NETFX 4.0

Windows Server AppFabric Beta 2 Now Available

Rick G. Garibay — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 00:00:00 GMT

OK, I finally get to talk about *something* from the MVP summit!

As for 9 AM Pacific Windows Server AppFabric Beta 2 is available on the Developer Center on MSDN: http://msdn.microsoft.com/appfabric

First publically announced at PDC 2009, Windows Server AppFabric is a set of application services focused on improving the speed, scale, and management of Web, Composite, and Enterprise applications.

Developers and IT pros can expect the following benefits from Windows Server AppFabric:

Faster Web Apps Made Easy - Windows Server AppFabric helps developers improve the speed and availability of web applications through distributed in-memory caching and replication technology that works with current ASP.NET applications.

Simplified Composite Apps - Developers can simplify the development of composite applications with the pre-built application services in Windows Server AppFabric, used in conjunction with Visual Studio tools and .NET Framework capabilities (ASP.NET, WCF and WF).

IT Pros can also simplify the deployment, monitoring, and management of composite applications with configuration and monitoring capabilities that are integrated with familiar tools (PowerShell, IIS Manager, and System Center).

Enterprise Performance and Availability - An enterprise's most important and demanding applications can achieve elastic scale, performance, availability, and reliability (benefits often associated with the cloud) with the help of Windows Server AppFabric. These and countless other benefits from an unparalleled partner ecosystem utilize familiar skills from the .NET Framework and Windows Server.

Here are some additional links which may also be of interest:

Beta 2 Blog Post on Windows Server Blog: http://blogs.technet.com/windowsserver
Windows Server AppFabric on Microsoft.com: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2008/en/us/app-main.aspx
Windows Azure AppFabric on Microsoft.com: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsazure/appfabric/
Gartner Research Report: Microsoft AppFabric: http://www.gartner.com/technology/media-products/reprints/microsoft/vol13/article6/article6.html

Note: If you installed App Fabric Beta 1 and are having problems uninstalling, please see Damir Dobric’s post here and follow instructions from clean removal of Beta 1: http://developers.de/blogs/damir_dobric/archive/2010/02/19/uninstalling-of-appfabric-beta-1.aspx

AZ.NET UG WCF 4.0 Materials

Rick G. Garibay — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 14:46:17 GMT

Below please find my presentation and demos from my talk on new productivity features in WCF 4.0 at the AZ .NET User Group.

Thanks to Scott Cate and the AZ.NET UG for hosting me- I had lots of fun!

VS 2010/.NET 4 Release Candidate

Rick G. Garibay — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 03:00:52 GMT

The Release Candidate is now available to MSDN subcribers with a public drop on Wednesday, February 10th: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/vstudio/dd582936.aspx

Enjoy.

The “Ultimate” Event: Visual Studio 2010 & Team Foundation Server 2010

Rick G. Garibay — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 21:17:12 GMT

Join us for a sneak peek of Microsoft® Visual Studio® 2010, which will be a landmark release of the premier development toolset for Windows®, Web and Cloud development.

I will be speaking at the Phoenix and Salt Lake City Events. Below is more info and a complete list of dates.

The Ultimate Event is your exclusive opportunity to hear about Visual Studio 2010 from experts before the product is launched this year. Microsoft has made significant investments to and improvements of Modeling and Testing/QA tools in Visual Studio 2010. At this event you’ll get a comprehensive overview of Visual Studio 2010 and Team Foundation Server 2010, which is the Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) core of Visual Studio. We’ll present enhancements in version control, reporting, project management and build management.

Spend the day with us to learn how to take software development to the next level with Visual Studio 2010!

Time	Topic
8:30 AM-9:00 AM	Registration, Welcome
9:00 AM-10:30 AM	Lap Around VS 2010
10:45 AM-12:00 PM	Agile Management with TFS
12:00 PM-12:30 PM	Lunch
12:30 PM-1:45 PM	No More "No Repro"
2:00 PM-3:15 PM	Architecture for Everyone

Dates: Register now using the link below, space is limited.

