Overview
Business Data Connectivity Service, or BCS, and is responsible for providing the mechanism for connecting SharePoint to external line-of-business systems, such as; SQL Server, CRM or and any other data-driven applications that can be surfaced through either Windows Communications Foundation (WCF) or Open Data (OData) endpoints. BCS can be deployed on-premise, in cloud-hosted or even hybrid SharePoint environments.
If you are a SharePoint 2010 BCS user, then make sure you have read this Microsoft TechNet article for a dive into the new features and functionality for BCS in SharePoint 2013.
Prerequisites
For brevity of this post and because of the scope for requirements depending on how the SharePoint environment is hosted, please refer to Microsoft’s TechNet article for full details on planning and deploying BCS.
