Reasons To Switch From Sourcesafe

By Author: Dyna Mic
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Makes Life Easier for Systems Administrators and Developers

Maintaining a version control system is resource intensive.Look at what experts say:

"More than 75% of IT budgets are spent just maintaining and running existing systems and software infrastructure."
- Gartner

"The initial [software] purchase is usually only 5% of the total cost of owning and maintaining a program."
- Microsoft in The Wall Street Journal

Maintenance isn't the only hassle.Any downtime caused by failing version control can reduce developers'productivity.

Although Visual SourceSafe (VSS) is widely used by developers all over the world,it can be limited and unreliable.At Dynamsoft we've developed a version control ...
... solution with sophisticated features and a robust,dependable infrastructure.

Dynamsoft SourceAnywhere Hosted is a version control solution designed to replace VSS.Based on SQL Server,it's a hosted solution delivered as Software as a Service (SaaS).SourceAnywhere Hosted offers all the functionality of VSS,plus a variety of additional features that make it a more comprehensive, reliable solution for software development teams.

This white paper offers an overview of why SourceAnywhere Hosted is a better choice than VSS for:

>> System administrators
>> Developers
>> Web developers

Six Ways to Make Your System Administrator's Life Easier

Eliminate Server Side Maintenance

SourceAnywhere Hosted is fully managed and maintained by Dynamsoft.We look after hardware and network setup,upgrades,backups and all other server side maintenance.

As a system administrator,you already have your hands full managing in-house software and your organization's IT infrastructure.SourceAnywhere Hosted frees you from routine maintenance work and gives you more time to focus on other critical systems in your organization.

Hosted Provide Better Security

A downside of VSS is that it requires you to expose your VSS database file system to every user, and grants each user read and write permission for the entire repository.

This is a risky proposition. Security becomes even more compromised when VSS users work remotely and access the repository over Internet.With SourceAnywhere Hosted you don't need to expose your repository's file system.

Unlike VSS,our remote access feature uses a client/server architecture that does not publicly expose the file system--only the SourceAnywhere Hosted server interface is ever exposed.Additionally,you won't need a VPN for remote access because SSL is already built-in.

To further boost security,SourceAnywhere Hosted allows administrators to assign granular access privileges for each user.This policy-based access system minimizes the chance that users will accidentally or malevolently modify source code they shouldn't be working on.

If password strength is a concern,SourceAnywhere Hosted provides a robust password policy to help beef-up existing passwords.

To learn more about SourceAnywhere Hosted's security features, visit: http://www.dynamsoft.com/Products/Secure%20your%20source%20code.pdf

Lower Network Bandwidth Requirement for Remote Access

Remote access bandwidth is always a concern for system administrators if running a distributed team.As such,SourceAnywhere Hosted employs technologies that cut down on bandwidth demands.Also,an optional cache server can be deployed to significantly boost remote access performance and improve productivity for distributed development teams.

Be Firewall Friendly

SourceAnywhere Hosted is firewall friendly.Simply use HTTP port 80 to communicate with our server.

Eliminate Database Analysis and Fixes

Breath easy knowing SourceAnywhere Hosted guarantees repository integrity. There's no need to analyze or fix the repository.

Offer Source Control Tools Unification

SourceAnywhere Hosted can unify version control tools across your entire organization. It doesn't matter if your teams develop on Windows, Linux, Mac or another operating system, SourceAnywhere Hosted supports them all.

A Dozen Reasons Developers Should Switch to SourceAnywhere

There's Virtually No Learning Curve

If you're familiar with VSS you'll be able to start using SourceAnywhere Hosted right away.Its familiar UI minimizes the learning curve so that you can get started in a matter of minutes.

Faster Remote Access

SourceAnywhere Hosted is optimized for local and remote access so you won't have to wait to connect.