Date	Location	Event ID
3/2/10	Bellevue, WA	1032439179
3/2/10	San Diego, CA	1032439178
3/4/10	Los Angeles, CA	1032439180
3/9/10	Mountain View, CA	1032439176
3/9/10	Irvine, CA	1032439181
3/10/10	Phoenix, AZ	1032439183
3/11/10	Salt Lake City, UT	1032439996
3/11/10	Portland, OR	1032439182
3/16/10	Denver, CO	1032439184
3/16/10	San Francisco, CA	1032439177

Hope to see you there!

Byte-Size WCF Episode 1: Default Endpoints in WCF 4.0

Rick G. Garibay — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 01:35:27 GMT

WCF 4.0 simplifies the configuration experience significantly by providing a new default endpoint feature. This saves time and simplifies the configuration requirements for hosting a WCF service by providing a File –> New Project –> Code –> F5 hosting experience.

In this episode you’ll learn how to get up and running quickly with default endpoints and how to gain more control over the default bindings for each scheme (HTTP, TCP, MSMQ, etc) you may want to configure using the new protocol mapping capabilities in WCF 4.0.

Is .NET a Great Disruptor of the Decade?

Rick G. Garibay — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 01:08:53 GMT

The following article was recently brought to my attention. It asks if .NET should be considered a disruptor in the last decade: http://blogs.zdnet.com/service-oriented/?p=3921

I actually gave this a bit of thought and the best answer I was able to come up with was “Yes and No”. Here’s why…

A technology can be "disruptive" when it gains wide spread attention but can fizzle out just as quickly or over an undetermined period of time. How deep into a revolution a technology can sink its teeth and still emerge a clear winner is a true long term measure that I believe earns the designation of "disruptor".

A true market leader leverages (or themselves are responsible for) a revolutionary technology and both exploits it fully while surviving several aftershocks that typically follow.

For example, I would argue that SOA was a revolutionary innovation that changed the mindset of an industry. In the process it displaced many traditional (and proprietary) approaches to distributed computing and a new market segment exploded.

I think Microsoft capitalized on this with ASP.NET Web Services (ASMX) which at the time I would certainly consider disruptive- offering 1st generation commodity SOA to the masses- but had the innovation wave stopped there, Microsoft wouldn't have a SOA story today.

Enter WCF . WCF is both an evolution over ASMX as well as a technology that has been successful in displacing many proprietary incumbents. However I think today what we have is a low-end disruption because it is evident that WCF overshot the market with performance and features. Incredibly, almost in perfect harmony with this market perception REST came into its own and disrupted our whole perspective on SOA and continues to challenge our values in the process (as all disruptive technologies do).

WCF 3.5 and the REST Starter Kit answered this call cementing the fact that .NET (WCF) is deep enough to survive and subsume other distrubtions and at the same time, WCF 4 will attempt to democratize WCF for the masses, likely gaining both mindshare and market share in the process.

So, while .NET has been disruptive, I don't know that we can claim it as disruptor just yet.

One thing is for certain. Azure has the potential to propel .NET to a more profitable market segment ushering with it new market disruption and establishing .NET in a clear lead position.

But these are just my thoughts. What do you think?

.NET 4.0 and Visual Studio 2010 Beta 2 Announcements

Rick G. Garibay — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 23:30:00 GMT

.NET 4.0 and Visual Studio 2010 Beta 2 is now available to MSDN subscribers as of 9:30 AM PST. This release includes the new version of Connected Framework products like WCF and WF 4.0, Entity Framework 4.0 and a host of additional new features across work streams including MEF, Parallel Extensions, and significant enhancements to Visual Studio Team System and Team Build.

Having spent some time with both WCF and WF limited CTP, Beta and pre-Beta 2 bits, this release includes significant improvements, re-design and new features specifically around WCF and WF 4.0. If you are like me, you will likely welcome many of the designer enhancements in WF 4.0 and may lament a number of designer design changes within messaging activities. You’ll just need to rip off the shrink wrap on Beta 2 to find out yourself!

