Get in the Cloud with Dynamics AX

I openned this year up with a focus on calling 2010 'The Year of the Cloud.'

I truly believe, and have already seen that 2010 is more than just the year of the cloud, but it's a kick off point really to a decade of cloud computing. Check out the following article from ZDNet.: Will economic conditions trigger a cloud computing avalanche?

In this, ZDNet author, Joe McKendrick, points out that after major economic downturns, a new wave of technology advances take place. And since we are just now coming out of a deep recession, does that mean a Cloud Revolution is upon us?

Well I stick with what I have been saying all along, my answer to this is yes. Not only does the technology exists, now, but also the times are right for projects to start getting kicked off from an economic stand point.

So what does this mean for Dynamics AX? After all Dynamics AX is an ERP platform, so how can the cloud help Dynamics AX?

In my recent, Interview with Microsoft Distinguished Engineer - Mike Ehrenberg, I asked Mike about the cloud, and what Microsoft's vision is for Dynamics and Dynamics AX. His was response was this.:

"In Dynamics, and across Microsoft, we are focused on the ability to combine software plus services – on-premise assets with the cloud – using each to their maximum advantage to deliver the best capabilities to our customers. We are doing that today, extending our on-premise and on-line products with cloud-based services – in some cases developed by us, and increasingly working with others developed by partners."

He goes on.:
We are really focused on three types of solutions where the cloud simply is better.: Connection of the business system to the public internet, Large volumes of shared data that is frequently changing, Connected supply chains.
(To View the full details, please use the link above.)

So with these three major areas for the cloud and Dynamics AX, we get an idea of what Microsoft's vision the cloud can and will play with Dynamics AX ERP implementations for customers.

So what about how? Well with Dynamics AX 2009, you can now working with .Net 4.0 and Visual Studio 2010. (ie: Visual Studio 2010 and .Net 4.0 Passed Compatibility Testing with Dynamics AX) This means that creating and working with Cloud projects is really easy.

All you need is Visual Studio 2010, and the VSCloud Service Project / Windows Azure installed. Once you have that, without having an Azure account even, you can develop, and debug cloud based services, ASP.NET Web roles, and Worker Processes that all can be deployed and access via the cloud. This also means you can make use of SQL Azure, for cloud based SQL Server Data Services as a Service.

So with this, you can develop services, and use WCF communications, to allow AX 2009 to make service references, in which X++ code could call Azure based services.

Right there, you have a hybrid cloud, in which on-premise AX is running, and connecting to Cloud based services to enable a given process, processes or solutions.

Now I have not even talked about what might could be done with IaaS, or Infastructure as a Service offered by Amazon EC2. With this, you can have a cloud based VM, that is not pure cloud services, offered by Azure, but can target SQL Server and Windows Server images, and therefore (I have not tested this yet!) Dynamics AX running in the cloud, on Amazon EC2 hosted images.

So the cloud for that possibility is the Infastructure needs, Network, RAM, CPU, Power, etc. This would be more like a Hosted version of AX in a colocation, except it's a lost easier to quickly bring up images and servers, using Amazons EC2 services, without having to order servers, etc.

Alright, so this is all now. In the not to distant future, ProISV and it's AX.NET Server offering, (ProISV talks about AX.NET offering compared to Future DAX .Net offerings), will help bridge the gap even further with Dynamics AX 2009, allowing for Cloud facing applications like a SilverLight application, to consume services exposed via AX.NET, on presmise, and through the firewall over HTTPS / TCP.NET, Cloud services and Cloud Facing Front Ends could actually work directly with Dynamics AX X++ code and data.

Therefore you could move entire processes to the cloud, and still have on-premise control over your ERP, Data, Business logic and processes.

Hopefully, in this post, the point is clear... there are many, many options for what can exist now in the cloud. We see Microsoft's vision for the cloud, and it's beyond cost savings and operational based thinking.

If we take the vision, and the technologies then we can take customers real business problems, there problem domains, and use this to help create a better, faster, cheaper -- and cloud connected solutions that enable customers to be more dynamic and more agile than ever before.

So here to a new Decade of cloud computing, in which we are just now embarking on!

