Today's enterprise applications have evolved from smaller proprietary systems to integrated applications that are always available. In most Microsoft Dynamics AX implementations, we see that there is a multi-company setup where there is a difference in business critical hours between those companies. During business critical hours, the software must be capable of handling different kinds of loads. Outside these hours, there are often nightly processes such as inventory replenishment that are running. These processes too can put a load on the system. Even companies that are based in a single location cannot afford to have much downtime because they run 24/7; for example, hospitals or factories.

All of this results in the need for a system that is available at any time.

In this chapter, we will take a look at precisely that. Starting with a very simple setup, we will modify the architecture of Microsoft Dynamics AX so that it can handle higher loads while avoiding...