More Dundas Components Move to Microsoft
Now, this is great news for Microsoft BI and .NET developers. As announced on the Dundas website, the agreement between Dundas and Microsoft, which allows Dundas to continue sell, enhance, update and support its components, will expire on October 31, 2010. Subsequently, all components change hands and become a Microsoft intellectual property. These components are:
- Dundas Chart for ASP.NET (Professional and Enterprise), Dundas Chart for Window Forms (Professional and Enterprise), Dundas Chart for SharePoint, Dundas Chart for SQL Server Reporting Services, Dundas Chart for OLAP Services
- Dundas Gauge for ASP.NET, Dundas Gauge for Windows Forms, Dundas Gauge for SharePoint, Dundas Gauge for SQL Server Reporting Services
- Dundas Map for ASP.NET, Dundas Map for Windows Forms, Dundas Map for SQL Server Reporting Services
- Dundas Calendar for SQL Server Reporting Services
For me, the most interesting of these is the Dundas Chart for OLAP Services. If you have followed my blog, you know that I’ve been complaining on a regular basis that after retiring OWC, Microsoft didn’t provide any suitable web-based OLAP browser. In fact, this ranked 3rd on my SSAS wish list last year. Although I won’t get a Silverlight-based control anytime soon, I’ve used the Dundas Chart for OLAP Services (AJAX-based) in my projects and I can say great things about it. It lets you add OLAP browsing features to ASP.NET applications very easily. The Dundas Calendar will be a good addition to SSRS and .NET as well.
At this point, it’s not clear how which Microsoft products will acquire which components. Most of them (excluding probably the SSRS counterparts) will get added to Visual Studio. I can’t wait this to happen…
So, what will Dundas do after the transition? The Dundas Dashboard – now in version 2.0, with 2.5 coming up soon. More about the Dundas Dashboard will be coming up …. stay tuned.
UPDATE 10/22/2010
To clarify, Microsoft acquired the intellectual property rights from Dundas back in 2007. At the end of October, Dundas will stop selling these components that they were reselling from Microsoft since the acquisition. Dundas will continue to support them through October 31, 2011 for existing customers with support agreements. Integrating the “orphaned” components into Microsoft offerings is on the Microsoft TODO list.