I plan to start doing a significant amount of writing around WF 4.0 because I think that having been re-written from the ground up, WF 4.0 addresses many, many of the pain points in the 3.0 and 3.5 version, and I believe that WF + WCF 4.0 will lower the barrier of entry for writing workflow and service/model-oriented applications. In addition, the improvements within Workflow Services and the ease with which those new to WCF can get a service up and running are both significant and necessary to increasing the reach of these fantastic technologies.

Another major area of VS 2010 I am excited about is in the new architecture and design tools in Microsoft Visual Studio Team System 2010 Architecture Edition which introduces new UML designers, use cases, activity diagrams, sequence diagrams and the ability to explore and visualize existing code, design and apply layering to enforce dependency rules, and physical designers to visualize, analyze, and refactor your software. In May of the year, I demonstrated how VS 2010 extends UML logical views into physical views of your code along with how to create relationships from these views to work items and project metrics, and how to programmatically transform models into patterns for other domains and disciplines.

Needless to say, I’m excited about VS 2010 Beta 2, and am even more excited to announce that the official launch of Visual Studio 2010 will take place on March 22nd, 2010.

Until then, you can download Beta 2 on October 21st here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/vstudio/dd582936.aspx

Some other notes of interest:

Microsoft is announcing a new, streamlined packaging lineup and licensing options for Visual Studio 2010 and MSDN. This includes an "Ultimate Offer" to help customers upgrade to the latest developer tools. For more information on the new packaging, licensing, and pricing of Visual Studio 2010, visit: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=166249
As you may have noticed, MSDN has undergone a significant redesign which includes new benefits for all MSDN subscribers: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/default.aspx

March 22nd will be here before you know it, so jump on the Beta 2 bits now and get ready!

Oh, and don’t forget, PDC 2009 is right around the corner. Register now for key insights you just won’t find at any other conference: http://microsoftpdc.com/

The Modeling Vision Continues

Rick G. Garibay — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 20:43:16 GMT

Recently the Connected Systems Division at Microsoft, who is responsible for technologies including Windows Application Server, BizTalk Server, and .NET Framework technologies including Windows Communication Foundation and Windows Workflow Foundation,.NET cloud services, and the "Oslo" modeling platform was reorganized into the Data and Storage Platforms Division as the Business Platform Division (BPD) which is part of the Server and Tools Group responsible for products like Windows Server, Visual Studio and SQL Server.

This move was not a big surprise, because if you look at products like BizTalk, Dublin and Oslo, Windows Server and SQL Server are intrinsically related, delivering on the need for a comprehensive plug-and-play platform for connecting disparate systems. For example, BizTalk, Dublin and Oslo run on the Windows Server platform, and each depend on SQL Server to varying extents.

SQL Server has proven itself as a RDBMS platform and Dog-fooding SQL Server is good for business. I’ve also talked about the robustness of Windows Server, and the fact that it not only runs the .NET stack faster than Java, put runs Java faster than AIX. Needless to say, the server platform that was beat up throughout the 90's as not worthy of the enterprise has certainly come of age.

Anyone who knows me, has come to PCSUG meetings or reads this blog has probably heard me talk about the progression from imperative programming into declarative software development and how critical model-driven development will become in the not so distant future. As a believer, I strive to incorporate technologies like WCF, which is declarative, and Entity Framework which is both declarative and model-driven into my solutions. Entity Framework raises the level of abstraction beyond the logical/data layer in the database, to the conceptual layer, which is the true “stuff” of software, the model. With a model, we can have solution-oriented conversations about the problem domain without talking about tables, views, classes, bits or bytes. In addition, developer’s benefit from significant productivity gains by avoiding boiler-plate ADO.NET code which is largely commoditized into the Entity Framework.

