New Upgrade Choices Aligning Your Strategy to Microsoft

New Upgrade Choices Aligning Your Strategy to Microsoft

Your speaker Jon Long Director Archer. Point Upgrades

Session Objectives What will you learn today? 1. The path to the future with Business Central 2. How future architecture will help realize upgrades with less cost and disruption. 3. What you can do now to start your path to the future

Session Agenda • Q&A for you and me • Talk about future in a conceptually technical way • Brief history of Navision NAV and BC • Discuss technology used to get to the future • Describe basecamp to Mt. Everest • Q&A for you

So, it looks like it’s time to upgrade

• Old Classic NAV • C/side databases (instead of SQL) • RTC conversion (from Classic NAV) • • 3 tier architecture Pages (from Forms) XMLports (from Dataports) RDLC Reports (from Classic Reports) • Next big jump >>> Events / Extensions

Dynamics 365 Business Central Deployment Options • Option 1: Business Central Saa. S – This deployment option involves deploying Business Central on Microsoft’s Dynamics 365 Platform where Microsoft manages the entire backend infrastructure related to the deployment. Option 2: Business Central Azure – This deployment option involves deploying Business Central in a partner or client managed Azure instance using Azure SQL. Option 3: Business Central Hosted – This deployment option involves deploying Business Central in a third-party hosted environment. Option 4: Business Central on Premises – This deployment option involves deploying Business Central on a physical server or in a virtualized environment that is managed and maintained by the client.

Dynamics 365 BC Deployment Options

Dynamics 365 BC Deployment Options On. Prem Business Central

Dynamics 365 BC Deployment Options On. Prem Business Central

Dynamics 365 BC Deployment Options On. Prem Business Central

Dynamics 365 BC Deployment Options On. Prem Business Central

Why Does BC Matter? • Upgrades, upgrades…… • What impact does this have on my upgrades? • • • Less cost Less disruption Shorter upgrade projects Less risk of breakage Continuous improvement

Everest Base Camp is essentially the bottom of the top of the world.

Think of Business Central On-Prem as • Base Camp to Saas

D 365 BC Saa. S – In the Cloud D 365 BC Base Camp On. Prem

What is an Event? • • • Hooks that act as interfaces in base code Events are published by the vendor (Micro. Soft, ISV’s) Events are subscribed to by Customer mod’s Events allow customization independency Events are subscribed to from “subscription” codeunits

Why should I care about Events for Upgrades? • • Events allow zero merge cost Events allow zero merge time Independency reduces risk of breakage Get’s us closer to continuous improvement

What happens after Events? • All Evented code will transition from C/AL to AL. • All AL will be packaged as Extensions

What are Extensions and why should I care? • Extensions are “packages” of Evented AL code that layer on top of BC/NAV like layers of an onion. • It sits on top of NAV like a downloadable app that also interacts with NAV, but does not have it’s mod's sitting inside of NAV. • Extensions can contain one or many objects and functionality • Extensions can be thoughtfully detangled mod’s

What are my next steps to an upgrade? • Upgrade to to BC (or Nav 2018). • This will give the most access to Events and allow you to change mod's over to Events. • If not fully using Events, this will allow client to morph over to that in the BC/2018 versions. • ISV add-ons need to be publishing their add-ons as fully Evented.

D 365 BC Saa. S – In the Cloud Event and De-Couple Code D 365 BC Base Camp On. Prem

What are the exceptions to full Eventing? • If an ISV add-on is not fully evented • Mod's inside/tied to add-on’s cannot be Evented. • Wait for ISV to update their code using events • If base NAV does not have an event to support a mod • Come up with a different way of performing that mod. • Anti Patterns • Commented out base code • . NET calls

Exceptions Out of Customers Control • Table schema has exceeded the 8 kb allowed by SQL • Consider Hybrid AL/CAL (next slides) • ISV has a BC Saa. S version of their product that is not compatible with On. Prem BC • Ask vendor for source code

