.NET Framework Developer Center

.NET Framework Developer Center

Windows Communication Foundation is a part of the .NET Framework that provides a unified programming model for rapidly building service-oriented applications that communicate across the web and the enterprise. 

WCF and WF in .NET 4

In the .NET Framework 4, there have been significant enhancements in the Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) and Windows Workflow Foundation (WF) namespaces. .NET developers can use these technologies, either independently or together, to eliminate the tradeoff between ease of service authoring and performant, scalable services. Read more about WCF and WF in .NET 4.

Windows Presentation Foundation

Next-Generation User Experiences. The Windows Presentation Foundation, WPF, provides a unified framework for building applications and high-fidelity experiences in Windows Vista that blend application UI, documents, and media content. WPF offers developers 2D and 3D graphics support, hardware-accelerated effects, scalability to different form factors, interactive data visualization, and superior content readability.

Windows Workflow Foundation Provides a programming model, in-process workflow engine and rehostable designer to implement long-running processes as workflows within .NET applications

WF and WCF in .NET 4

In the .NET Framework 4, there have been significant enhancements in the Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) and Windows Workflow Foundation (WF) frameworks. .NET developers can use these technologies, either independantly or together, to eliminate the tradeoff between ease of service authoring and performant, scalable services. Read more about .NET 4.

Base Class Library Highlights

Code Contracts at PDC 2009
If you’re at PDC this year and interested in Code Contracts, go watch Mike Barnett and Nikolai Tillmann talk about Code Contracts and Pex (another MSR tool).  Their session is called Code Contrac... more

What's New in the BCL in .NET 4 Beta 2 [Justin Van Patten]
Visual Studio 2010 and .NET Framework 4 Beta 2 are now available to download.  .NET 4 Beta 2 contains several new BCL features and enhancements in addition to what was included in .NET 4 Beta 1. &... more

Code Contracts CLR Inside Out Article [Melitta Andersen]
In the August 2009 issue of MSDN Magazine, we have a CLR Inside Out article on the BCL’s experience with adding code contracts to the BCL.  It includes both an overview of the feature, as well as... more

AppFabric Highlights

Meet the Windows Azure platform AppFabric Team at PDC 2009!

Coming to PDC 2009? Don't miss out the opportunity to meet with the Windows Azure platform AppFabric team!

• Lap Around the Windows Azure Platform by Manuvir Das
• REST Services Security Using the Microsoft .NET Access Control Service by Justin Smith
• Building Hybrid Cloud Applications with the Microsoft .NET Service Bus by Clemens Vasters
• Software in the Energy Economy by Juval Lowy
• Lesson Learned: Building On-Premises and Cloud Applications with the Service Bus and Windows Azure by Todd Holmquist-Sutherland

Windows Azure platform AppFabric

AppFabric Access Control
AppFabric Access Control Service takes the pain of authentication and authorization out of your web applications and services. A simple and familiar programming model keeps your code clean and allows you to transition to the declarative model of rules and claims. These rules can be easily configured to meet your applications’current and future access control needs. AppFabric Access Control is based on a claims-based authorization model, which alleviates the need to develop and support a variety of identity providers and architectures.

AppFabric Service Bus
AppFabric Service Bus alleviates the pain to expose application's or service’s functionality across a variety of network-related constraints. Once AppFabric Service Bus has established connectivity among applications, it provides flexibility on how applications can communicate with each other. Developers are enabled to build solutions with various communication patterns such as relayed, buffered, bidirectional, publish-subscribe, multicast, streaming and direct-connect. AppFabric Service Bus provides each service a stable Internet-accessible Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) that can be accessed by any authorized client application. Powered by AppFabric Access Control, AppFabric Service Bus is able to control services accessibility with heterogeneous identity systems.

AppFabric CodePlex Sample

Azure Issue Tracker
This sample demonstrates a real-world SaaS architecture and scenario using the Azure Services Platform to perform federation and multi-tenancy. Technologies used include the Access Control service (part of Windows Azure platform AppFabric) and SQL Data Services (part of SQL Services).

.NET Services November 2009 CTP Now Available
The .NET Services team is excited to announce the .NET Services November 2009 CTP release. Please see this blog post for release details.

TechEd 2009 Sessions Recap
if you attended TechEd 2009 but missed the .NET Services sessions, you can see them online.

Get Started with ASP.NET

Microsoft ASP.NET is a free technology that allows programmers to create dynamic web applications. ASP.NET can be used to create anything from small, personal websites through to large, enterprise-class web applications. All you need to get started with ASP.NET is the free .NET Framework and the free Visual Web Developer. Get the Essential Downloads, and start today.

