What the Intelligent Edge means for Business Central and Dynamics NAV users
Updated: Aug 9, 2021
Look around your home or place of business and you'll soon begin to notice that the world we live in is fastly becoming a connected world. Connected things such as computers, software, cameras, refrigerators, vacuum cleaners, etc. bring us closer and closer to a world of ubiquitous computing and ambient intelligence.
What does this mean for ERP software such as Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central and Microsoft Dynamics NAV? Well it means the intelligent edge will begin to play a bigger part with these ERP systems.
What is the intelligent edge?
Intelligent edge is a term describing a process where data is analyzed and aggregated in a spot close to where it is captured in a network.
What's driving the intelligent edge?
There are three factors today driving the intelligent edge and they are ubiquitous computing, data and artificial intelligence, and multi-sense multi-device experiences. This is the next evolution in computing. The intelligent edge will bridge the digital and real world, which will enable you to deliver a seamless experience and compute capabilities wherever you data exists, in the cloud or offline.
Ubiquitous computing
Our physical and virtual worlds are increasingly interwoven. As computing become more powerful and ubiquitous from the cloud to the edge, a seamless experience is needed from building code to using devices.
Data & artificial intelligence
the shift to AI is all about the data, and data has gravity--pulling computational power toward individual devices. They are powering advanced ways to see, listen, reason and predict, without constant connectivity to the cloud.
Multi-sense, multi-device experiences
As individual devices become more powerful, they enable richer experiences that understand the context surrounding people, the things they use, their activities and relationships.
Here's an animated video from Microsoft that helps explaining the intelligent edge
Now that you know what the intelligent edge is you're probably asking yourself how is this going to effect ERP systems such as Business Central and Dynamics NAV? Well, with the scheduled October 2018 update/release of new products Microsoft will be bringing the intelligent edge to several of their products including Business Central.
With the intelligent edge you can seamlessly connect your on-premises solution to an instance of Microsoft's intelligent cloud through Business Central. When the connection is made, Microsoft securely replicates your on-premises data to the intelligent cloud. You simply decide which companies you want to replicate (all if you choose), and then, within the main pages of your on-premises solution, Microsoft delivers back actionable analysis and content. The intelligent cloud leverages solutions such as Power BI, Power Apps, Flow and AI to provide insight and actionable messages enabling your business to run even better.
Initial releases will target Dynamics 365 Business Central, Dynamics GP, and Dynamics SL, with legacy Dynamics NAV following shortly thereafter. Dynamics GP and Dynamics SL will continue to receive product improvements and updates, including value added through the intelligent cloud. When you want to move to a fully cloud enabled solution, your data is available in Business Central through migration tools. These migration tools are available within Business Central and AppSource, as well as services through a partner such as Solution Systems that specializes in upgrading customers to Business Central.
