Where is .NET heading with .NET 2.0, VS.NET 2005 and SQL Server 2005?

Summary

Ever since their release, Microsoft .NET technologies and products have gained momentum in the market. The usage of Microsoft technologies in different domains is ever increasing. Many organizations have structured their IT strategies around Microsoft technologies and products.

A closer look at Microsoft .NET

The single most important feature across different Microsoft .NET technologies and products is the inbuilt support for web services. In fact, Microsoft .NET strategy could be seen as the Microsoft answer to web services solutions.

“ .NET is the Microsoft Web services strategy to connect information, people, systems, and devices through software. Integrated across the Microsoft platform, .NET technology provides the ability to quickly build, deploy, manage, and use connected, security-enhanced solutions with Web services. .NET-connected solutions enable businesses to integrate their systems more rapidly and in a more agile manner and help them realize the promise of information anytime, anywhere, on any device.” - Microsoft

Five years down the line, there will be hardly any area where Web Services have not created an impact. According to Gartner and many other research firms, by the end of the year 2008, Web Services will be competent enough to deliver the dream of ‘Service Oriented Systems’. Microsoft is consistently in the Magic Quadrant of Gartner as the leader and visionary in the web services area.

Since there is a great inbuilt support for web services across Microsoft .NET technologies and products for various collaboration and integration needs in heterogeneous environments, the importance of Microsoft .NET can’t be undermined. Looking at the current Microsoft .NET adoption and Web Services scenario, and taking into consideration the .NET momentum, it is very evident that Microsoft will continue to be the leader in implementing web services solutions.

The impact of web services could be felt across the following verticals:

• Aerospace
• Asset Management
• Automotive
• Aviation
• Banking
• Capital Markets
• Commercial Finance
• Defense
• eGovernment
• Financial Management
• Healthcare
• Healthcare Providers
• Insurance
• IT
• Legal
• Retail Management
• Telecommunications
• Tourism
• Wireless Service Providers

There are thousands of .NET case studies available on the Microsoft web site. Before we move ahead, let’s take a look at the Microsoft .NET adoption momentum.

• Support for over 30 programming languages.
• More than 500 tools (by third party vendors) to support .NET Framework development.
• Over 500 books have been published.
• Over 800 .NET Framework user groups exist worldwide.
• Over one million developers are using Visual Studio .NET.
• Over 3 million .NET developers.
• More than 125 M copies of .NET Framework were downloaded.
• Thousands of case studies and implementations across the globe.
• Lots of Benchmarkings in favor of Microsoft .NET.
• HP to embed .NET framework along with their consumer items.
• Good support for Web Services and Service Oriented architectures.

It is projected by many research firms that the web service adoption will generate billion dollar markets around the world in various segments. Let us, take a realistic view of the web service adoption by various vendors:

SAP

• SAP exposed interfaces as Web services.
• Eyes Web services as path to collaborative applications.
• Shipped Open Web Services Business Platform on June 5, 2002.
• SAP Web Application Server hosts business applications written as Web services through native platform-independent Web technologies.

Oracle

• Oracle Dynamic Services provide a single programmatic framework for accessing, aggregating, managing, and delivering Internet services.
• Oracle9i Application Server, DB, and development tools provide an integrated platform for building, deploying, and publishing web services for enterprise class systems.
• Oracle Offers Web Services-friendly Portal Software [January 17, 2003].

PeopleSoft

• Release 8.8 of Enterprise Warehouse has the ability to use Web services to share analytical results.
• PeopleSoft Integration Broker - to make all your company's and your partners' applications communicate through Web services.

J D Edwards

• J.D. Edwards launches Web Services Suite.
• J .D. Edwards 5 incorporates Web services.
• XPI, the company's integration platform, has been enabled to support the evolving Web Services interoperability standards.

ATG

• Using Web services and forthcoming portlet standards with its Scenario technology to layer sequential tasks together into a workflow.
• ATG Joins OASIS to work on standards such as WSRP (Web Services for Remote Portals) and WSIA (Web Services for Interactive Applications).

