At the Microsoft Dynamics Convergence 2011 event in Atlanta this week, Microsoft introduced its Cloud ERP solution with Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012, attempting to grasp a slice of the cloud pie.

“Every one of our products will be engineered to deliver the full benefits of the cloud. Every one of the whole Dynamics set, for example,” said CEO Steve Ballmer. “As I see it the cloud is probably the most important technological generation going forward for the next 10 years.”

According to the company representatives, the next major releases of Microsoft Dynamics ERP solutions, Dynamics AX, GP, NAV and SL, will run on the Windows Azure platform, allowing customers to relocate their systems to the cloud without the help of third party vendors and service providers. This release is expected to take place in 2012.

Along with the release of Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012, Microsoft introduced to the audience the new Microsoft Dynamics cloud-enabled vertical solutions, add-ons and services which will be available via the Microsoft Dynamics Marketplace.

“Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 frees customers from the electronic concrete that has plagued the ERP industry for so long,” Tatarinov said in a statement. “Customers want flexible yet cost- effective business applications that work the way they do instead of being forced to adapt to the software,” he added.

This is a good opportunity for Microsoft to emphasize its open mindedness and diversification when it comes to product offerings given that more and more competitors in the cloud domain come up and rustle to gain a market share.

There have been voices suggesting Microsoft is launching these cloud solutions too late, but according to Kirill Tatarinov, corporate vice president and head of Microsoft Business Solutions, Microsoft is managing time perfectly.

“Nobody’s doing it in the cloud at scale today. Everyone who’s doing it today has massive issues. They’re largely figuring it out,” he said. Those challenges include privacy, partner models and ISV ecosystems, according to Tatarinov.”We don’t want customers to figure it out, we want to figure it out and bring it to our customers,” he said.

This new product from Microsoft is geared towards business intelligence us, a direction taken by Fusion-io, Xeround and GigaSpaces by joining the OpenStack community. Microsoft is one of the larger players in the cloud industry and many of the big players are finding open cloud initiatives to support, or are adding their own offering to their product line, such as IBM’s  announced partnership with SugarCRM.