Every software product—either its on-premises or cloud version—is usually backed by a life cycle and support policy, which defines how frequently the product will be updated and for how long it will be supported. All Dynamics 365 products including Finance and Operations follow the Microsoft Modern Lifecycle Policy. Product and services under this policy are serviced and supported continuously. The Finance and Operations product life cycle and support policy are called One Version.  

In a typical ERP implementation, the common strategy used to be once you had implemented a particular version of the ERP product, then in few years, you would have to go through the upgrade process to get on to the latest version. For example, if you are on Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 and are trying to implement D365FO, then you would have to go through the upgrade process. This upgrade process is not simple and requires a lot of effort. With the previous versions, the customer had to go through the painful upgrade process every few years to be on the latest version.

Microsoft has learned a lot through customer/partner feedback and has been working on a better solution to provide an easier path for customers to move to the latest updates with as little effort as possible. Microsoft has now achieved that goal with One Version. 

The core idea behind One Version is to never go through the upgrade process. With One Version, Microsoft's aim is to provide a predictable and continuous update to the Finance and Operations application. Now that we understand what One Version is, let's deep-dive and explore how it is achieved in the subsequent sections.