Pros and Cons of a BCS integration versus a Custom Integration

Question

What are the pros and cons of using the BCS to integrate an external system into SharePoint versus a custom integration.

Answer 1

Pros

End User

• Business Data Web Parts & External List can render data out of the box
• Enterprise & FAST Search Integration with Managed Property Mapping support
• User Profile Synchronization
• Office Integration via External Data Column
• Office Mapping for Tasks,Contacts and Calendar
• SharePoint Workspace Support
• Single Sign on Support
• Workflow support via External Data Column and External List

Developer

• Visual Studio Tooling Support
• SharePoint Designer Support
• Out of the box support for existing SQL Databases & WebServices
• .Net Assembly Connector can connect to any other datatype
• Server side API to develop custom web parts against
• Client Side API to develop custom client integrations against
• Write once work against any data source controls are possible

Cons

End User

• Out of the Box Web Parts look outdated
• External Data Column data needs to be refreshed

Developer

• Generation and Maintenance of Model file is time consuming.
• Data Model does not support subclassing.
• Writing controls that work against any data source is time consuming.

Answer 2

Fabian Williams had a related post about the topic (BCS vs Alternates) a few months ago - http://www.sharepointfabian.com/blog/Lists/Posts/Post.aspx?ID=202