Visual Studio 2005 Team Foundation Server To Ship In March

Microsoft plans to ship Visual Studio 2005 Team Foundation Server in March, which will open the door to widespread deployment of the development platform, solution providers said.

In a keynote speech at VSLive this week, S. Somasegar, corporate vice president of the developer division at Microsoft, said the Redmond, Wash.-based company will deliver its Team Foundation Server in the late first quarter.

Microsoft shipped the Visual Studio 2005 Team System last November with a GoLive license for Team Foundation Server. That enabled customers to run the code in-house but without corporate support. Microsoft said at the time that it would ship the underlying collaboration software in the first quarter.

Channel partners said the delivery of the finished Team Foundation Server this quarter will accelerate customer adoption and enable ISVs to ship their Visual Studio 2005 products.

Some ISVs delayed the release of their own products so they could fully test their applications before release. Yet it remains a waiting game, solution providers said.

"We've helped a lot of customers get started using Visual Studio 2005 and Team System, but several are waiting to adopt until the RTM [release to manufacturing] version of Team Foundation is released," said Chris Menegay, president of Notion Solutions, Dallas. "There is still a bit of time left before the final RTM."

Microsoft partners said they expected Team Server to lag behind the core platform by one quarter, so there’s no surprise about the wait.

Shami Dugal, developer at Salem Associates, an Atlanta-based ISV and custom application developer, is anxious to see Team Foundation Server ship. Salem Associates, which also has an office in India, is using Team System on three projects: one for the state of Iowa and two for customers in the private sector.

"It is not only what the product offers us but also what it enables us to do as a consequence. Collaboration between the team locally on a LAN and remotely is very productive," Dugal said. "We need greater exposure to Foundation Server. But my understanding is that it will be ready per schedule, and we see no reason to expect anything to the contrary."