ADO.NET

ADO.NET is a set of classes that expose data access services to the .NET programmer. ADO.NET provides a rich set of components for creating distributed, data-sharing applications. It is an integral part of the .NET Framework, providing access to relational, XML, and application data. ADO.NET supports a variety of development needs, including the creation of front-end database clients and middle-tier business objects used by applications, tools, languages, or Internet browsers.

Common Language Runtime Highlights

CLR-Related PDC 2009 Sessions
If you’re at PDC this year and are reading the CLR Team’s blog, there are a few sessions that might be of interest to you. Future of Garbage... more

How to Make the Most of Your .NET Server Code
one of our team’s field engineers recently sent a link to a Channel 9 video: Steve Michelotti of e.magination on High Performance Web Solutions. This company built a 64-bit web server that handles ove... more

CLR Inside Out - Exploring the .NET Framework 4 Security Model

The new installment of the “CLR Inside Out” column in MSDN Magazine is now available on line.  This month we have an article from Andrew Dai on exploring the .NET Frame... more

ASP .NET Training Services

Microsoft ASP.NET is a free technology that allows programmers to create dynamic web applications. ASP.NET can be used to create anything from small, personal websites through to large, enterprise-class web applications.

Cloud Computing Security Risks Outweigh Benefits: Survey

Despite the hype, nearly half of IT professionals in the US say the risk of cloud computing eclipses the perceived benefits, according to a recent survey from the Information Systems Audit and Control Association (ISACA).

The first annual survey revealed that more than 45 percent of respondents feel the risks of cloud computing outweigh the lower total cost of ownership (TCO), high return on investment (ROI), increased efficiency and pay-as-you-go services. Thirty-eight percent of respondents, however, indicated that the risks and benefits of cloud computing are equally balanced, while only 17 percent said the benefits achieved with cloud computing outweigh the risks.

The survey exposes the fear associated with cloud computing even as cloud computing services are expected to experience dramatic growth, hitting $44.2 billion by 2013, outpacing traditional IT spending. Other estimates, including a recent study by Global Industry Analysts, indicate that by 2015 cloud computing services could represent a more than $200 billion market opportunity.

Despite the rapid growth and the benefits, IT professionals are apprehensive about moving data into the cloud, according to the ISACA's survey of 1,809 US IT professionals, all of which are members of ISACA.

According to the 2010 ISACA IT Risk/Reward Barometer, only 10 percent of respondents' organizations plan to use cloud computing for mission critical IT services and 26 percent do not plan to use it at all. Meanwhile, 15 percent said they plan to limit cloud computing to low-risk or non-mission-critical IT services and 18 percent have yet to formalize their cloud computing plans.

"The cloud represents a major change in how computing resources will be utilized, so it's not surprising that IT professionals have concerns about risk vs reward trade-offs," said Robert Stroud, International Vice President, ISACA and Vice President, IT Service Management and Governance, Service Management Business Unit, CA Inc, in a statement. "But risk and value are two sides of the same coin. If cloud computing is treated as a major governance initiative involving a broad set of stakeholders, it has the potential to yield benefits that can equal or outweigh the risks."

By Andrew R Hickey, ChannelWeb

Cloud computing is here. Running applications on machines in an Internet-accessible data center can bring plenty of advantages. Yet wherever they run, applications are built on some kind of platform. For on-premises applications, this platform usually includes an operating system, some way to store data, and perhaps more. Applications running in the cloud need a similar foundation. The goal of Microsoft’s Windows Azure is to provide this. Part of the larger Azure Services Platform, Windows Azure is a platform for running Windows applications and storing data in the cloud. cloud computing is a style of computing in which dynamically scalable and often virtualized resources are provided as a service over the Internet. To deploy a new solution, most of your time and energy is spent on defining the right infrastructure, hardware and software, to put together to create that solution, cloud computing allows people to share resources to solve new problems. cloud computing users can avoid capital expenditure (CapEx) on hardware, software, and services when they pay a provider only for what they use.

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Cloud Computing Services Set To Explode: Report

The cloud computing services market is expected to balloon to $222.5 billion over the next five years, according to a new report released by Global Industry Analysts.

The new report indicates that the market for cloud computing services will reach that $222.5 billion market by 2015, fueled by end users modernizing their networking infrastructure, further proliferation of the Internet and the tumultuous economy. Those factors combine to create a perfect storm in which companies will upgrade their networks to cut costs and boost performance, the report indicates.

"Against a background where companies are coerced into recalibrating their communication applications and network infrastructure into cost-effectively supporting distributed IT applications, the importance of cloud computing comes to the fore," Global Industry Analysts noted in the report. "As companies modernize their enterprise networking infrastructure, driven by the need to remain competitive, and retain critical survival capabilities, such as, agility and flexibility in a fast changing marketplace, it is opportunities galore for technologies like cloud computing and virtualization, among others. Simplicity in implementation and low costs are prime factors driving adoption of clouds by large and small enterprises alike."

