In June, Microsoft announced its plans to purchase the InRelease division of Canadian developer InCycle Software. Today, Microsoft revealed that that acquisition has now officially closed. As with the initial announcement, specific financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
At the same time, Microsoft also announced that it has released the first public preview of InRelease for Visual Studio 2013. In a blog post today, Microsoft"s Brian Harry said that this preview version was basically the same as the one offered by InCycle but with a few changes so that it meets Microsoft"s own compliance requirements.
InRelease is designed to offer a release management solution for development teams. As far as future releases, Harry stated that Microsoft cannot start selling the product for another few months, but that the preview version is a good way to get started on using the program. He added:
InCycle Consulting will continue as an independent company and, until we ship the first fully Microsoft product, will continue to provide trials and sell the InRelease product. Customers who purchase now will be provided a free upgrade to the Microsoft shipped version when it is available. This is a good way to get started now and be sure that you also have a good path forward.
The ultimate plan is to bundle the InRelease product with Visual Studio Test Professional, Visual Studio Premium, and Visual Studio Ultimate when VS 2013 is officially launched later this fall.
Source: Microsoft | Image via InCycle Software