Visual Studio LightSwitch

Microsoft Visual Studio LightSwitch is a simplified self-service development tool that enables you to build business applications quickly and easily for the desktop and cloud.  It provides a constrained Visual Studio development environment for producing form-driven, database-backed applications.  Non-developers can quickly build applications using Silverlight for deployment on PCs, Macs, and the Azure cloud platform.  The advantage over Excel macro applications, for example, is that professional developers can easily migrate a LightSwitch project into a full-fledge .NET development project.  Cost is $299/seat.

Visual Studio LightSwitch Homepage
LightSwitch Review on arstechnica

LightSwitch Beta 2

Microsoft Visual Studio LightSwitch gives you a simpler and faster way to create high-quality business applications for the desktop and the cloud.  LightSwitch provides a variety of pre-built templates and tools to quickly build business applications that target Windows Client or Windows Azure.  Visual Studio LightSwitch Beta 2 includes a “Go Live” license for internal production use.

LightSwitch Home Page

LightSwitch Public Beta 1

Visual Studio LightSwitch is a simplified way to build business applications for the cloud and the desktop.  LightSwitch provides a variety of pre-built templates and tools to quickly build business applications that target Windows Client or Windows Azure.  LightSwitch creates Silverlight applications that can run in the browser, out-of-the-browser, or in the cloud.  You can also use Visual Studio 2010 Professional, Premium or Ultimate to extend and customize your application even further.

Download Public Beta 1
LightSwitch Homepage