I have received email from Microsoft about free services for Team Foundation as per the above subject.
In our workplace, we develop small to medium applications to complement the required functionality not immediately available in our cor ERP Systems (SAP), or which are very expensive to develop using ABAP (by customizing SAP), and/or in cases where
our team (ASP.NET) can deliver the required application much faster than SAP Team.
In summary, we have 4 developers, and they develop serious applications (ASP.NET Web Applications) to provide services for upto 1500 users locally and in remote regional offices. This has been the case for the past 2 years (after SAP) and 3 years
before SAP.
Currently, we have about 50MB of source code (including related resource files), and expected to grow up to 70MB for the next 2-3 years. We have developed more than 15 Applications/Services in total.
We have been struggling for the past few years trying to convince the management to acquire a Team System to manage our source code, building applications, development and production environment. It is a real challenge to work without having such
tools. Our management put a lot of money in SAP (Applications and Development), and they cannot justify the need to spend money on Team Foundation Server development tools (because of SAP).
I like to know if anyone used such free team foundation services, and what is your recommendation for our case based on similar environments.
Do you think it is worth it to acquire a complete Enterprise Level Team Foundation System? We have requested a budget of 200K US$ for full licenses, implementation, upgrade, training ...etc..
Or do you think that it is OK to go with such free tools?
I will check GitHub. Can you tell me if it is wise to depend such hosted services for development teams environments similar to the one I described above. I need your answer based on your experience. For now, let us not worry about management direction
with regards to using hosted vs. local based solution/deployments. Let us discuss this from the point of view of reliability, security, usefulness, value, efficiency, effectiveness ...etc.
We have been struggling for the past few years trying to convince the management to acquire a Team System to manage our source code, building applications, development and production environment. It is a real challenge to work without having such tools. Our
management put a lot of money in SAP (Applications and Development), and they cannot justify the need to spend money on Team Foundation Server development tools (because of SAP).
I see that problem spawning up everywhere. SAP is a very costly product and then it needs to be "customized". The people customizing it cost roughly 2 * as much as a senior C#/ASP.NET developer. It's basically a bottomless pit in which keep on throwing money.
Well that's my personal view on it at this moment about this product.
Grz, Kris.
Read my blog | Twitter Interested in Azure, ASP.NET (MVC), jQuery, WCF, EF, MS SQL, ...
Keep the forums clean: report to the moderation team!
We are now preparing an RFP to upgrade our development platofm to implement Team System that can host, manage, build and deploy applications based on Hybrid technologies: .NET, SQL, SharePoint, Java ... just as a starter.
Why Hybrid?
Well.... it seems Hybrid is the evil that we cannot avoid. After deploying OpenText for the past 2 years, we discovered that we will not be able to continue with it due to is old technology, very expensive and complex, and we cannot accomodate SAP, SharePoint
and OpenText since each one is a big dinosaur, and we will not be able to feed them all. So, we are looking for lighter alternatives for OpenText. We have SharePoint, but Gartner told us to avoid using SharePoint as a Records and Document Management System
Integrated with SAP ERP. It will be a nightmare, Gartner said.
Some suggested to check Alfresco, and we are now studying this alternative seriously. We were asked to install it, test its Workflow Features, and how it can be used as a Records Management Sysem and possibly, use it as the standard platform for Records
Management and BPM for all developed applications.
As you know, Alfresco is based on Java, and needs Java based development tools to Manage, Host, Build, Debug and Deploy applications for adding new features to Alfresco.
- Based on that, do you think we can find such Development Management Platofrm to help us Host, Manage, Debug, and Deploy developed applications based on Hybrid technologies such as .NET and Java?
- Can someone recommend some names for solution providers to submit the developed RFP?
- What about this PaaS: http://www.apprendacloud.com/?
tarekahf
Member
143 Points
272 Posts
Now available: No-Cost, No-Touch App Lifecycle Management for Lean Teams
Nov 03, 2012 08:00 AM|LINK
I have received email from Microsoft about free services for Team Foundation as per the above subject.
In our workplace, we develop small to medium applications to complement the required functionality not immediately available in our cor ERP Systems (SAP), or which are very expensive to develop using ABAP (by customizing SAP), and/or in cases where our team (ASP.NET) can deliver the required application much faster than SAP Team.
In summary, we have 4 developers, and they develop serious applications (ASP.NET Web Applications) to provide services for upto 1500 users locally and in remote regional offices. This has been the case for the past 2 years (after SAP) and 3 years before SAP.
Currently, we have about 50MB of source code (including related resource files), and expected to grow up to 70MB for the next 2-3 years. We have developed more than 15 Applications/Services in total.
We have been struggling for the past few years trying to convince the management to acquire a Team System to manage our source code, building applications, development and production environment. It is a real challenge to work without having such tools. Our management put a lot of money in SAP (Applications and Development), and they cannot justify the need to spend money on Team Foundation Server development tools (because of SAP).
