

His question was the fact that his current employer, I.B.I.S treats him with respect, and is not one of those firms that fits into the "bad" partner category.

Now let me answer Marks questions with a big, and bold YES! And that yes to to Sunrise Technologies, (www.sunriseconsult.com). Like Mark, I have worked for and with some bad Microsoft Partners. I will not name, names, however there are some out there. That have sales people who will flat out lie, and then place everything on the implementation team to "make true", in order to salvage a failed project, which failed before is even started. Also these same partners don't treat their company, which is made up of the people / consultants, correctly.

I have seen some of these "bad" partners goes away, and some still around somehow. The bottomline however, when I found Sunrise, I finally felt like I was a part of it. Sunrise is not just a company that employees me. It's My Company! Now granted John Pence is the actual owner, but I treat it as if I own it. And the people that make it up, our my work family.

There is always ups and down, but we strive to be honest, kind, and focused on our customers. I see this every day I work as a part of Sunrise, and I have to be honest, it's the first company I have ever been apart of. The rest, I was just employed.

Thanks again Mark for a great post, and look back here, as more post coming soon!

"Visit the Dynamics AX Community Page today!"

Dynamics AX X++ Team looking for input

Last week, the Microsoft Dynamics AX, X++ Team posted on their blog that they are looking for community input. Being out last week, I did not pick up this, and just saw it today.

If you have seen this, and already left your thoughts great! However if not, please visit the following direct link.: More help needed from community: Do you rely on string truncation?

From the post.:
"Previously the X++ language allowed the LEFT and RIGHT keywords on definitions of string variables. That is no longer valid X++. However, we still allow specifying an explicit string length. The X++ language runtime implicitly does string truncation on assignment, both directly and when passing parameters. Consider the following example:

{
str 5 s;
s = ‘124567890";
}

The resulting string will only contain the first 5 characters, i.e. ‘12345'. Normally the user would not explicitly provide the length of the string in this way, but the behavior is exactly the same when using an extended type that has a particular length. One example is the SysGroup type, that is defined as having length 10 in the properties for the extended data type. If you run

{
SysGroup g = ‘1234567890ABCDEFGHIJ";
print g;
}

You will only get the first 10 characters printed. The remaining ones are lost to truncation."

Finally.:
"The question for you to answer is: Do you rely on these semantics in your code? Would your code run well if all string types were equal and unbound? Do we need to muddy the waters for IL by introducing the same behavior in IL?"

My answer to this is that the IL code should not be made to operate like the current Interpreter does. Don't make the generated MSIL code operate against the nature of how the MSIL code works in every other .Net langauge.

Truncation should only happen at the database level, and if true truncation is needed for some kind of validation, then it should be performed with strlen() and substr() calls.

That's my two cents, what's yours? Make sure to let the X++ team know!




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Blogspot: Microsoft Dynamics AX Tools

Well hope everyone is doing good today! I wanted to take the time and do a blog spotlight, on a new Microsoft team blog that was created last week.

The blog is.: Microsoft Dynamics AX Tools - Blog.


From the first post.:
"This is a blog covering all information about Microsoft Dynamics AX Tools. This involves all aspects of tooling, from developer tools, to configuration and implementation tools. In general, tools that enable AX implementors to plan, configure, customize and deploy AX solutions."

So another great place to look for new information, specifically for those that install, configure, customize and develop for Dynamics AX. Which is just most ever technical person involved with AX!

There is a second blog post, that is promising some good content soon, so check it often. I will make sure and highlight anything that I can!

I would like to say thanks to those behind the Microsoft Dynamics AX Tools blog, and good luck! The more good, valuable information that can exist the better!

That's all for now. I will continue with what I started yesterday, on WCF services, and Dynamics AX. Moving from a basic concept, to issues you face, to reall Architecture look at solutions with WCF, and WCF Services vs. Web Services.





"Visit the Dynamics AX Community Page today!"

Dynamics AX Disaster Recovery - DPM 2010

Alright, so one of the topics that everyone should have conversations about when implementing Dynamics AX, is DR, or disaster recovery.

This is something, that I find sometimes, clients and customers do not pay enough attention to. This is a very critical point, and a customer needs to check and test their DR plans to make sure they actual do what they are suppose to do.

Now enter System Center Data Protection Manager 2010, due out in RC form early Feb. This is a true Data Protection Solution, vs. a bloated backup solution.

Check out the following great post.:
System Center Data Protection Manager 2010 Beta Webcast

That is from the System Center Data Protection Manager Blog, from Microsoft. In this post, we learn that DPM 2010 will offer native workload support, for protection for Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009!