Siebel

• Siebel systems support Webmethods’ enterprise web services offering.
• Microsoft and Siebel has announced a multi-year global strategic alliance to deliver enterprise solutions that leverage the benefits of Web services to meet business demands.

TIBCO

• Provides a web service integration and management platform that lets you leverage Web Services to improve the way you do business.
• TIBCO BusinessWorks is the first solution that enables sophisticated and comprehensive business integration using Web Services.

iPlanet (Sun ONE)

• The Sun[tm] ONE Web Services Platform Developer Edition provides an integrated Web Services development and test environment to quickly create proof-of-concepts that integrate multiple information systems. The product provides both integrated tools and middleware servers and leverages the latest Java, XML and Web Services standards.

BroadVision

• BroadVision's enterprise business portal solutions provide a web services portlet so that BroadVision-based applications can easily call and present an internal or external information source via a web service.
• BroadVision has also packaged their low level APIs as a set of meaningful web services that can be called from other systems.
• BroadVision's industry-leading personalization tools and other key functionality are available as web services.
• BroadVision is participating in leading industry standards initiatives that are formalizing portlet standards around web services.

Many other vendors like IBM, Business Objects, Informatica, SAS, Cognos, Hyperion, Borland and many other vendors support web services. Almost all the new product releases from the industry known vendors provide support for web services. Given this, it is very evident that this technology is going to stay for a long time to come!

Now let’s take a look at the .NET Framework 2.0, VS.NET 2005 and ASP.NET 2.0

The upcoming releases of .NET 2.0 are major enhancements over the existing framework. The main objective is to provide increased developer productivity and empower developers with additional tools and controls to deliver more effective solutions. The new version of Visual Studio i.e., VS.NET 2005, comes with over 40 additional controls. It also introduces web parts framework as its integral part. The main improvements could be summarized as below:

• Reduce developer coding by 70% (more effective API and controls).
• Uniform (same) controls across (web, Windows, mobile etc.) various applications.
• Provide best hosting platform.
• Strong support for SOA (Service Oriented Architectures).
• Fastest web platform.
• Support for complete SDLC (VS.NET 2005).
• Support for various project models (VS.NET 2005).
• Templates for UI management.
• Security and personalization (login controls, skins and themes etc.)
• Web Parts Framework.
• Data Providers.
• Mobile support.
• Deployment (Click Once).
• Web Site administration tool.
• No support for project files (could be modified outside of VS.NET 2005).
• Backward compatibility with VS.NET 2002 & 2003 (Via upgrade wizard).
• Visual Inheritance (Master pages).
• Improved API (.NET Framework 2.0).
• Flexibility and Extensibility.
• Support for 64-bit platform.
• In-built FTP capability into VS.NET 2005.
• Increased support for web services.
• Multiple programming languages support for Database (SQL Server 2005).
• Web Services support in database (SQL Server 2005).
• Native XML support (SQL Server 2005).
• SQL Server Integration Server (to replace DTS).
• Database Monitoring (SQL Server 2005).
• Error handling and DDL triggers.

Given the above summary of improvements, nothing much has changed in terms of its support for web services though there are some improvements. It could be seen that the major improvements are on the database front (totally new platform), and other technology releases (.NET Framework 2.0, ASP.NET 2.0) are improvements over the existing technologies to bring in increased developer productivity. I am seeing the upcoming release of SQL Sever 2005 as an expansion of their .NET strategy. As a result of the upcoming releases, Developers and IT community could look forward for the following service offerings (apart from their existing suit of offerings):

• SQL Server migration services (SQL Server 7.0/2000 -> SQL Server 2005).
• ASP.NET migration services (ASP, ASP.NET 1.0/1.1 -> ASP.NET 2.0).
• Web Services development.
• Collaborative portal development.
• Security services.
• Integration services.
• Pocket PC and PDA/mobile development services.
• Project life cycle management.

Conclusion

With about 35000 Microsoft Certified Partners and about 3500 Gold Certified Partners and over 3 million developers, it is expected that the upcoming version of .NET Framework, ASP.NET 2.0 and SQL Server 2005 will be successfully taken to the market and these new versions will have good adoption across the industry. I personally feel that Microsoft is heading in the right direction to make all of their products integrate their web services strategy.