WCF services in AX 2012

Since X++ can be compiled to CIL in AX 2012 it became possible to change the way how X++ services are implemented.
Now all X++ services are WCF services and they are executed in the WCF runtime hosted on the AOS.
It is really hard to overestimate the benefits of this feature. Let me mention here just a few of those:

1. Every service has now WSDL definition. This means that it is extremely easy to generate proxy classes for those services for external clients using standard tools like svcutil.exe (add service reference in VS) or WSDL2java.
2. There is a new protocol to communicate with AOS now – WCF, in addition to the regular RPC.
3. Seamless integration with many applications\technologies, like MSMQ or BizTalk.
4. Simple and standard security model.

It is really nice to see that powerful and standardized technologies are coming to AX.

And one more thing to mention. In AX 2012 all AIF and services concepts were simplified significantly. Just look how AIF menu section was changed:


And most of the setup can be done now just from this very nice form: