Dynamics AX 6.0 (2011) and 500th Post!

Well I thought I would celebrate the 500th post for this blog, by talking about the future.

And why not right? I mean we all want to know what the future has waiting for us righr? Well we can't really say what all the future holds, but we can be sure that as far as Dynamics AX goes, it seems to be a pretty bright future.

There will be continued growth in the functional depth that Dynamics AX 6.0 brings, however for this post I want to focus on the technical side of things.

1.) Dynamics AX 6.0 will bring a whole new ball game to X++ code development and the IDE in which X++ is developed in. Through the use of WPF, the editor will get some much needed boost.

2.) Dynamics AX 6.0 Application files are moving to the SQL Server database. There will also be a brand new approach for promoting code, and merging layer objects, and working with the AOD elements all together.

3.) More and more reports will be delivered in SSRS form, and from what I understand a good bit of improvements will be made with the Visual Studio Report Development Tool Project Template. Bringing Old School SSRS development closer to the X++ business logic.

4.) Dynamics AX 6.0 is set to be the most focused, and well suited for WCF services allowing for more SOA focused integration and interchanges between AX modules and outside of AX systems. The WCF services or service references in AX 2009 is a good first start. There are plenty of issues though as I am sure anyone who has used this in mass has seen. Any major change to the underlying WCF service, and you might as well restart the AOS. The regenerate will work half the time, if you hold your mouth write, hold a pen in your left hand and it's Tuesday at midnight.

Seriouly, that process does need some improvement, and from what I understand, it is getting the attention it needs.

5.) Workflows will enter into a more true .Net state. Workflows for AX 2009 are a good start, but like service references, they also need work. Any real complex works flows, and your better off creating these in .Net 3.5 natively, and wrapping those workflows in WCF services. Then true complex workflows can be made use of in AX 2009.

From what I understand in workflows with Dynamics AX 6.0, a designer will exist that is targeted for functional consultants to build workflows with. This means, if it's true, life becomes easier for everyone.

Also while on this topic, the workflows will become like the rest of WCF, and not have to be hosted in IIS. This is suppose to mean less security headaches. We will see because AX 2009 has it share of security headaches. (Oh how I loath SPN's and Kerberos security with Windows Server 2008)

6.) The Cloud will rule in 2010, and Dynamics AX landscape will become forever changed from service offered by Microsoft, Partners, and custom developed Azure sevices and the customer level.

So with that said, Dynamics AX 6.0 seems like it's going to have a lot of great new and improvement features to offer. Still Dynamics AX 6.0 is sometime off, and Dynamics AX 2009, though some area's take some extra elbow grease with getting all the technical t's and i's crossed and dotted, is still the most advanced and amazing ERP package out there.

Well that's all for now! This is the 500th post, maybe if I get the chance to hit 1000 posts, you can share in the fun. Check back soon as more great post are coming!



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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!"