Layer2 has announced a new version of its Cloud Connector to integrate almost any local or cloud-based corporate data sources with native SharePoint Online lists and libraries in the Microsoft Office 365 cloud.

The connector extends SharePoint features to existing data sets that will continue to reside within the corporate network or in other clouds, e.g. SQL databases, file shares or line-of-business systems.

The Layer2 Cloud Connector was developed based on the new Microsoft Client Side Object Model (CSOM) API to solve the specific challenges of disconnected systems in the cloud without any direct access to corporate business data and very restricted feature customisation capabilities.

Users access native SharePoint lists and libraries as some kind of replicated cache for their remote corporate data – to provide all the features of lists and libraries for external data as well, e.g. flexible views, search, lookups, managed metadata, attachments, RSS and email-based notifications, or even workflows on external data change without any restrictions.

The Cloud Connector comes with support for almost any existing enterprise data providers, e.g. ODBC, OLEDB, .NET, OData, files (Excel, XML, CSV), SQL databases like SQL Server, Oracle, MySQL, IBM DB2, IBM AS/400, IBM Informix, applications like Notes, Exchange, SharePoint, Active Directory, Navision, SAP, file shares or XML-based web requests.

Cloud-based data sources e.g. SQL Azure, Microsoft CRM Online, Salesforce, Facebook, Twitter and Google are also supported. No programming is required and all SharePoint 2010 platforms are supported, including on-premise and hosted sandboxes.