That's all for now, I hope to use this post though as a starting point to get into some real life Solution Designs with Dynamics AX + The Cloud. To show how things can connect, how this all works together, and the biggest reason of --- why! Check back soon and often!




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ProISV talks about AX.NET offering compared to Future DAX .Net offerings

Recently, I wrote a write up and interview about the recent ProISV release of version 1.0 of their AX.NET offering. That post can be found here.: ProISV Launches Version 1.0 of AX.NET

When I posted this, there was some questions from some of my readers around being a little confused actually about what AX.NET is offering, compared specifically to the work that Microsoft is doing for Dynamics AX '6', with the AX Visual Studio tools. (AXTools Blog latest on AX Explorer for VS)

I asked ProISV Partner's and Co-founder's Niels Skjoldager and Kaspar Bomholtz to answer this line of questioning. To shed some light on what ProISV offers now, how it alings with Microsoft's vision for the future, and specifically to the released information about the AX Tools for Visual Studio. Bellow is the response I got back from them.:

"AX.NET does already, today, add significant value to the investments AX customers have already made. Many AX customers are not necessarily on the most current AX version as well, or do not upgrade immediately after Microsoft releases a new AX version, so AX.NET is also highly relevant for all of those customers, who chose to stay on their existing AX version “for some time”. However, we will urge all AX customers to always migrate to the newest AX version, thereby yielding continuous advantages as Microsoft moves down the road of bringing further innovation to market.

AX.NET will continue, also in the future, to add significant value, even after Microsoft releases the much anticipated (and delayed) AX 6.0. ProISV is already in higher gear in terms of having the ability to make even more out of the new exciting features in AX 6.0, when those eventually are released of course. However, ProISV will not sit back and wait for AX 6.0 to hit the streets, which is why we releasing technology now, which can be used by existing AX customers as well as future customers on AX 6.0.

AX.NET Server will fully cloud enable AX2009 and newer versions, obviously including AX 6.0, and this product will be released before the summer of 2010. This means that AX.NET can already be used today to write exciting applications in .NET, as it is already fully integrated with AX, and be ready to deploy those solutions in the Cloud. In other words, while Microsoft is continuing with their great innovations, ProISV expands the opportunities for all AX customers and beyond, following Microsoft’s roadmap for AX for “eternity”. Since we are so focused on this particular technology, we will always make the most out of what Microsoft offers out of the box and add significant value on top of that, as is the case with AX.NET today. Our licensing model also fully protects our customers’ investments.

We of course expect Microsoft to also direct their investment in AX towards cloud enablement, as is already announced on several occasions by Microsoft executive leadership. It is also very clear to us that the AX.NET Server ambitions go way above and beyond what Microsoft will offer anytime soon in regards to both moving the entire AX into .NET and moving AX into the Cloud. Microsoft will soon offer that certain web services and AIF can be hosted in the AX AOS itself as well as Cloud services, such as payroll and better integration with external sites. AX still remains a deployment choice between “on premise” and “partner hosted”. AX.NET Server gives the choice of moving the entire AX into the Cloud.

We offer choice as well, so that AX.Net customers can design their own strategy for Microsoft Dynamics AX cloud deployment. Windows Azure is one of the natural options, but far from the only viable option to choose from. This level of freedom of choice is something we know from our long and diverse experience in the world of Microsoft Dynamics AX is “a must”, so the fulfillment of that core requirement is already built into our technology. AX.NET will support everything Microsoft chooses to ship and expand on that, also when it comes to Cloud computing.

We expect as well that Visual Studio Tools for Microsoft Dynamics AX will be an addition to the Visual Studio Reporting Tools for Microsoft Dynamics AX. We also expect that Visual Studio Tools for AX will continue to primarily focus on the Microsoft product portfolio, which essentially means Sharepoint and SQL Server Reporting Services (SRS). AX.NET fully supports that strategy, but as mentioned before provides the ultimate .NET integration with AX as well as flexible Cloud enablement in any size and shape. Our Code Protection System adds significant IP protection as well on top of that, something we know is high in demand.

