Business Connectivity Services

Abstract

In the past few chapters, I’ve been talking about managing data in SharePoint 2010. A discussion on managing your data without the mention of BCS, or Business Connectivity Services would be incomplete. However, BCS isn’t as much about Data inside SharePoint, it’s more about SharePoint acting as the medium (or as I like to say, the “goo”) that binds all your disparate systems and different kinds of data together. BCS is a set of out of the box features, services and tools that enhance SharePoint by streamlining the creation of solutions with deep integration of external data and services into SharePoint. The idea here is that SharePoint is not the only system you will have in your organization. There will be many other systems that contain valuable data in an enterprise. It is bringing those systems into SharePoint so all relevant data from various systems can be presented on the same canvas is what makes BCS so compelling.