That's right, and that's not all that comes with such an investment, with DPM offering now protection per DPM server, of up to 1000 databases.

From the post.:
"System Center Data Protection Manager 2010 delivers unified data protection for Windows servers and clients as a best-of-breed backup & recovery solution from Microsoft, for Windows environments. DPM 2010 provides the best protection and most supportable restore scenarios from disk, tape and cloud – in a scalable, reliable, manageable and cost-effective way."

And Finally.:
"DPM 2010 is called enterprise ready, and here’s why.

• DPM 2010 will be able to protect 100 servers, 1000 Laptops and up to 2000 databases per server.


• It is tested with sharepoint farms of 25 TB and over 1 million items


• There is a significantly increased fan-in of data sources per DPM server


• It can handle 80 TB per DPM server


• Automatic rerunning of jobs and improved self-healing is implemented


• Automatic protection of new data sources for SQL and MOSS


• Decreased Inconsistent Replicas errors


• Reduced Alert Noise


• Optimized tape logic for tape reservations and usage


• Library Sharing more resilient


• Better resilience to physical errors in drives and changers


• Task controller for tape jobs for higher throughput


• More flexibility in scheduling short- and long-term tape

I think that for any Dynamics AX customer, this is a must to look at and invest time into seeing how System Center, and specifically DPM 2010 can help protect your investment, and ensure uptime, and disaster recovery.

Also, with DPM, you get a lot more than just native workload protection for Dynamics AX 2009.

That's all for now, but check back soon, and thanks Microsoft SCDPM Team!




"Visit the Dynamics AX Community Page today!"

Dynamics AX 6.0 - aka 2011 - X++ Editor

I saw on twitter today, a link to a blog post done in October of last year now, about some screen shots of the Dynamics AX 6.0, aka Dynamics AX 2011, X++ editor.

Here is the direct link to that blog post.:
Vincent's Blog - Dynamics AX6 – The new X++ editor



From the post.:
"This editor is based on the same framework than the Visual Studio editor... ...The line numbering and the gradient marking are the first visible signs of a new UI. The rendering is WPF based, so that gives some opportunities for cool graphics."



And...
"Things to notice, that are new relatively to the existing editor are:

-Support for multiple fonts and styles (comments are in a different font in italic).
-Differentiated coloring of strings and numbers.
-Operators coloring (in pink here, but don’t worry I’ll most likely change it before we release !).
-Change tacking margin."

So it looks like we have some good updates coming to the X++ editor, including being based on WPF rendering. This means, a move more and more to Visual Studio?? Possibly having X++ editor, be a part of Visual Studio in the next couple of releases?

I thought this was a good post, and though it's from October, I have not seen these anywhere else yet, so good stuff to note.

It also seems that the following.: multiple methods in the same window, outlining, screen split, comment away multiple lines, snippets, Ctrl+Space to complete partly written code.. etc.

Are in the works as well, which makes X++ editor more and more like Visual Studio.

That's all for now, thanks Vincent for sharing!




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Reflection - Where and why

With Dynamics AX, the ability to make use of Reflection, or Reflective Programming, exist.

For those that don't quite understand what reflection is, please check out the following wikipedia link, which explains it well.:
Wikipedia.org Link



As described on the wikipdeia article.:
"In computer science, reflection is the process by which a computer program can observe and modify its own structure and behavior. The programming paradigm driven by reflection is called reflective programming. It is a particular kind of metaprogramming.

In many computer architectures, program instructions are stored as data - hence the distinction between instruction and data is merely a matter of how the information is treated by the computer and programming language. Normally, instructions are executed and data is processed; however, in some languages, programs can also treat instructions as data and therefore make reflective modifications. Reflection is most commonly used in high-level virtual machine programming languages."

So the idea of reflection, or meta-programming, has actually been around for a long while. Since the mid 1980's. And the ability to perform reflective programming exists in many langauges, including C#, Java, and X++.

There are plenty of examples actually of reflection, that are common use with Dynamics AX. These may not be considered full reflective based programming, but aspects of this exists all through the common code base of Dynamics AX.

Take for example the Common object. All tables actually extend from this Common object.

As it's base, you have then the ability to send a table of unknown type, and operate it on a method that does not know until runtime, what the Common object actually represents.

So there eixsts, for the Common object, the ability for it to describe itself to later executing code, and therefore can then be acted upon at runtime.

For example.:

public void SomeMethod(Common Rec)
{
Table1 tbl1var;
Table2 tbl2var;
;

switch(tableid2name(rec.tableid))
{
case "Table1" :
tbl1var = Rec;
break;

case "Table2" :
tbl2var = Rec;
break;
}

// Do some code here on the Tables...
}


In the above example we see a somewhat common approach for having a method find out what kind of table that is being passed in, and then operate on that table based on the table name.