So, all in all, we are very excited as well about the Microsoft innovations, because we are completely aligned in our product strategies. In fact, we are complementary to each other and we continuously expand to the Microsoft technology stack."

To help give a face to those behind this, and since I was not able to post this last time, the following are Niels and Kaspars pics and Bio's. They are open to any direct questions you might have for them, and as always feel free to leave me a comment or send me an email! Thanks!


Niels Skjoldager, Co-founder/Partner

Niels is a visionary, passionate, multi-lingual, entrepreneurial business leader, with 14 years of proven international track-record in various executive roles and entrepreneurship. Niels has 10 years of executive leadership experience in various software developing companies, being the leader of strategy, partners channels, sales, development, sustained engineering and support teams.

Niels is highly goal and result oriented, a team builder, strong ethics, strong financial and people management background as well as highly educated with a M.Sc. degree in Supply Chain Management with focus on the application of solving complex business problems through the means of technology and software solutions in particular. Key focus has been supply chain integration and the use of ERP, such as Microsoft Dynamics AX, as the core application.

Niels also has 10 years of direct experience in working with Microsoft Dynamics AX: Development, deployment, business process analysis, support, training, development of ISV solutions and Microsoft product certifications, as well as developing strong relationships with Microsoft.

Niels is a co-founder of ProISV, having the overall responsibility for strategy, business development, partner channel development, sales and support.


Kaspar Bomholtz, Co-founder/Partner

Kaspar is a visionary, passionate and driven software developer, with an outstanding ability to very efficiently develop a vision for a software solution to product, while always producing high quality products.

Kaspar has extensive experience with designing and implementing complex software solution in .NET C# and VB.NET since the first version in 2002 and in total more than a decade of development experience.

Kaspar also has vast knowledge in working with Microsoft ISV’s and partners as well as understanding their business problems relating to the development and deployment of Microsoft Dynamics AX, as well as industry leading expertise of the technical architecture of Microsoft Dynamics AX and the utilization of the newest versions of X++ and .NET C#.

Kaspar has been through the vigorous and extensive Certified for Microsoft Dynamics AX as well as Industry Builder certifications as well, and thereby has deep knowledge of the Microsoft standards and requirement for quality, trustworthy computing and thread modeling.

Kaspar is not only a developer, he is also a strategist when it relates to planning of products and development as well as translating complex business problems to elegant software solutions, in close collaboration with project stakeholders, design and implementation teams.

Kaspar is a Co-founder of ProISV, having the overall responsibility for product development.

That's all for now, but check back soon as more great post to come, including WCF, Cloud, Top 100 voiting, Convergence and much much more!




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ProISV Launches Version 1.0 of AX.NET

Today, ProISV is releasing version 1.0 of the AX.NET, minus the AX.NET Server peice, which is set to be released within the next two months.

This is a new offering, that I wrote about in the following blog post.:
Dynamics AX and .Net - A new technology offering from ProISV

As well as my CIO focused article on MSDynamicsWorld.com, found here.: MSDW: How AX.NET Extends a CIO's Integration Options

This covered the details of what AX.NET planned on offering and was bringing to the Dynamics AX, .Net table. Now, as of today, ProISV is releasing AX.NET, along with their new partner program.

For this launch, I interviewed ProISV team, Neils and Kaspar. Below is that interview.:

1.) What will be released as version 1, today, from the AX.NET offerings and what does this bring to customers and partners? (Niels)

"We are including a lot of functionality in our first AX.NET release. The core functionality creates a .NET version of AX, thereby enabling full .NET integration with Microsoft Dynamics AX business logic and data. Feedback from our now closed beta1 program and analysts is that we are closing a major gap in the Microsoft Dynamics AX technology base with the release of AX.NET.

So, today we are offering two different types of AX.NET licenses: AX.NET Developer System, which targets product developers and AX.NET Client, which is suitable for users on the system as well as internal AX development. The AX Developer System all inclusive license, unlimited developer users and Code Protection System, will retail at EUR 3,995, while the Client license retails as low as EUR 295 per user.

