Perforce Introduces Coordinated Distributed Development Capabilities with New Release of Its Software Version Management System

Alameda, Calif., April 24, 2012—Perforce Software today announced several key advances to its software version management system. This release of Perforce includes new capabilities for advanced distributed version control that keep developers productive even when they are disconnected from Perforce's shared versioning service. In addition, new replication technology improves system performance and scalability for remote teams.

Jim Duggan, Research Vice President of Application Strategy at Gartner, said, "Combinations of distributed versioning with classic file-based versioning schemes allow new and better accommodations of the needs of the developer for flexibility and the larger needs of the organization for control, traceability, accountability and security."

P4Sandbox Delivers Independence, Flexibility and Performance

With Perforce Sandbox (P4Sandbox, developers can work on private copies of their projects while staying informed of project status on the shared versioning service. They can quickly create private local branches, including task or feature branches, and can also access 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. Another benefit is the improved system performance that comes from offloading work from the shared service.

Olga Zaigralina, Principal Software Engineer with EMC, said, "We evaluated Perforce against two distributed open source systems. And P4Sandbox with its local versioning and branching capabilities supported our decision to choose Perforce. P4Sandbox looks like a big win for developers who want more flexibility while working with a shared software version management system."

How P4Sandbox Works

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.

Randy DeFauw, Technical Marketing Manager at Perforce, said, "We've learned that developers want the option to work offline or use a more flexible workflow, but the enterprise still demands the security and reliability of a shared service. P4Sandbox gives developers the freedom to experiment while the entire codebase remains securely managed in the shared versioning service."

Advanced Replication Technology Improves Distributed Development

Perforce's new replication technology improves overall system performance by delivering data faster, especially to remote sites. New SSL support ensures secure data transfers between sites. By offloading continuous integration builds from the shared versioning service, replication also helps agile development scale without limits.