Microsoft preparing Dynamics NAV 2013 R2 - formerly 'Sicily' - for late 2013

The Microsoft Dynamics NAV release codenamed Sicily will become Dynamics NAV 2013 R2, Microsoft revealed at WPC 2013 this week.  General availability is planned for the fourth quarter of 2013.

NAV 2013 R2 will meet the NAV team's goal of beginning an annual release cadence. As described last October, the new release will introduce an update client interface that better matches Windows 8 styling. It will feature an updated look and feel that can build in more charts and reports with streamlined drilldown.  The new release also promises more hosting platform support and better compatibility with Office 365.

"We might even start talking about load balancing" with the R2 release, Jesper Lachance Raebild, Dynamics NAV product marketing manager hinted during a NAV "end-to-end update" session at WPC. The hosting comments may hint at a theme that can be found in the roadmap slide shared at the same session, which talks about "additional tools/enhancements to support large scale hosting." Whether this capability will turn into a multi-tenancy for partner hosting in Azure or via System Center or something else, multi-tenancy itself was the expected revelation at WPC this week that didn't come out in this end-to-end update.

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More details on the NAV 2013 R2 release will be revealed this fall at the Directions events in the US and Europe, Lachance Raebild said. Beyond the plans for NAV 2013 R2, the next major release will be NAV 'Crete' in calendar year 2014 and future release each year thereafter.