This means that developers can now write custom .NET code, while using the AX logic directly in Visual Studio, as well as use our Code Protection System to ensure that their intellectual property is fully managed and cannot be circumvented. The client license makes it possible to run the AX.NET applications at a low price, thereby enabling a much richer Microsoft Dynamics AX experience and at the same time reduce the cost dramatically. There are many fine details in our functionality, which is probably too much to all be mentioned here, but our website provides all the details as well as the differences in the license types: (ProISV license types link.)

Well worth mentioning though is that we are now also introducing our Partner Program, through which we will enable authorization for partners to distribute and resell AX.NET licensing. This is a very big revenue opportunity in addition to the significant cost savings of using AX.NET to develop applications. None of this would be meaningful though, without having a high quality product offering, so that has been our highest priority leading up to our product launch."

2.) To what do you attribute your ability to release a stable version 1 of the AX.NET offerings? (Niels)

"The key principle of all of our product development is that it is test driven, agile development, blended with our many years of experience in the field. This means we can quickly attain a very high level of quality in our products. The key purpose of our AX.NET beta1 program was to work with partners, get their feedback both in terms of quality and functionality. We had a very successful and productive beta1 program, which resulted in great new features and a very stable product, so we are obviously very happy for that and thankful to our beta partners for their active participation."

3.) Without getting into details, can you give us an idea of Customer and Partner involvement during the beta program that lead up to this April 7th release? (Niels)

"We had great feedback from our beta partners and some of them were giving us intensive feedback throughout the work days. This speaks to the fact that AX.NET really fills a major technology gap and the ability to finally work with a full .NET version of AX is something, which has been received with tremendous interest. We will now continue working with the beta partners and assist those, who have chosen to take a step further and use AX.NET commercially in their businesses. We were actually able to very quickly implement suggestions for product improvements as well, so that probably create great confidence in ProISV as a business partner"

4.) Can you talk about some of the improvements, with examples that took place during the beta program that helped refine and make AX.NET a better offering? (Kaspar)

"There have been many improvements during the beta program, and many suggestions from our Beta Program Partners have been implemented.
The most visible changes have been made to streamline the AX.NET Assembly Generator that is where all AX.NET development starts.

We have for example made it easy to connect the Microsoft Dynamics AX AOS using the Dynamics AX Client Configurations stored on the local computer.



When choosing the selection of tables, classes and enums to be included in the AX.NET Assembly, which shall constitute your .NET version of the AOT in Microsoft Dynamics AX, you can now define the selection by choosing private and shared projects from the selected Microsoft Dynamics AX.



This way it is easy for a business consultant to define in Dynamics AX, what should be included in the .NET representation of AX. A technical consultant can then build the AX.NET Assembly using the Microsoft Dynamics AX project.

During the Beta Program we improved the control over which elements actually are included in the AX.NET Assembly. When building the AX.NET Assembly, the AX.NET Assembly Generator uses the defined selection of elements, but AX.NET Assembly Generator also included a feature to automatically include depended elements.



So if I am creating an AX.NET Assembly with the CustTable table from Microsoft Dynamics AX, I would probably like to automatically include the classes and tables that the methods (business logic) on CustTable use as parameters. AX.NET enables this, and with the new features developed during the Beta Program, it is even now possible to define how many levels of dependencies should be included.

There has also been made great progress in streamlining the AX.NET Framework to make it more intuitive and user friendly. We have for example changed the naming convention in the AX.NET Assembly, so the name of the .NET types in a generated AX.NET Assembly in most cases have exactly the same name as in Microsoft Dynamics AX.
This means that the Microsoft Dynamics AX class Map is now also called Map in an AX.NET Assembly, where it before was called IMap. Further the Microsoft Dynamics AX table CustTable is now called CustTable in an AX.NET Assembly, and a row in CustTable is called CustTableRow.

We believe that there has been made great progress and improvements during the Beta Program, and we really would like to thank our Beta Partners for providing us with their feedback. We will continue down the path with our next product offering, the AX.NET Server."

5.) What are your plans for the AX.NET Server offering? What will it target, and allow? (Niels)

"In short, AX.NET Server will enable the AX infrastructure to run in the Cloud as a modern age alternative to on premise or hosted servers in the traditional sense. Thereby new business models in line with Cloud computing can be introduced as well.

