Microsoft Visual Studio Code works great for budget minded shops
July 25, 2019

Microsoft Visual Studio Code works great for budget minded shops

Steven Gockley, MBA, MCSA | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with Microsoft Visual Studio Code

For our data team, to reduce budget, we use VS Code instead of the full version of Visual Studio. We use it with SQL Server Data Tools as well as for our analytics (Python) and light C# needs. While our Development Team uses Visual Studio Professional we have found on the Data team that VS Code is more than sufficient for our needs.

Pros

  • Integration with SQL Server Data Tools
  • Easy transition between the VS Environment, not a big learning curve
  • Lightweight
  • We have been able to fully integrate it in our CI processes and reduce licensing for other SQL Server products such as Red Gate Source Control

Cons

  • Certain types of projects such as Database Projects, can cause problems
  • We have been able to reduce our annual budget by almost $10,000 by implement VS Code on the Data Team
Honestly we only vetted Visual Studio code against Visual Studio and it gives us everything we need and then some. There are options out there but for us, to be able to have a fully integrated environment that allows us to move from one team to the other with little to no training necessary is a big plus.
If you need to use products such as SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS), SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS) or SQL Server Analytical Services (SSAS) this is a more than adequate tool. Also, if you are doing light to mid-sized code projects (Not really enterprise level projects) this is a great tool.

Using Microsoft Visual Studio Code

5 - Development, specifically Database, ETL, Business Intelligence and DBA functions and roles. Languages they code with include C#, SQL, T-SQL, VB Script and Python. Toolsets they work with include SQL Server Reporting Services, SQL Server Integration Services, Pragmatic Works Task Factory and in house built applications. Databases they work with include SQL Server 2012 and above, Amazon Redshift and MySql.
5 - The team self supports.
  • Develop Database Schema and objects
  • Develop ETL Processes
  • Develop Enterprise level reports
  • We are able to do Continuous integrations using Visual Studio Code with SQL Server Data Tools and eliminate 2 other products we have licensing for
  • Perhaps some power users may be able to use it for data mining and light reporting writing.
Solid tool that provides everything you need to develop most types of applications. The only reason not a 10 is that if you are doing large distributed teams on Enterprise level, Professional does provide more tools to support that and would be worth the cost.

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