Dynamics 365 BC 2020 Release Wave 2: is it worth upgrading to the latest version?

Dynamics community is patiently waiting for the new version of Dynamics 365 Business Central – 2020 Release Wave 2, which is coming in October 2020. All the features of the latest 2020 Release Wave 2 version and planned in the next versions are listed by Microsoft (you can find the detailed list here) and are planning to be released until March 2021.

In this article, we will review the game-changing features of the upcoming 2020 Release Wave 2 version and discuss the best upgrading possibilities at the moment.

 

What is new in the Dynamics 365 Business Central 2020 Release Wave 2 version?

As always, some exciting things are coming up this autumn. Our technical team picked a few new, quite exciting features:

  1. Support for an unlimited number of production and sandbox environments

Customers will have the option to purchase additional production environments. For each environment, there is a possibility to create additional sandbox environments. The good news is that additional environments will increase the database capacity for customers‘ organizations. Each business will be able to add more than three production environments.

 

  1. Expanded country and regional availability

The title says everything itself. Microsoft is increasing the global availability for small and mid-sized businesses to achieve more. It is done through partner-led localizations (which are available as localization apps in AppSource). You can choose the localization of your choice by picking the country or region.

 

  1. Migrate from Business Central 14.x on-premises to Business Central 16.x online

Support from Microsoft for those who are on version 14.x on-prem to migrate their data to 16.x on-Cloud. Microsoft will implement the upgrade logic for customers, so they don‘t have to upgrade their on-premise environment in order to migrate to 16.

 

  1. AppSource apps can store their secrets in Azure Key Vault

First of all, what is secret? As Microsoft explains, it is the credentials provided by the extensions in the call (extensions make web service calls to non-Business Central Services). Where the extensions get their secret from? In this case, the Azure Key Vault is used. It is a cloud service that is used as a secrets store. It provides storage, access control, and distribution of the secrets.

In the latest release of 2020 Release Wave 2, Microsoft introduces an option to create secrets in the Azure Key Vault account created in their subscription. Also, after the Azure Key Vault account is specified, BC online service allows app code to read secrets from the vault during code execution.

 

  1. Restoring environments to a point in time in the past

In case the user‘s data was damaged in a way that it‘s almost impossible to recover, he can recover it to a point in time in the past. With the upcoming release, BC partners can restore any environment up to 30 days in the past. In some cases, it might be back-breaking to know the exact date you want to go back to, so they will be able to restore it into a different environment first. And the good news is that they can repeat the attempt more than once (the number of restore attempts will be limited to 10 attempts per environment/ month)! Only after confirmation, it will be possible to restore the data.

There are more compelling features coming up, such as Code region compiler directive, Suppress AL warnings, and others. As mentioned at the beginning of the article, you can find the full list of new features in the official Microsoft page HERE. We hope you had an impression on how is the up to date version going to be and now let‘s jump to conclusions!

 

Is it necessary to upgrade to the latest Dynamics 365 Business Central 2020 Release Wave 2 version?

In an ideal case, the latest version always seems like the best option. Who doesn‘t want to enjoy the best features and be up-to-date with the current situation? Well, in the real-time scenario, it is not that easy. First of all, with the latest versions of Dynamics 365 BC, you need to be ready to say goodbye not only to C/AL but to Windows Client as well. Second of all, usually upgrading to the latest version cost a lot of money and time.

On the other hand, sticking to the old version is not an option as well. Why? Despite the obvious reasons like the lack of support and the old features, there is also another practical side of an upgrade. Usually, companies have their customizations written in C/AL. As you know, version 14.0 is the last version when C/AL and AL are available. After this version, only one way of AL code is possible. To put in other words, when you can make a shortcut, why do it a long way?

So, users upgrading to Dynamics 365 BC 14 version instead of the latest one can take the shortcut and have both C/AL and AL languages at the same time. At this point, it is known that Microsoft offers a one-time extension for existing Dynamics 365 BC customers on BREP for an additional 12 months to downgrade to version 14 if necessary. This extension will be supported until October 21, 2021, and will apply to both on-premise and on-cloud customers.

This way, you have additional time to upgrade your customers’ solutions to Dynamics 365 Business Central version 14.

 

Why It is Worth Upgrading?

Still, deliberating upgrading? Check our FREE CHECKLIST on Why it’s worth upgrading to Dynamics 365 Business Central or on Everything you need to know before upgrading the Dynamics 365 Business Central Add-on to Extensions.

We understand that upgrades can be a real hustle most of the time. But we are here to help for an efficient, professional, and smooth process. There is no one way to upgrade your client‘s solution – we always analyze each case individually and find the best upgrade path for our clients. Have a look at Simplanova’s Suggested Upgrade Paths.

 

Having any questions? Have a look at our upgrade page or fill in the form below and we will contact you shortly.

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