What is Microsoft Dynamics 365 Tenerife, really?

The weather right now might not feel like it, at least in Europe, but Spring is just around the corner.  For the Dynamics community that means that Microsoft's promised launch of the product codenamed Tenerife is rapidly approaching. But the most common questions I get is still: ‘What actually is Tenerife'? It is important that we all get an answer if the product is going to be successful, right?

Starting with the basics, and with the caveat that this based on my current understanding, Tenerife is Microsoft's SaaS small to medium business administration solution. What does that mean? Would it help to add that it's their below-enterprise cloud system of record ? What if I throw in that it's their business application platform on which independent software vendors (ISV's) should develop industry-specific solutions. Oh, I forgot to add that it's the data store and logic engine to lots of the apps in Office 365 now as well.

Is it NAV?

Lots of other people will tell you it's ‘NAV in the Cloud'. Dynamics NAV, since its acquisition by Microsoft in 2002, has grown into the most prolific (by user count, implementations, revenue, partners, ISV options, take your pick) of Microsoft's Dynamics on premises "accounting plus" products. It's been cloud ready since 2013 but has relied on the partner to host it. Tenerife is Microsoft providing that platform and software as a service. In fact, everything you need as part of the core offering for a simple, per user, monthly fee.

So it's NAV isn't it? Just a name change and online, right?

Yes, NAV has to be a good place to start understanding ...