Built for Speed: Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 Boosts Performance by Up to 20 Times

In the world of enterprise resource planning (ERP), faster is better and size definitely matters. In Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012, we’ve made dramatic improvements to both speed and scale: functions run up to 20 times faster, and the system supports cutting-edge multiple-processor configurations and database sizes to meet the needs of even the most data-intensive operation. This means you can enjoy faster responses from your applications in your day-to-day work and support the advanced analytics required by retail and e-commerce, without investing in additional hardware or infrastructure.

Speed

We put a lot of effort into improving the performance of the application server in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012. We achieved this through some changes to the programming model, which allow the native X++ application code to run in the Microsoft .NET–based environment. This detail may be most interesting to developers, but simply put, it makes the application run much, much faster than previous versions. In fact, we've clocked Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 at as much as 20 times faster than Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 for some tasks!

This means you’re able to run even complex reports and queries in real time, which would require you to wait for batch processes in most other ERP systems. We think everyone who touches the application will appreciate what these gains mean in terms of usability and productivity, and organizations will benefit from faster, more connected business processes.

Scale

Scale is also a major contributor to the performance of an ERP system. We’ve built Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 to scale up by taking advantage of the more powerful processors and server hardware available today. We also built the business management software to scale out by supporting larger databases and configurations with more server and processor hardware.

This has huge implications for customers in data-intensive or transaction-intensive industries. If your business conducts a lot of database operations and transactions, for example, in retail or e-commerce scenarios, you’ll appreciate the ability to store your data efficiently and perform analytical and BI operations against your massive datasets.

We’ve also done a lot of work on space optimization. The data compression capabilities of Microsoft SQL Server can significantly reduce the storage requirements of Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012. Combined with the virtualization technologies of the Windows platform—for both database and application servers—you can minimize your hardware requirements and reduce your storage costs dramatically, even in scenarios with huge back-end databases.

You CAN Have It both Ways

One of the things we hear from our customers is that they expect a certain tradeoff between rich features and functionality and the performance of the application. People have come to see the two as mutually exclusive, but with Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012, we’re happy to provide them with both.

As we’ve completed the Technology Adoption Program (TAP) and the beta programs with our early adopters and customers, it’s been gratifying to see people’s eyes light up when they see how fast the application truly is. People have been most surprised that the business management software is running in the same environment, without the need to buy additional hardware.

We’ve achieved some great things by keeping up with the technological advances through the entire Microsoft technology stack, including Microsoft .NET, SQL Server, and the Windows platform, and designing Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 to take full advantage of this world-class infrastructure.

Below a great interview with Sri Srinivasan, Principal Program Manager and Architect in the MS Dynamics AX R&D organisation, in which he articulates the scale and performance advances of MS Dynamics AX 2012:   

 

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