When to Extend? • Last • It depends

D 365 BC Saa. S – In the Cloud Wait for ISV’s to Release Extensions Event and De-Couple Code D 365 BC Base Camp On. Prem

Consider an Incremental Methodology • Event what is touched • • Merge conflicts Customizations Bug fixes Small and frequent scheduled releases • Extensions only when necessary • Hybrid AL/CAL may be required

When is Hybrid AL/CAL • Table Schema limit exceeds 8 kb • MS has taken up all the table real estate • Adding an ISV table exceeds the 8 KB • ISV has only an Extension version of their product and Customer has mod’s to product • No other reason

Why is Hybrid AL/CAL a Sensitive Topic? • AL cannot be “seen” by CAL • AL and CAL in the same system may be more difficult to maintain, especially with many developers • It’s not considered “best practice”

D 365 BC Saa. S – In the Cloud Customizations to Extensions Wait for ISV’s to Release Extensions Event and De-Couple Code D 365 BC Base Camp On. Prem

Your Fully Evented, Extended and Your ISV’s are Too…. Now What?

Is There an Upgrade Path to Saa. S?

Upgrade to Saa. S D 365 Business Central • Start from On. Prem D 365 BC ( All Customs/ISV’s Extensions )

Run Replication Now

Run Replication Now

Replication D 365 BC – Saa. S D 365 BC – On. Prem

Replication D 365 BC – Saa. S NAV 2018– On. Prem

D 365 BC Saa. S – In the Cloud Replicate Customizations to Extensions Wait for ISV’s to Release Extensions Event and De-Couple Code D 365 BC Base Camp On. Prem

Replications Ramifications • Replication requires that both the Saa. S DB and On. Prem schema are the same (From NAV 2018 is an exception) • Replication may take days, weeks or months • Go. Live can only happen when the Delta is able to replicate in hours. • Go. Live on On. Prem D 365 is virtually inevitable

Go. Live on Saa. S #D 365 BC Replicate Customizations to Extensions Wait for ISV’s to Release Extensions Event and De-Couple Code D 365 BC Base Camp On. Prem

Upgrade to On. Prem D 365 Business Central • On. Prem D 365 BC is the base camp to the Summit

Upgrade to On. Prem D 365 Business Central • On. Prem D 365 BC is the base camp to the Summit • On. Prem is where you can prepare for the ultimate leap to Saa. S

Upgrade to On. Prem D 365 Business Central • On. Prem D 365 BC is the base camp to the Summit • On. Prem is where you can prepare for the ultimate leap to Saa. S • Events

Upgrade to On. Prem D 365 Business Central • On. Prem D 365 BC is the base camp to the Summit • On. Prem is where you can prepare for the ultimate leap to Saa. S • Events • Extensions

Upgrade to On. Prem D 365 Business Central • On. Prem D 365 BC is the base camp to the Summit • On. Prem is where you can prepare for the ultimate leap to Saa. S • Events • Extensions • Abandon the desktop client and start getting used to the new Modern Client

Upgrade to On. Prem D 365 Business Central • On. Prem D 365 BC is the base camp to the Summit • On. Prem is where you can prepare for the ultimate leap to Saa. S • • Events Extensions Abandon the desktop client and start getting used to the new Modern Client Evaluate dependencies that are not compatible with Saa. S, SSRS queries, Jet Reports, ISV’s that are not on Extensions yet

Upgrade to On. Prem D 365 Business Central • On. Prem D 365 BC is the base camp to the Summit • On. Prem is where you can prepare for the ultimate leap to Saa. S Events Extensions Abandon the desktop client and start getting used to the new Modern Client Evaluate dependencies that are not compatible with Saa. S, SSRS queries, Jet Reports, ISV’s that are not on Extensions yet • And Finally…Replicate to Saa. S • •

Suggested Resources • • For Business Users For Administrators For Developers Self Help & Support Performance improvements Server improvements Jon's Blogs

Questions?

Thank You!