Next Microsoft Dynamics AX Major Release to Bring Azure-based Solutions, HTML5 Interface

The next major release of Microsoft Dynamics AX will include a new Windows 8 style UI that will offer a "major redefined user experience" which will make AX "fundamentally a new browser-based HTML5 app," according to Hal Howard, corporate vice president of Microsoft Dynamics ERP engineering.  Howard made his remarks at the AXUG Summit in Seattle today.

Microsoft will then be making that new user interface available through an Azure-based ERP service from Microsoft.  The cloud-based offering will not be a complete Dynamics AX deployment that companies get on premise now; instead it will be offered in the form of specific industry solutions, with Microsoft adding new flavors as more such solutions are ready for release over time.

For the cloud service, Howard explained that "we're focused on making a great cloud service that you can manage, you can do all the things you want to do and that exists in a way just as if you had the systems yourself but with the benefits and flexibility and power of an Azure-based cloud environment."

The next release will also move all the developer activities into Visual Studio, whereas today some features are in Visual Studio and others are still in MorphX.  "Those things will come together and the entirety of the experience will be in Visual Studio," Howard said.

The R&D team is also expecting to plan its new feature decisions in the next major release by going deeper in industry specific features. 

Early versions of the new release will start appearing around the time of Convergence in early spring 2012, Howard said.