I like to know if anyone used such free team foundation services, and what is your recommendation for our case based on similar environments.
Do you think it is worth it to acquire a complete Enterprise Level Team Foundation System? We have requested a budget of 200K US$ for full licenses, implementation, upgrade, training ...etc..
Or do you think that it is OK to go with such free tools?
Appreciate your feedback.
ramiramilu
All-Star
95503 Points
14106 Posts
Re: Now available: No-Cost, No-Touch App Lifecycle Management for Lean Teams
Nov 03, 2012 08:21 AM|LINK
explore GitHub too....I never used Free Team Server....so I am not the right person to comment on your question...but GitHub is good...
Thanks,
JumpStart
tarekahf
Member
143 Points
272 Posts
Re: Now available: No-Cost, No-Touch App Lifecycle Management for Lean Teams
Nov 03, 2012 08:52 AM|LINK
Thanks ramiramilu,
I will check GitHub. Can you tell me if it is wise to depend such hosted services for development teams environments similar to the one I described above. I need your answer based on your experience. For now, let us not worry about management direction with regards to using hosted vs. local based solution/deployments. Let us discuss this from the point of view of reliability, security, usefulness, value, efficiency, effectiveness ...etc.
Tarek.
XIII
All-Star
182702 Points
23463 Posts
ASPInsiders
Moderator
MVP
Re: Now available: No-Cost, No-Touch App Lifecycle Management for Lean Teams
Nov 04, 2012 06:48 AM|LINK
Hi,
since very recently Microsoft has also put TFS in the cloud: http://tfs.visualstudio.com/. They have a free plan available up to 5 users apparently: https://tfs.visualstudio.com/en-us/pricing/information/.
I see that problem spawning up everywhere. SAP is a very costly product and then it needs to be "customized". The people customizing it cost roughly 2 * as much as a senior C#/ASP.NET developer. It's basically a bottomless pit in which keep on throwing money. Well that's my personal view on it at this moment about this product.
Grz, Kris.
Interested in Azure, ASP.NET (MVC), jQuery, WCF, EF, MS SQL, ...
Keep the forums clean: report to the moderation team!
tarekahf
Member
143 Points
272 Posts
Re: Now available: No-Cost, No-Touch App Lifecycle Management for Lean Teams
Nov 04, 2012 09:51 AM|LINK
Thanks Grz,
I was hoping to get some feedback from any one who used such tools (cloud based application development management).
Just a side note: The cost issue I mentioned in my thread above is based on my understanding.
tarekahf
Member
143 Points
272 Posts
Re: Now available: No-Cost, No-Touch App Lifecycle Management for Lean Teams
Dec 13, 2012 11:26 AM|LINK
We are now preparing an RFP to upgrade our development platofm to implement Team System that can host, manage, build and deploy applications based on Hybrid technologies: .NET, SQL, SharePoint, Java ... just as a starter.
Why Hybrid?
Well.... it seems Hybrid is the evil that we cannot avoid. After deploying OpenText for the past 2 years, we discovered that we will not be able to continue with it due to is old technology, very expensive and complex, and we cannot accomodate SAP, SharePoint and OpenText since each one is a big dinosaur, and we will not be able to feed them all. So, we are looking for lighter alternatives for OpenText. We have SharePoint, but Gartner told us to avoid using SharePoint as a Records and Document Management System Integrated with SAP ERP. It will be a nightmare, Gartner said.
Some suggested to check Alfresco, and we are now studying this alternative seriously. We were asked to install it, test its Workflow Features, and how it can be used as a Records Management Sysem and possibly, use it as the standard platform for Records Management and BPM for all developed applications.
As you know, Alfresco is based on Java, and needs Java based development tools to Manage, Host, Build, Debug and Deploy applications for adding new features to Alfresco.
- Based on that, do you think we can find such Development Management Platofrm to help us Host, Manage, Debug, and Deploy developed applications based on Hybrid technologies such as .NET and Java?
- Can someone recommend some names for solution providers to submit the developed RFP?
- What about this PaaS: http://www.apprendacloud.com/?
Appreciate your feedback.
tarekahf
Member
143 Points
272 Posts
Re: Now available: No-Cost, No-Touch App Lifecycle Management for Lean Teams
Dec 13, 2012 06:19 PM|LINK
I also found this website:
http://www.jnbridge.com/videoscribe.htm
Which seems the solution to our problem, what do you think?
Tarek.
tarekahf
Member
143 Points
272 Posts
Re: Now available: No-Cost, No-Touch App Lifecycle Management for Lean Teams
Dec 25, 2012 05:25 AM|LINK
After detailed search, I actually found many possible solutions... I am now preparing list of contacts to submit the RFP to.
Tarek.