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Microsoft announced last week that it’s finally offering its Dynamics NAV 2013 on Windows Azure Cloud.
Dynamics NAV 2013 on Windows Azure Cloud gives customers a “Secure, Enterprise-Class Cloud Infrastructure from a trusted provider,” according to Paul White, senior Director, Microsoft Dynamics ERP.
A move that advances the availability of Dynamics NAV business application in cloud. Now End users can access the cloud-hosted versions via the web or desktop clients, either from the office or on the go using mobile devices.
At present Microsoft is not directly offering NAV as SaaS (software as a service). Dynamics has always been sold through Microsoft partners around the world, who implement and extend the product for customers in various industries. That will remain the case with Azure deployments. But it also sees Azure as a way to give partners to offer both Dynamics consulting and move customer NAV operations to Azure.
Microsoft Dynamics apps have been hosted by third-party partners for years, and those services are still available. But the new Azure option will enable NAV users to deployments in a private cloud on a Windows Azure Virtual Machine. The scale, supporting virtualization and development tools and speed of deployment were all quoted as advantages of deploying Dynamics NAV on Azure cloud.
According to a statement from Microsoft, it has already been testing the products with a number of “Go Live customers, Partner as well as with the Windows Azure team to develop a guidance and tooling to ensure great experience deploying on Azure. And that work is now complete.
Microsoft has enabled the ability for Microsoft Dynamics Certified Partners to deploy Dynamics NAV in the cloud on Windows Azure Infrastructure Services. With that Dynamics NAV can now be hosted on an Azure virtual machine.
Pricing as yet unclear, but it seems that it will depend on the deployment and whatever deal an enterprise strikes with and the Partner they are buying from. “It’s important to note that there’s no change in our partner model here, meaning that Microsoft Dynamics GP and NAV continue to be available only through our partners, and not direct from Microsoft,” White wrote. “This is because we remain deeply committed to the industry and regional expertise our partners bring to every customer engagement, and to giving our customers the broadest possible range of choices in terms of partner selection, pricing and licensing, deployment options, hosting providers and more.”
It’s a good sign that Microsoft has plans to continue focusing on channel sales even as it moves Dynamics to the cloud via Azure. There could be significant sales and consulting opportunities for all the Channel Partners.
Conclusion
If you aren’t leveraging Cloud platform, you should start right away, as it is an easy way for you to increase your revenue and market spread. The cloud computing may be getting faster, but some businesses still falling behind and not adopting new technology. This is why ERP providers are start to offer training courses to help more businesses become comfortable with the advance cloud technology and allow them to stay ahead. So next steps for you are to get ready for Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2013 on Windows Azure. Go to PartnerSource and find training, documentation, “how-do-I” videos and more.
