No solution is perfect, but luckily there are more pros than cons when it comes to upgrading to Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations v8.1.

Let’s start with the Cons.  

• You’re going to have monthly updates. This means monthly regression testing - or at the very least 6-monthly testing for major releases in October and April.
• Want to opt out of updates? You’ll need to manually opt-out of an update if any issues arise from regression testing. But you’ll only be able to opt-out for a single update cycle.
• Updates have been known to break things. Think about the Windows 10 update and how .NET apps were laid to waste around the world.

Now for the Pros.  

• Stay current! Upgrading to version 8.1 will mean you are always running the latest version and features.
• It’s harder to ‘break’. Standard functionality is “sealed” – so nobody can change the standard code (no more breaking standard functionality), instead, you can take an extend approach.
• No more costly upgrades. Future updates will non-breaking, so this will be the last “expensive” upgrade you need to go through.
• Better support. Moving to 8.1 improves the support you’ll get. With everyone on the same version, supporting functionality is simpler and hotfixes are automatically applied each month.
• More focus on functionality. With 8.1 Microsoft no longer needing to back-port functionality, they will spend more time on adding functionality for a single version instead of maintaining it for multiple versions.
• No waiting. Yes, Microsoft are working towards zero down-time deployments.

And the biggest Pro of them all?

In just 4-6 weeks¹ we can get you upgraded to Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations v8.1 and looking good.

So why wait?

^{1 Timeframe depends on a number of factors, any existing code overlayering will require additional time to move to extensions.}