So with AX.NET Server, AX can be accessed through a web browser, just like any other Cloud service. AX.NET Server is fully compatible with all of the AX.NET features in the Developer System and Client License system, which means that applications developed today, can run as Cloud services, once we release AX.NET Server.

Obviously, delivering Microsoft Dynamics AX as a cloud service will eliminate many costs otherwise associated with deploying and maintaining AX."

6.) When is the AX.NET Server offering scheduled to be released as version 1? (Niels)

"We anticipate to release AX.NET Server Beta towards the end of April. The commercial release will depend on the beta program feedback. As was the case with AX.NET beta1, we will apply agile development and release when the product is ready. That means “fast”."

7.) What do you feel are some of the most important things that AX.NET brings to Customers and Partners? What is the, short version, of the case for AX.NET in a Dynamics AX implementation? (Kaspar)

"We believe that the release of AX.NET today marks the beginning of the next generation of .NET solutions for Microsoft Dynamics AX. AX.NET will enable customer to build custom .NET solutions that increase the value of their Microsoft Dynamics AX investment by enabling faster, cheaper and better support for development of web, mobile, smart client and integration solutions.

AX.NET can achieve this by enabling the full power of the newest version of Microsoft .NET Framework and Microsoft Visual Studio to be unleashed including support for LINQ (Language Integrated Query) and Intellicense (auto completion, inline documentation and compilation check) in Visual Studio.

Writing .NET solutions for Microsoft Dynamics AX by direct use of the Microsoft Dynamics AX Business Connector can almost be illustrated as writing your .NET code in notepad without any productivity or quality enhancing tools. AX.NET truly brings .NET development for Microsoft Dynamics AX into Visual Studio with everything it includes.

For AX.NET Partners we both provide a great business opportunity to resell AX.NET to the end-user, but we also provide special features for our ISV Partners developing solutions on top of AX.NET and selling them commercially.

When Partners buy the AX.NET ISV license (AX.NET Developer System), they get the possibility to use the AX.NET License System to protect their own Intellectual Property (IP). All AX.NET ISV will receive a digital certificate from ProISV that they can use to sign AX.NET Licenses. The AX.NET License System then allows them to specify, that their AX.NET solution only is allowed on an AX.NET installation with an AX.NET License digital signed by both ProISV and the ISV. Hereby the ISV is ensured that they receive the entire AX.NET License sale for their solution, and that there is no unauthorized use of their product."

8.) If you could pick one thing to really highlight about AX.NET, that maybe a lot of customers and partners might not appreciate fully when first looking at AX.NET, what would that be? (Kaspar)

"If you don’t have a technical background or are familiar with the life of a .NET developer working with Dynamics AX through the Microsoft Dynamics AX Business Connector, it can be easy to underestimate the effect of AX.NET on productivity, quality and moral. With AX.NET a Microsoft Dynamics AX .NET developer does not have to look envious at his colleague that is developing a pure .NET solution."

"The era where .NET development for Microsoft Dynamics AX was a difficult process has passed, and the future is racing towards us. The future is the Cloud, and AX.NET will take your there with AX.NET Server and Microsoft Azure very soon!"

I would like to thank Niels and Kaspar from the ProISV team for taking the time to do this interview. This is exciting news, and I recommend you check out what AX.NET can do for Dynamics AX implementations that need .Net based integration work.

A direct link to their website can be found here.: www.ProISV.com

That's all for now, but check back soon!




"Visit the Dynamics AX Community Page today!"

MSDW: How AX.NET Extends a CIO's Integration Options

MSDynamicsWorld.com just posted my most recent article for them, the full link can be found here.: MSDW: How AX.NET Extends a CIO's Integration Options

This article was launched, based on the Interview and Technology preview post I did about ProISV's, AX.NET offering, which can be found here.: Dynamics AX and .Net - A new technology offering from ProISV

The new MSDynamicsWorld.com article take what is talked about in the more technical details of my first post, and puts it into a framework targeted at what such an offering means for CIO's and company decision makers.

I hope you enjoy it, and check back soon as I have more post coming!




"Visit the Dynamics AX Community Page today!"

