Microsoft Announces August 2016 Platform Update to New Dynamics AX, Available from LCS

Microsoft has made Dynamics AX Platform version 7.2 available this week. It adds the use of Azure Resource Manager for managing deployments, as well as improvements to the user interface, Office integration, analytics, security, and integrations.

If you aren't familiar with the concept of platform updates for the new AX (aka, AX 7), they are distinct from "application" updates like the one offered in May 2016 in terms of the types of improvements (e.g., no new financial reporting in a platform update). And platform updates can be applied without updating the whole application.  

The 7.2 platform update, also referred to by Microsoft as the "August 2016 Update" or just "Update 2" is deployed via Lifecycle Services (LCS). Microsoft explains that the LCS code upgrade tool will now upgrade your Dynamics AX source code and metadata to the latest platform update, Dynamics AX Platform version 7.2 (August 2016), and the latest application update (May 2016).

The August 2016 update can be used with demo, test, or production instances, and it can be applied to existing AX 7 instances via the LCS Shared Asset Library. The new update can be applied to non-production environments with a self-service approach, but production AX 7 systems will have to go through a request process in LCS so that Microsoft Service Engineering can apply the update.

As a platform update, the August 2016 update is compatible with previous versions of the Dynamics AX application, starting with the 7.0 release. "Therefore, you can stay up to date with the latest improvements to the platform without having to upgrade your whole application," Microsoft explains in a