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There is still a journey ahead but Microsoft is coming closer to delivering ERP in the cloud – by year end Dynamics NAV 2013, Dynamics GP 2013, will be offered as cloud services on the Azure platform, with Dynamics AX following in 2014. This will substantially raise the number of cloud-based ERP systems available in the market as a whole but although beta versions of NAV and GP are expected over the next few months, general availability is still a way off.
It is heavily committing to cloud services but Microsoft is still tethered to the on premise environment and is backing hybrid solutions as the deployment model of most frequent choice. That says as much about its traditional on premise business model as it does about cloud adoption trends of course, and its planned Azure-delivered ERP solutions will still need a lot of Microsoft kit to get the best from them. Speaking at the Convergence event in Atlanta, COO Kevin Turner said: “As long as you have Active Directory completely deployed, and System Center completely deployed, you can really leverage the common technologies that we have across identity, virtualisation, management, and development.” Cloud-based Dynamics CRM has also been castigated for heavy dependency on other Microsoft technologies.
It would be easy to say that Microsoft is using the cloud as a sales vehicle for the rest of its portfolio. To view it just that way would be a disservice, even though its approach does effectively lock customers to its technology stack. As cloud applications become more mission critical and the levels of connectivity expand almost exponentially, the need for a central source of access identity control and management is becoming more vital but the market is light on end-to-end tools. There is little incentive for cloud application providers to build technology agnostic cloud application and toolset stacks – but maybe that is what is needed alongside the applications to promote cloud-based ERP, which is a laggard in terms of cloud adoption.
