Perforce has shifted gears with a new release of its change management system, which includes new options to connect distributed, disconnected, and unconnected developers while they are working remotely away from its core version-control system.
More Insights
White Papers
More >>Reports
- Informed CIO: SDN and Server Virtualization on a Collision Course
- InformationWeek 2013 Strategic Security Survey
Webcasts
- The Untapped Potential of Mobile Apps for Commercial Customers
- Agile for Safety Critical Systems: Project Management Practices
Gartner analyst Jim Duggan agrees that combinations of distributed versioning with classic file-based versioning schemes allow new and better accommodation for the needs of the developer. "[This arrangement provides] for flexibility and the larger needs of the organization for control, traceability, accountability, and security," he said.
Perforce is highlighting its P4Sandbox function with this release, which gives programmers an option to work on private copies of their projects while staying informed of project status on the shared versioning service.
Private local branches for individual work streams can include task or feature branches, while access is still kept open to the system's built-in workflow, Perforce Streams. P4Sandbox manages communication with the shared versioning service and can merge changes in either direction when users require.
"P4Sandbox uses a local repository to create a remote branch from the shared Perforce versioning service. Users can work with their local repository and access all of Perforce's versioning features, even if the connection to the shared service is slow or non-existent. Developers only need to be connected to the shared versioning service when they are exchanging data. P4Sandbox gives developers the freedom to experiment while the entire codebase remains securely managed in the shared versioning service," said Perforce's Randy DeFauw.
In related news, Perforce also announced that it has extended the options for free access for up to 20 users and 20 workspaces and unlimited files. This program provides the complete and most up-to-date features and capabilities of the Perforce technology proposition.
"We have always supported the open source and academic communities by making our products freely available to them," said Nigel Chanter, COO for Perforce. "When companies are ready to buy Perforce, we offer a full complement of licensing options with straightforward, all-inclusive pricing and access to our renowned technical support and services."