Sophisticated Project Versioning

VSS supports file versioning, but the functionality stops there. For example,if you make changes to a file in VSS and then check in,the file's version number goes up, but the version number of the parent project stays the same.This poses a problem. If you don't apply a label before checking in the file, it's virtually impossible to return the entire project back to the state it was in before the file was checked in.

SourceAnywhere Hosted supports both file and project versioning.That means whenever files or projects are changed,not only will the version numbers of current files and projects increase,but the version numbers of all parent projects--right back to the root--will increase accordingly.

You Get a True Version History

SourceAnywhere Hosted supports both file and project versioning,so it records all histories in your repository.You can access'view', 'get', 'diff', 'label', 'branch', 'pin' and 'roll back' in the history.

Flexible History Search

SourceAnywhere Hosted offers flexible,sophisticated search.Search by: version or item,date range,user,file name,action type and comment.

Sophisticated Label Support

The label options are: assign a label to the latest version,or any old version; add items(file or project) to an existing label;remove items from an existing label;change version numbers of any items in an existing label;rename a label;delete the label;branch from the label,or visually view the structure of the label.

Better Branch/Merge Support

In SourceAnywhere Hosted you can branch from the latest version,an old version, or a labelled version.You can also merge the branches back because it remembers every merge and branch path.During the merge process, the version at the branch point is served as the base version.If any conflicts exist in the two different branches,a visual merge tool will be called to let you solve the conflict.

Enhanced Diff Support

Diff support lets you compare a working folder/file to the last version retrieved from the repository,the current version in the repository,any labelled file or project,any local file/folder,or any repository file/project.

Atomic Commit-No Lost Transactions

Transaction completion is always a concern with version control solutions.Rest easy, your data will never be half cocked,even when there's a server power failure.Because your operation is being carried out on SQL Server,it will either be completed or fully rolled back.

'Change Set' Support

In SourceAnywhere Hosted,one operation acts as a single 'change set'.That means no matter how many files or projects are included in an operation,the version number of the parent projects will only increase by one (1).Users can easily view which files and project are in a 'change set' in the Show History dialog box.

IDE Integration

SourceAnywhere Hosted is 'Optimized for Microsoft Visual Studio .NET' certified. It also supports SQL Server stored procedure version control,Eclipse Plug-in on multiple platforms,and Dreamweaver on Windows.

Cross-Platform Support

In addition to a Windows client,a Java client enables developers to access code repositories from any operating system that supports the J2SE Java runtime environment,including Mac, Linux, and others.

Special Features for Web Developers

Differential Web Deployment

SourceAnywhere Hosted supports differential web deployment to local folders or remote FTP sites.This is beneficial because a common site can contain hundreds or even thousands of files.Using SourceAnywhere Hosted you can avoid the onerous task of uploading all the files to a web site.

In other cases,to reduce the number of the files to be uploaded to the web server,web developers or administrators may need to record which files have been changed since the last upload.SourceAnywhere's differential web deployment feature negates this time consuming and error prone process by detecting which files have been changed and which were added since the last upload.Then,it only uploads the files that need to be uploaded,automatically.It does this regardless of whether the web site is a local or a remote FTP site.

Multiple Web Sites Deployment

SourceAnywhere Hosted supports multiple web sites for one project,a useful feature when you're running a test site in addition to the production site.First,upload your web project to the test site.If you're happy with the results,upload it again to your production site.

Dreamweaver,Eclipse and Visual Studio Integration

Whether you use Dreamweaver,Eclipse, or Visual Studio,you can access your SourceAnywhere Hosted server without leaving your IDE.

Supports Windows, Mac and Other Platforms

SourceAnywhere Hosted supports multiple platforms:Windows,Mac,Linux,Solaris and others.

Fast Image/Multimedia File Upload and Download

Image and multimedia files are often larger than source code and can take much longer to upload and download.SourceAnywhere Hosted uses Delta Transfer and compression to guarantee faster upload and download of your large files.

Dynamsoft Corporation is the leading developer of version control and issue tracking software applications. For more details on online version control and source control online please visit our website.