Now if you expand this further, there are other classes, and objects that exists inside Dynamics AX that help us really implement Reflection.

These classes include.:

• SysDictTable


• SysDictField


• SysDictClass


• Etc.

You can browse the AOT, Classes and go to SysDict* and see what all exists there.

The reason I bring reflection up, is I think it's not a well understood topic, and one that if more people understood could really benefit from.

I have done some development work before, that making use of reflection could read an entire SQL Server databse, read in datatypes, field lengths, tables names, and use that to create tables, extended data types, and import the data into these new tables, with a single object.

There is also possibilities for making use of reflection for say you want to have a class framework, and have a class tied to a given customer to operate some kind of acknowledgement to that customer.

You don't however want to have a mega object that operates all this for you, and you want flexibility. What to do?

Well you can make use of reflection, to create a framework that will execute code, not knowing for sure what it's executing actually. Only knowing that the given class it is executing has a specific method. And you made sure of that this method exists, because you make use of reflection to see if it actually does exists.

This can be done with making use of the SysDictClass, and the Object, Object. You could also get fancy, if need be, and create code at run time, compile that code and run time, execute that code at run time, and have that code return it's output to operate on. Again, All at run time!

To see a decent example of this, check the following out.: Generating and running code RUNTIME

Also, a great resource on this very matter, with X++ as the focus is the SysDictCoder blog, found here.: SysDictCoder Blog

The following are just some of the great highlights that have been from this blog, and I myself have made use of most or not all of these in my lifetime of AX.:

• Tricks with X++ embedded SQL


• Constructing date values


• Changing properties of AOT objects in code

Those are just some recent few actually, and there is a lot more.

The whole idea of reflective development, making use of reflection is smart coding. Sometimes people look at it as code that makes code. If I can create a single object that saves me time from coding 200 objects, that that is the better way.

And that last example, true example. Not a made up number. I have done this before, specifically relating to data imports.

That's all for now, I hope this is enough to get you thinking about reflection, some of it's common uses in X++, and maybe how it can help you solve that next need.

Till next time!




"Visit the Dynamics AX Community Page today!"

Blog spot lioght: Gotdax?

I try to spotlight great resources I find from time to time. Places on the web that has some great peices of information, spanning the entire Microsoft stack, and how that relates to Dynamics AX.

In doing so, I will do these Blog spot light posts. Well today is one of those post, and I want to spotlight a blog called: Gotdax? - click here to visit.

This blog, was recently started this year it seems in July, by a one Jacob Sørensen who seems to be from around the north sea area of Europe, where AX was actually born.

His post, some we have see similar at the SysDict Blog and I myself have posted about, focus on the 'out of the box' ways to get things done inside Dynamics AX.

See I am a big fan of reflection, and reflective development. Meta-programming or meta-development as it is sometimes referred too. And Jacob touches some of that with his post.

Here are some of the interesting one's that he has posted so far.:

• Merging code/elements in Layers


• Extracting labels from one labelfile to another


• Generating and running code RUNTIME.

I always encourage my fellow bloggers to continue to push the envolope in being creative, and posting relavent information that helps the Dynamics AX community.

This is for sure some good post, Jacob, and I hope to see more from you! Thanks for taking the time to post!

That's all for now. I have more planned post for the upcoming week, so see you then!




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Sick... Ugh!

Well I was traveling this week, to client site, and as soon as I landed Monday morning, it all started with a cough.

It progressed quickly from that point, to cold chills, aches, pains, cough, runny nose and eye's.

I was lucky, that my doctor agreed to call in some Tamiflu for me. So I am taking that, but I have been up and down all night.



So I have to get some rest, and most likely will not be writing this week. However, I will be back in strong force next week, with a lot of great post.

See you then!




"Visit the Dynamics AX Community Page today!"

Blog spotlight: DAXDilip - A good Dynamics Resource

I wanted to do a blog spotlight today, and point out a great new Dynamics Resource. This is Dilip, over at DAXDilip.blogspot.com.

Dilip has been posting since October of 2007 on a regular basis, so it's not really that new.

Dilip seems to have a deep knowledge of the Dynamics space, and a lot of that in Dynamics AX focused posted.

His most recent post, that caught my eye, which broke the news about the X++ Web UI Framework in Enterprise Portal is to be Discontinued has some great insights into his take on this move.:

"1. This is a good move as developers with C# and VB.Net can be more productive in designing the web objects for AX. They need not depend on X++ Application Developers

2. Developing and Deploying web-based portals/webparts will be much more easier and rapid and also one can start using the new Web 3.0 framework as well as the power of Silverlight, AJAX etc."