Solution providers stand to gain from the predicted cloud computing services market explosion, as a large chunk of the $222.5 billion will move through the channel. Global Industry Analysts noted that the cloud computing services charge will be lead by marquee cloud vendors including Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google, IBM, Microsoft, Rackspace, Salesforce.com and many others.

Additional factors driving the staggering growth in cloud computing services include the increased number of vendors and offerings, the push toward more virtualization and green IT efforts and the slumping economy as revenue starved companies prowl for IT solutions that are cost-effective, require minimum to zero investment and low management of computing resources.

The Global Industry Analysts report comes on the heels of a report from market research firm Sand Hill Group that indicates IT budgets for the cloud are growing. The Sand Hill survey found that 70 percent of respondents currently spend less than 3 percent of their IT budgets in the cloud, while by 2013 80 percent expect to spend between 7 percent and 30 percent.

The recent numbers are a strong indicator of the growth of cloud computing. The $222.5 billion market for cloud computing services is a major jump from the roughly $70 billion IDC forecasted that cloud computing services would generate come 2015, as it is expected to grow about 26 percent annually. IDC said 2009's cloud computing services market hit $17.4 billion and will hit $44.2 billion in 2013.

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'Midori' concepts materialize in .NET

'Midori' concepts materialize in .NET,

Some of Microsoft’s latest technologies could be green shoots on a migration toward its "Midori" operating system, according to analysts who are familiar with the project.

Recent additions to the .NET Framework adhere to the concurrent programming principles outlined in the Midori documents that SD Times viewed in 2008. Silverlight and the Windows Azure platform could also be complementary to a potential release of Midori, the analysts said.

Midori is a technology incubation project that was born out of Microsoft Research’s (MSR) Singularity operating system, the tools and libraries of which are completely managed code.

Microsoft has designed Midori to be Internet-centric with an emphasis on distributed concurrent systems. It also introduces a new security model that sandboxes applications.

"Midori is an attempt to create a new foundation for the operating system that runs ‘inside the box,’ on the desktop and in the rack. As such, it's willing to break with compatibility (or at least wall off compatibility to a virtual machine)," explained Larry O’Brien, a private consultant and author of the "Windows & .NET Watch" column for SD Times.

Microsoft may be laying a foundation for Midori in its existing development stack through languages and Silverlight as a runtime, O’Brien said. Microsoft Research is also increasingly focused on reasoning about concurrent programs, he added.

These major architectural transitions require developers to make a “conceptual leap” to a new model of programming, and to relearn how to program in an efficient manner, said Forrester Research principal analyst Jeffrey Hammond.

"We're seeing a gulf opening up right now between serial and parallel programming; only a small minority of rocket-scientist types can actually write code that works effectively in a parallel, multicore world,” Hammond added. “I think it's pretty clear that Midori is on the other side of that scale-out gulf. From a development point of view, those that can make the leap solidify their skills and employment opportunities for the next decade and beyond."

When asked whether there were any new developments in the Midori project, a Microsoft spokesperson said, "Microsoft is always thinking about and exploring innovative ways for people to use technology. Midori is one of many incubation projects under way at Microsoft."

Green shoots

Microsoft's F# programming language, which will ship this month with Visual Studio 2010, "hugely fits" the Midori programming model that was outlined in Microsoft’s documents, O’Brien said. F# is designed with restrictions that are intended to make it easier for developers to automatically parallelize applications, he explained.

For instance, F# is highly immutable—meaning that object states cannot be modified once created—and has an implicit type system. Midori requires developers to follow a similarly constrained model.

"Immutable variables are pretty much the opposite of how most programmers think about variables ('A variable that doesn't vary?'). So just a few years ago, the idea that functional programming was going to catch on seemed very dubious, and it was very surprising that F# became a first-class language so quickly," O'Brien wrote in an e-mail.

"Similarly, immutability and strong typing make it easier to reason about security," he added.

O'Brien questioned whether F# would become a more prominent language, or if Microsoft would evolve C# to have more of the same constructs that support automatic parallelization.

Automatic parallelization was a "big question mark" in Microsoft's Midori documents, he said. "One thing I've been noticing is that MSR is producing tons of stuff on reasoning about concurrent programs, exploiting latent parallelism ‘automatically.’ "

Microsoft must evolve the .NET Framework Common Language Runtime further to fully exploit the advantages of functional programming, O'Brien said.

Microsoft also has rapidly developed its Silverlight runtime. The Midori programming model includes Bartok, an MSR project that endeavored to create a lightweight compiled and managed runtime system that was more efficient than the  .NET Framework.

"There's no question that Microsoft is seeing Silverlight as the lightweight platform for delivering applications (Web-based and mobile). As far as Midori and [Windows] Azure go, what I can see is that a Silverlight front end is a good front end for an Azure-powered back-end system," O'Brien said.

