SharePoint 2013 External Data Connections

SharePoint 2013 External Data Connections  are part of the Business Connectivity Services (BCS)  that can be leveraged to perform CRUD operations on data stored outside of SharePoint such as SQL Server or other databases.  This means that if you have users that need to insert, update or perhaps delete information stored in a database.  You can leverage the SharePoint platform to be the user interface without having to create another one off application that requires initial costs and ongoing support.

For instance, if you need to store business rules in reference tables and would like to have users update the records instead of sending a helpdesk ticket or creating a process to upload a spreadsheet.  You can leverage the power of the SharePoint 2013 External Data Connections.  Additional benefits include:

• Provide Reusable business content such as master data.
• Familiar look and feel when updating information, no custom application to learn
• Apply security to allow access and updates to the data
• Search from SharePoint on data stored externally allowing users a single point to look for information

The diagram below shows how the BCS and External Data Conections interact within the SharePoint Framework