These are great technical points, of why Microsoft is making this move. It's to consolidate on a given single web platform. SharePoint being a big part of that, including the Office System as well.

I recommend adding Dilip's blog to your list of blog to check for information, and helpful post.

Thanks Dilip for adding good content to the Dynamics Community, and please keep it up!

That's all for now, check back as more to come.

See you next time!




"Visit the Dynamics AX Community Page today!"

X++ Team Blog: Some highlighted changes for X++ Langauge

The X++ team did a post recently about some changes that are 'forthcoming' in the next release of Dynamics AX 2011.

Here is the direct link.:
Forthcoming changes to the X++ language

From the entry:
"We are continually looking at what we can do to make the value proposition of the X++ language stronger. We have identified that several changes are needed to avoid a number of runtime problems, and to make future alignment with managed languages possible. As always, we realize that any changes we make to the core language are a mixed blessing to people who maintain a large code base: On one hand the new semantics cause the compiler to catch more errors earlier, but on the other hand they will invariably cause changes to existing code."

A summary of the changes from that post are here.:

• Covariance vs. Contravariance


• No compilation error is issued when parameters without default arguments follow default arguments.


• The X++ compiler allows two methods with the same name where one is static and the other not.


• No visibility rules are enforced for access of overriding methods


• Abstract methods can be reached through a SUPER() call.


• Static constrictors are not diagnosed


• Abstract class implementation.


• Interfaces.


• Open array assignments.

So these are some great moves to help bring X++ forward into some of the same great functions, abilities and desires for X++.

I can't wait to see more from the X++ team blog, thanks for the update!

Check back soon, as more great post are to come.




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MFP: AX6 sneak preview - SQL AOD

Well MFP is giving us a sneak preview into AX 6.0 milestone. The AOD files are 'a changing'.

Check out the post here: MFP Blog Post: 'AX6 sneak preview - SQL AOD'

From the post:
"Today we built the first official build of Dynamics AX ever that does not run on AOD files. Starting today Dynamics AX's model database is stored in a Microsoft SQL Server database."

That's right, the Model Database will now be in a SQL Server Database.

More from the post:
"So far we have aimed at providing 1-to-1 parity with AOD files; but the potential of this is amazing - I hardly know where to start...

-Performance can be further improved as the subsystems querying the meta data store starts levarging the powers of SQL. For example; the ISAM database used for the AOD files (and still used by temp tables) doesn't support joins. Due to this many subsystems are overly chatty when reading meta data as they query row-by-row.

-Solving the element ID problem is now possible, as we can leverage the flexibilty and powers in SQL for modifying and extending the model schema.

-Capabilities... There are so many cool scenarios we can enable - but you'll have to wait for an sneak preview after the next milestone to learn more. But to get you thinking: What deployment capabilties did AOD files lack?"

My gears are already turning on how much better this will make the overall performance of the entire system work. True indexed model data, speed at the SQL level, this is for sure the right move.

I can't wait to hear more, thanks MFP for sharing and getting this out there.




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Bloglines - Dynamics AX Related Blogs

Hope everyone has had a great week so far. Thought I would do a little many post here. Came across the bloglines listing for blogs relating to Dynamics AX.

Bloglines: Dynamics AX Related blogs

This is a really good list of Dynamics AX blogs. Some updated a good bit, some not so much, but good to check out anyway. I recommend giving it a once over, to make sure you have at least checked them all out once.

Well check back soon, more great Dynamics AX post to come!




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Application Benchmark Toolkit for Dynamics AX 2009 - Released

Last Tuesday, the AX Performance team blog had an announcement, about the recent release of the open source project: 'Application Benchmark Toolkit for Dynamics AX 2009.'

The direct link to the Codeplex site can be found here: Application Benchmark Toolkit for Microsoft Dynamics AX

The link to the AX Performance Team blog can be found here: AXPerfBlog: Application Benchmark Toolkit for Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009

From the post:
"We have released the Benchmark Toolkit as an Open Source Project on CodePlex. You can use the Benchmark Toolkit to stress and performance test your AX application or custom classes. The Benchmark Toolkit comes with a predefined set of 12 scenarios such as Sales Order and Project Quotation. You are free to modify these to fit your scenario. The Benchmark Toolkit also comes with the Programming Model Proxy which will allow you to choose X++ classes, enums and tables from your AOT and automatically generate C# proxy code for calls into Microsoft Dynamics AX Business Connector."