An Azure tie-in?

It would make sense for Microsoft to use the Azure platform as a vehicle for introducing Midori, Forrester's Hammond said. "It's essentially a  .NET-centric (and Internet-centric) scale-out runtime.

"A distributed network-aware OS is the perfect thing to host in the cloud, and what better place to knock out the kinks than your own data center, where you have 100% control over the hardware and infrastructure you're testing on? This also allows them to test it underneath parts of the overall infrastructure: for example, hosting an individual service," Hammond explained.

Further, Microsoft is battling for new territory—distributed applications—with the Windows Azure platform, O'Brien said. As such, the platform has little legacy codebase, as well as ample funding in money and talent, along with new challenges, he added.

"While I don't think that we know if Midori would work as something fed ‘down the pipe’ to the consumer, the idea that Azure might ultimately benefit from its own operating system is definitely worthy of debate," O'Brien said.

O'Brien said that Microsoft might launch Midori as a new operating system for cloud data centers to up the ante against Google, which has developed new programming languages for writing distributed applications.

Midori's strong emphasis on concurrency issues, a willingness to break compatibility, and the idea of using a hypervisor "as a kind of Meta-OS" would fit that strategy, O'Brien observed. However, he noted that there is no concrete knowledge about the state of Midori or even that its design is necessarily attractive for a data center OS.

Microsoft does not have the lead in cloud computing, and it is rolling out new features for the Windows Azure platform to stay competitive with Amazon and Google, O'Brien noted. "At this stage, Microsoft cannot build Azure bottom-up. But the risks of retrofitting Azure to a new OS are vastly less than the unknowns of putting a new OS onto all the world's hardware."

The status of Midori

While the company has remained tightlipped, some information relating to the status of the project has become available. Midori team member Jonathan Shapiro departed Microsoft in March, citing personal reasons.

Microsoft recruited Shapiro from the BitC language and Coyotos operating system projects to work on Midori. He served on a team of high-profile programmers reportedly led by Microsoft senior vice president of technical strategy Eric Rudder.

Whether Rudder's focus has shifted away from Midori onto other projects in unknown. He recently presented at TechEd Dubai in early March on the topic of Microsoft's "three-screens-and-a-cloud" software-plus-services strategy for .NET.

By David Worthington

Microsoft to update Office Communications Server

Microsoft to update Office Communications Server

Microsoft plans to release a new version of its OCS (Office Communications Server) by the latter half of 2010, according to Gurdeep Singh Pall, corporate vice president of Microsoft's Unified Communications Group.

The new version of the software will include new features such as E911 (Enhanced 911), deeper integration with Microsoft SharePoint 2010 and Microsoft Exchange 2010, as well as enhanced voice recognition capabilities.

The new software hasn't been officially given a name yet, though Microsoft's official working name is Communications Server 14. Pall did not say what the "14" stands for. OCS is software that provides instant messaging, Internet telephony, video conferencing, presence notification and other communications capabilities to large organizations.

When connected to a SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) trunk or a PSTN (public switched telephone network), OCS can replace an office's PBX (private branch exchange) equipment. That can cut the costs of long-distance calls and telephony in general, Pall argued. "This is a complete VoIP [voice over Internet Protocol] solution," he said.

One new feature is E911, which allows a user, no matter where they are located, to dial 911 and get local assistance.

Another new feature is call parking, or the ability to put a call on hold and then resume the call from any other phone on the system.

The Communicator client has been simplified and outfitted with new features as well, Pall said. When integrated with Microsoft SharePoint 2010 and Microsoft Exchange Server 2010, the client can offer a deeper level of search. Previously, users could search the internal directories for names, but now they can search for expertise and knowledge areas as well, he said. The software uses the SharePoint directories to harvest this expertise data. Once you find an expert, you can call them directly from the desktop, using a USB headset. For the recipient of the call, the area of expertise serves as the subject line of the incoming call notification.

Using speech recognition software, the Communicator client can also transcribe voice mails so they can be read on screen.

Speaking at the VoiceCon2010 conference in Orlando on Wednesday, Pall expressed optimism for the growing adoption of unified communications, or the ability to intermingle multiple forms of communications.

By Joab Jackson on Infoworld.

  Microsoft SharePoint 2010 is the next release of Windows SharePoint Services, the collaboration platform from Microsoft. It offers a lot of new features and enhancements over Windows SharePoint Services 3.0, the earlier release.  It is also the foundation set of services on which the SharePoint Server 2010 is built. This release of SharePoint is highlighted with some important new features like Business Connectivity Services, UI Enhancements, Client Object Model, Sandboxed solutions, Claims based security, Services Architecture and Performance Point Services.