Microsoft Dynamics AX '7' will use SQL Azure for cloud deployments, release about a year away

Microsoft expects to release next major release of Microsoft Dynamics AX, code named AX ‘7', in approximately a year, according to AX general manager Dan Brown who spoke today at AXUG Summit in St. Louis.

"I don't want to get any more specific than that just to give myself some breathing room," he told the audience. "But that's when the browser-based client is going to be delivered."

The new browser based interface will replace the Windows client. It will not only expose standard AX client features, but it will also replace the AX Enterprise Portal, Brown said. Typical portal capabilities like employee self-service will be rolled into the new browser interface.

Brown also acknowledged that the functional updates for AX that continue to roll out are both a competitive necessity and a concern for the existing user base in terms of staying current with the product.

"There's a time to value that we get from getting features out into the market more quickly and becoming more competitive," he said. "So we're trying to balance being more competitive and gaining market share, which I think benefits us all, with the impact on [AX users] when you apply code into your environment."

Brown also explained that AX 7 on Azure will be deployed in single tenant model that will use Azure infrastructure as a service and it will use SQL Azure, Microsoft's platform-as-a-service (PaaS) database offering. No other Dynamics ERP products yet use SQL Azure, though Dynamics NAV officials have hinted this week that they are also working toward a SQL Azure approach in the cloud.

Brown described the use of SQL Azure's database-as-a-service model as being a good fit for the needs of ...