Team Foundation Server - Overview

I just received a question from a friend of mine, James Alderman (there's your mention James ;) ) asking me what Team Foundation Server is and considering I have had similar questions from my new users on my server for the Dashboard Project I thought I would put together a brief overview of the product.  Not 2005 or 2008 in particular but the general purpose of the product as a whole.

For those who haven't come across TFS it is a development server to allow Visual Studio developers to collaborate on projects from development to support phase.  It makes extensive use of Windows Sharepoint Services and SQL Server 2005 to allow for scalability and integration with other products such as Excel and Project.  I have known small groups of four or five developers using TFS and other groups of upwards of a thousand people, it can adapt to your needs.  There is also a Workgroup edition available on certain MSDN subcriptions for free use (with suitable Visual Studio licences, don't quote me on licencing issues!) for teams of no more than five developers.

If you like the sound of this or if you want more information on this product you can find more from the links below, including a 90 day trial of TFS and links to the Rosario CTP (V.next) release of TFS on a downloadable virtual pc image.  Enjoy!

Visual Studio Team Foundation Server 2005
https://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/teamsystem/aa718825.aspx

Visual Studio Team Foundation Server 2008
https://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-gb/vsts2008/products/bb933758.aspx

Visual Studio Team Foundation Server 2008 90 Day Trial Edition
https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=B0155166-B0A3-436E-AC95-37D7E39A440C&displaylang=en

Visual Studio 'Rosario' CTP
https://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/teamsystem/bb725993.aspx

Have a Joyous Yule and see you all in the New Year!
Jason