I actually saw this last week, but was so busy and swamped that I did not post it. So here you are. I recommend that anyone involved with DAX 2009 take a look at this now.

I plan on diving into this myself, and hopefully have a few good post about it soon. That's all for now. Thanks AX Perf Team for getting this out there! Check back soon!




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Azure: Full SQL Server planned for Windows Azure Platform

At the MSDN developers conference this week, Microsoft made the direction statement that now there will be a Full version of SQL Server in the cloud, vs. just having SQL Server Data Services.

The story was first came out at the register: 'Full' SQL Server planned for Microsoft's Azure cloud - Partners Demanded It

Also Mary Jo over at her 'All about Microsoft Blog' at ZDNet helps to try and put this all together and give some insight into the driving forces behind this rethink: SQL Data Services to get an overhaul

From Microsoft CEO Ballmer:
"The next version of SQL Server will do some phenomenal things in business intelligence, and data warehousing. We’ll have a new high end version that we call Data Center some time over the next year or so. We have an Azure version for the cloud announced that will reach fruition with the PDC this year."

Why does this matter? Well I guess if you think about this, it was going to happen sooner or later. People will want a 'full control' cloud platform, including down to the data layer. SQL Server Data Services could be fine for a light weight application, but an application that could be spanning a large amount of data, transation and so forth will need a full blown, heavy level SQL Server.

So this is the right move, and the right time to make it. While Azure is still in beta. This further makes the point that Azure is the only 'true' Cloud Platform.

I want to add one last thought to this. Without such a move by Microsoft, I don't think ERPLive.com or 'Dynamics ERP in Cloud' would ever be possible. This will ensure that such a future step will be taking place now, and give the ability for true control and customization of such an offering to the customer level.

Check back soon, and many thanks to those that covered this for us and brought it to our attention!




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Busy, Busy...

Well I am super swampped this week, with work (which is a good problem) and also studying after hours for the Dynamics AX 2009 Install & Config exam. I am taking the exam this Friday, so I will let everyone know how it goes, and what I think of it.

I am using the courseware and my own knowledge to get ready for the exam.

Also I have some great post coming up soon about BPM, Workflow, SOA, BizTalk, the Microsoft SOA conference recently, and more on SQL Server... so a lot in the works.

Check back soon!




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Blog Spotlight: 'C# and AX Development'

I wanted to take this wonderful Friday, and do a little step back from posting directly from me, in order to spotlight a blog I came across.

The blog that I want to spot light is:
'C# and AX Development'

The 'C# and AX Development' blog is ran by Oscar Londono, out of Canada. This blog has had active post since 2007, and has a lot of good information on it. This is a great resource actually for C# post and knowledge, with AX thrown in there as it applies to the C# examples provided.

So if your looking for a great source on C# with AX Development in mind, take a look at Oscar's blog.

Thanks Oscar for taking the time to blog as much as you have, with great examples! Keep it up, and check back here soon for more DAX, Oslo, M, and SQL Server post coming up soon... see you then!




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Microsoft Dynamics AX EP Team Blog - Filtering a DataSet from Code behind

For a little change of pace from my last few entries, I thought I would share a nice post from the guys and gals that run the Microsoft Dynamics AX EP Team blog.

You can get to their blog by going here: Microsoft Dynamics AX EP Team Blog

The article I want to share with you can be found here: Filtering a DataSet from Code behind

I found this very helpful, and can see how this can be used in a wide range of customizations and at customers that really want to make use of EP for their instance. I recommend reading it, as I am sure you will get use of it and be able to start making use of it right away.

From the post:
"Enterprise portal allows filtering the list pages using the Filter control available on the EP Grid. The Filter control provides a UI to select the field, criteria and the values you want to filter the grid. It is also possible to add multiple conditions."

Thanks to all of you over at the EP team blog. Please keep this good content coming! Also check back soon!




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In the spot light: Dianne Siebold's WebLog

I wanted to kick off a new type of post, 'In the spot light'. Where I take different blogs, sites, resources, books, solutions, etc. and highlight that given source.

I have done this in the past, but never under a single type of approach. To kick this off, I wanted ti highlight a blog I have never highlighted before. That is the blog or weblog as she still calls it of Dianne Siebold.

This weblog, has a great amount of information and resources on it. She does a good job of covering some interesting topics, and some of her heaviest area's of coverage is AIF, or Application Integration Framework. This came out in DAX 4.0, and has gotten a much needed face lift and tummy tuck in DAX 2009.

You can reach her blog here: Dianne Siebold's WebLog I highly recommend added this as a resource you check on and read.

Thanks Dianne for taking the time to put your weblog together and for your great contributions to the community! Check back soon!




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