what is AOS

AOS Overview

 

In Microsoft Dynamics AX, there is a 3-tier infrastructure with a database server, an application object server (AOS), and a client. The database server contains the table data. The AOS is used to execute application objects, such as queries and classes. Application objects in the user interface, such as forms and reports, run on the client computer. This topic describes how to develop an application using the different tiers and how record buffers are related to the tiers.

The following illustration shows the three-tier architecture.

 

 

 

 

What is the advantage of having Axapta 3-Tier Architecture ?

 

Till AX 3.0, we had the choice to run AX in 2 different tiers - either 2 tier or 3 tier. Since then the ability to run AX in 2-tier is not available.
To me the important benefits are robustness and scalability. For instance AOS (middle tier) can be scaled across many servers; also the SQL server (database tier) can be scaled across database cluster.
Also this architecture has the ability to effectively serve the three different AX clients (Rich, enterprise portal and Integration client)..