SharePoint, BizTalk, SQL Server, Azure and the Cloud in General

Ever since I started working with SharePoint, I have always felt the “standard” grouping most training organizations make for people are the same old three: Admins, Devs and Users.  True it fits most molds, but not as effective as truly understanding the value of roles.  Now, the title of the post is in fact Lync Training Plans.  The Lync Team has put together some guidance in the form of (drumroll!) Training Plans based on roles that go beyond your “User” grouping.  You can download it here

It is an Excel workbook with the different roles.

Each section has a categorization of the resources, resource type, link and a recommendation.  Each category has a description.  Very well done!!

 

Recently I have been reading about how some companies offer services that would provide you with Team Foundation Server capabilities in the cloud.
When we talk about cloud (and it seems everybody is doing it), we need to differentiate between the services running and also the type of service we (as a company or individual) will be running.  We can talk about 2 potential possibilities for TFS that would be effective, but each is different in its own way:

• SaaS:  Software as a service, ideal scenario for multi-tenant solutions.  And with TFS 2010 this works well since we have the concept of Team Project Collections.  TPCs will offer a level of isolation between the different clients that would purchase the services.  Now the challenge for the provider would come in offering the Build Services for the deployment.  In many scenarios you will see this either not be offered or be offered in limited fashion.  We also see that Lab Management here would be a challenge.  Small teams and a first time TFS users would likely be using this option, the investment can be small as the fee is going to be on a user by user basis.
• IaaS:  Infrastructure as a service, this scenario gives an organization a full set of options to work with.  Why?  You have, as an organization, full control over the architecture you are requesting.  Instead of just having entry to accessing TFS, you can provide a full design, for example, Dual Tier, Multi Server and not only Single Server.  You have the option of having a server give you Build Services, a separate Data Tier based on your requirements.  The options are there for you to take advantage of it.  Now, the challenge comes in again for Lab Management but it is not a hard stop, there are companies that offer IaaS with co-location capabilities, therefore the implementation of a Hyper-V server is not far fetched.

I work for a company (Pinnacle of Indiana) that is able and capable of working with either of the implementations listed, not only do we offer consulting services to help you through the process of designing your Team Foundation Server implementation, we also can provide administration and management of the implementation at the different levels needed.  Have we done this before?  Yes!  And we have implementations that started with TFS 2008 (in the cloud) and then also brand new TFS 2010 implementations.  We have executed migrations and implementations with Lab Management as well.  And we are very comfortable in supporting heterogeneous development environments.   We can help you with your Application Lifecycle Management.
I was reading Brian Harry’s blog with a post on Hosted TFS and it caught my attention that the company I work for has not been mentioned … because we had not talked about it in the open on this being a strong part of our skillset.  After all, this is what I do and love doing it.

Microsoft has released a vhd with Lab Management fully configured.  It includes walkthroughs for you to become familiar with the product.
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=592e874d-8fcd-4665-8e55-7da0d44b0dee&displaylang=en

In the last month or so I have been able to test and experience first hand the offering from discountasp.net for hosted TFS 2010.
This first part is a description of the setup process for the account itself and getting some additional information on what you will find through the portal on their site.
Not long ago, I posted a little tidbit on hosting TFS.  Through it I also did a shameless plug to my employer, our services and the type of hosting we recommend.  So, wouldn’t me running on discountasp.net be an issue?  Actually? NO.
Ok, enough rambling.  Let’s get some details here.
It is a Software as a Service model.  Through it we get Source Control, Version Control, Work Item Tracking and such.  What about Build?  If your need includes Build Management and such, you may need to look at some other options.  But, still this is a great offering for those that are moving from SourceSafe.  Or organizations who have 3 to 5 developers on staff, and do not foresee getting larger anytime soon.  Can it support more than 5 developers?  Yes, but then we need to get into how are you using TFS.  Do you need more than just Basic?  For example, SharePoint and Reporting Services integration.
The signup process was seamless! Very easy to follow, complete and transition to Visual Studio to start working. An email followed the signup process, it contained details on how to get to the Team Foundation Server Control Panel login.  Once there, here is what I saw after the initial setup process of naming my Team Project Collection:

So, moving on … once I clicked the area to get my server info, I got the following:

Then it was a matter of getting the first user in there:



Then on to connecting Visual Studio to my hosted TFS. Getting the server information, and the user account created I will configure those options in Visual Studio. Using Team Explorer, I am adding a new server configuration.

Once this is provided, click OK, I will be challenged for a username and password, provide them and you will land on the following screen.

Then Click Close. You will now be connected to your server and Team Project Collection. Since this will likely be the first time connecting, you will have no Projects (I already have 2 going).

Click Connect, and you will be back in Team Explorer.

My next post in the topic will be on Creating your First Team Project and uploading a Project Template to the server.