Dynamics AX and .Net - A new technology offering from ProISV

Recently I had someone contact me from ProISV, a Mr. Kaspar Bomholtz. With this, Kaspar asked me to check out a new technology that ProISV was developing for Dynamics AX and .Net. I was amazed at what I saw, and actually had thought about doing something similar in the past.

I am sure others have thought as doing such as well, but ProISV has taken working with Dynamics AX business logic and objects from .Net to a new level.

Because I was really impressed with Kaspar and his team's work at ProISV, I asked if he would do an interview with me about what ProISV is offering. The following is that interview.:


1.) With ProISV offering, what all will a customer get with making the choice of going with the new AX.NET from ProISV?

For many years it has been possible to integrate with Microsoft Dynamics AX through the .NET Business Connector and earlier the COM client, but it is time consuming and inefficient. Now with AX.NET, a seamless integration to the business logic and data model in Microsoft Dynamics AX exists. So how does this benefit the customer?

By using AX.NET ISVs can now build richer and more flexible applications for their customers utilizing the power of Microsoft Dynamics AX and the rich user interface of .NET Win Forms, Windows Presentation Foundation (.NET WPF) and ASP.NET (including SharePoint).

AX.NET will also enable ISVs to ship custom .NET dll library together with their Microsoft Dynamics AX ISV solution. By building using the AX.NET technology it will enable full .NET integration to their Microsoft Dynamics AX application. Just by adding a reference to their project in Visual Studio, customers and 3rd party will be able to build custom solutions easily, which fit the specific local business needs.

With the coming introduction of the AX.NET Proxy technology, it will no longer be needed to install the Business Connector on clients. All that is needed is the standard .NET Framework which is also available on mobile devices running Windows Mobile. For years, connectivity has been a problem when integrating with Microsoft Dynamics AX, but with the AX.NET Proxy all you need is a single web service delivering access to the entire Microsoft Dynamics AX out of the box. The AX.NET technology therefore enables Microsoft Dynamics AX to run as a real Cloud service.

2.) How flexible is AX.NET really going to be?

AX.NET is extremely flexible because the AX.NET "AOT" is generated by the AX.NET Framework to the exact configuration of any Microsoft Dynamics AX Application. By using the .NET assembly generation tool, a .NET assembly representing any Microsoft Dynamics AX application can be built in minutes. It all happens automatically and includes the possibility to mirror the entire AOT, a specified area or layer.

Because your Microsoft Dynamics AX classes, tables and enums now become .NET objects, you can utilize the power of the entire .NET Framework to build your application. The AX.NET even includes support for retrieving and manipulating data in AX using .NET LINQ, which is very similar to the embedded SQL statements in X++.

Easy generation of the .NET "AOT" with AX.NET to fit a specific application. With a few clicks the Assembly Generator automatically generates a .NET Assembly containing your custom .NET "AOT".



Here are a few code examples of the applicability:

Selecting customer of type Person.



Creating, updating and deleting a customer.



Browsing the "AOT" in AX.NET using Intellicense in Visual Studio.



Methods are also available on tables and classes.



You can even use AX.NET to create Unit Tests in Visual Studio for Microsoft Dynamics AX. Here is an example:



As you can see the Microsoft Dynamics AX classes Map, Set, SetEnumerator have been automatically generated by AX.NET into the .NET interface IMap, ISet, ISetEnumerator. Even the Types enum in Microsoft Dynamics AX have been converted into a .NET Enum.

The possibilities for application of AX.NET are endless.

3.) So if a Partner was tasked at doing a good bit of .Net development for a customer, what will drive the Partner to use AX.NET, vs. building the same features out themselves?

One of the major benefits with using AX.NET is that ability to use standard .NET technologies known by most .NET developers to create rich applications that integrate with Microsoft Dynamics AX. Many .NET developers already know technologies like LINQ and Data Binding in .NET from working with data sources like Microsoft SQL Server. Now they can use the same technologies with Microsoft Dynamics AX using AX.NET out of the box, which makes it easier to find development resources.

