Microsoft ends its mainstream support to AX 2009 at 10^th of April 2018. As it is already known, Microsoft has an obligation to provide support availability guidelines for its products, so the information about product lifecycle and support are transparent and available for the vendors and the end users. Every product from the Microsoft family has a lifecycle which begins when the product is released, and ends when it’s no longer supported.  Microsoft ERP products usually are supported for 10 years from the release date. The companies need to know the key dates in the product lifecycle, in order to be informed and prepared about making decisions on when to upgrade the software to its newer and improved version.

What Does It Mean?

Ending mainstream support for a Microsoft’s product means that Microsoft won’t be enhancing that product. When in mainstream support, requests to change product designs and features are considered and implemented up until this date, in this case until April 2018. Also security updates and non-security hotfixes will no longer be supplied, the warranty claims will end too and most importantly the consulting resources will become almost impossible to find.

How To Prepare?

In the ever changing technology world, the companies must meet the market’s requirements in order to sustain their company’s growth.  Even if we are a year and two months away the end of the mainstream support, the reality is that there is not enough time, and the end users of AX 2009 should start thinking how they will answer to this challenge. One of the most common dilemma between the end users this Microsoft Dynamics AX product is to choose between upgrade to newer version, or to face the situation where they can’t count on Microsoft anymore regarding the fixing issues, the resources and the security.

The Reality

Anyway, regardless all of that, the reality is different. Most of the companies are not enough flexible or liquid to make the migration to newer Dynamics AX version. After following the discussions in the ERP community on this topic, we came to this conclusion – the benefit vs the cost didn’t add up to the companies which work with AX 2009. Some of them, regardless they are informed, they are planning to continue their work with ax 2009 at least for 2 years.
In any case, the companies will never be on their own when it comes of dealing with the problems while working with AX 2009.  We as company specializing in Dynamics AX support will keep supporting AX 2009 version and the older versions like AX4 or AX3.
If you are ready to answer to this change, we are eager to help you either, our experts can ease your transition with our flexibility and ability to react quickly to your changing business needs.