1. earlier Business Data Catalog
2. Connect sp to external data
3. External content types
   1. set of fields (customer, order, contract, ...) that define an object along with the crudq methods
4. External lists
5. External systems
   1. Vbn
      1. MS SQL server
      2. SAP
      3. Web services
      4. Custom applications
      5. Web sites based on sp
   2. Databases
   3. Web/wcf services
   4. .net connectivity assemblies
   5. custom data sources
6. BDC models and resource files
   1. model: contains the xml descriptions of oner or more external content types
7. CRUDQ
8. features
   1. extensible provider model
   2. batch and bulk operation support
   3. read blobs
   4. read and write-back of complex types
   5. lifecycle management
   6. enhanced api set and extensibility
9. administering
   1. Available in Sp foundation and sp server
   2. share instance across farms
   3. deploy bcs
      1. run farm config wizard
      2. use ca and manage service appl page
      3. powershell
      4. delegated administration
         1. admin of bcs has only access to bcs
         2. admin can administer following objects
            1. external content types, external systems, BDC models
            2. solutions supported by it
            3. security on the external data source