AX.NET also improves development efficiency by support Intellicense for classes, tables and enums in Visual Studio. AX.NET also provides compile time validation of the integration towards Microsoft Dynamics AX. This can drastically reduce the amount of development and QA time used, because errors found during compilation by the developer can easily be detected and corrected during development.
If the Partner is using Team Foundation Server from Microsoft, they can use Continuous Integration to build and verify the .NET solution including the integration to Microsoft Dynamics AX on every check-in of code.

Having a development background I personally know, that all the mentioned improvements of the development experience not only make it more interesting to be a developer, but also saves a significant amount of time and thereby money.
Maintenance of a .NET solution integrating with Microsoft Dynamics AX is also greatly improved by using AX.NET. If changes are made to the Microsoft Dynamics AX application, compile errors are generated in the .NET solution instead of runtime errors that are much more difficult to diagnose.

In the next version of AX.NET the communication between AX.NET and Microsoft Dynamics AX can be tunneled through a single web service interface that we call AX.NET Proxy. Hereby the need to install the Business Connector on the local client is removed, as well as the requirement for being on the same domain. This will make implementations of .NET solutions that integrate with Microsoft Dynamics AX much easier and far more flexible.

4.) What is the planned Road Map for AX.NET, when will v1.0 be ready to go?

We are planning to release AX.NET v1.0beta in Q1 of this year. After that we are planning to validate and optimize AX.NET using feedback from pilot customers in Q2, and then release AX.NET v1.0 hereafter. We plan to license AX.NET based on a license per Microsoft Dynamics AX license and one per user. Since we plan for AX.NET to become a defacto technology, we anticipate to also price accordingly.

Where v1.0 uses the Business Connector directly to access Microsoft Dynamics AX, we are planning to include the AX.NET Proxy feature in v2.0 towards the end of 2010. The AX.NET Proxy technology will provide the same seamless integration to Microsoft Dynamics AX as AX.NET, but it will use web service technology as the link between AX.NET and Microsoft Dynamics AX instead of using the Business Connector directly as in v1.0. This will greatly increase the connectivity of AX.NET by proving integration to Microsoft Dynamics AX over the internet and across networks separated by firewalls, thus taking Microsoft Dynamics AX all the way to be truly Cloud enabled.

5.) What kind of support will exist for Partners who sell AX.NET as part of their implementations?

We are planning to provide training and support through online webinars and training sessions and will have a support channel available on proisv.com to handle the support process. It is our ambition to establish a community, which both AX and .NET developers will be able to use and provide content to as well, such as code examples, Q&A’s and other ideas to inspire the AX.NET community.

6.) What kind of training program is being developed, and what kind of certification will be required for Partners to sale and implement AX.NET?

Online training sessions will be available through the upcoming partner section of our website, proisv.com, from which our AX.NET users can learn about the technology. As such the fundamental prerequisite is to be a solid .NET developer as well as to know the business logic and objects in Microsoft Dynamics AX. So, if you know how to develop in .NET you can also use AX.NET, assisted by our online training material as well as the upcoming developer community on our website.

7.) Will you be present at Convergence, and be able to show off AX.NET there?

We are not currently planning to be present at Convergence. In the first haft of this year, we will be focusing all our energy on product development and to get pilot projects up and running. Sadly I don't think they are going to postpone Convergence for our sake. More likely though, we will participate at the Microsoft World Wide Partner Conference in July.

8.) Finally, what is the coolest feature about AX.NET that you think will really wow Partners and Customers?

The coolest feature must be the seamless integration to Microsoft Dynamics AX. The fact that elements from the AOT in Microsoft Dynamics AX now can automatically be accessed as real .NET objects without any custom code. With AX.NET it is now possible to browse through the generated "AOT" object in AX.NET seeing all the tables, classes and methods automatically available for easy access. We know this is something Microsoft really wanted to do, but we figured out how to get it done.

I would like to thank Kaspar and ProISV for the time with doing this interview. I am very excited about getting my hands on this new offering, and wanting to see how performance is with this new offering. How well it scales, etc.

Feel free to check out ProISV at thier website, located here.: ProISV Website

That's all for now, but check back soon as more to come!





"Visit the Dynamics AX Community Page today!"