Yesterday, Doug Purdy announced that the Olso team is joining the Data Programmability Team which is responsible for technologies like… wait for it… Entity Framework. Despite mixed messaging from Microsoft, Oslo represents the culmination of the declarative and model-driven vision within the Microsoft CSD. As of today, Oslo will deliver languages like “M” which will at a minimum allow developers to further reduce the impedance mismatch between RDMS and application development by raising the abstraction of how developers and architects develop data models that are decompiled into TSQL. I demonstrated this in June in Phoenix at Desert Code Camp, and while it is cool, it is only the beginning. “M” will allow developers to create domain specific languages that will bring the conceptual layer closer to the design and problem solving stage. Applications built on foundational frameworks such as WCF and WF will take advantage of their declarative model to easily be serialized into the Oslo Repository for centralized management. These applications are surfaced via Quadrant, which provides a model with which to interact with the applications both individually and at the solution and enterprise scope.

As Doug teases in his post, look for some key insights at PDC 09 this year as to the future of the modeling vision which appears to be very bright indeed.

.NET Framework 4.0 Beta 1

Rick G. Garibay — Mon, 18 May 2009 21:00:00 GMT

I am thrilled to share that today, Monday, May 18th, the .NET Framework 4 Beta 1 will be available to MSDN Subscribers through MSDN Subscriber Downloads and to the general public on Wednesday, May 20th through Microsoft Downloads.

I have been fortunate to have my hands on a limited April CTP for some time now which is very close to what is included in Beta 1, so stay tuned for more information about VS 2010 and the WCF and WF enhancements in .NET 4.0 which are key areas that I will continue to focus on and share with you here.

Until then, here are some helpful links to get you started with NET FX 4.0:

Get the Bits

Download the .NET Framework 4 beta here from MSDN Downloads:http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/subsc ions/downloads/default.aspx?pv=18:370
On Wed, May 20th, you can obtain the Beta 1 bits here: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=151799

Learn What’s New

A First Look at VS 2010: http://www.microsoft.com/visualstudio/en-us/products/2010/default.mspx
New .NET Framework 4 features: http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=9666478
Scott Hanselman's .NET 4 overview (PDC 2008) : http://channel9.msdn.com/pdc2008/TL49

Get Support from the Community

Beta 1 Forum is available here: http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/category/VSPreRelease,netdevelopmentprerelease,visualstudioprerelease,vstsprerelease

Stay tuned for posts in the next couple of weeks that will address the significance of this major release, particularly around VS 2010 enhancements and Connected Systems framework technologies. Until then, if you haven’t already, please take the time to upgrade to .NET Framework 3.5 which will make sure your upgrade path to .NET 4.0 is as seamless as possible.

Global MVP Summit 2009

Rick G. Garibay — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 20:59:39 GMT

The 2009 Global MVP Summit is winding down.

Day 1 kicked off with a welcome keynote from Toby Richards, General Manager of Microsoft Community Support Services along with Rich Kaplan, CVP Customer and Partner Advocacy. It was a very uplifting message around the impact that MVPs have, not only within the community but at Microsoft as well. It is just fantastic to be a part of a worldwide community of folks who care deeply about the technology and believe that technology can transcend all barriers.

Day 2 included deep dives into modeling with “M”, new stuff coming out for WCF and REST and other WCF service enhancements, none of which I can talk about.

Yesterday was all about WF 4.0 and Dublin and all I can say is the bits are getting baked.

Today, we’ll meet with Steve Ballmer and get his perspective on the Microsoft ecosystem, as well as get an update on Windows 7 from Mike Nash and a recap of everything we’ve discussed from S. Somasegar.

So, since there is not much I can talk about, I thought I’d share how fortunate I feel to be a part of this great group of people from all of the world. As one of 4,400 MVPs I feel privileged I feel to be an extension of an organization I am proud to represent. No, Microsoft is not perfect, and I’ve never worked for or with an organization that is, but when you get an opportunity to collaborate on a rich technical level with folks that are so passionately committed, you can’t help but be optimistic. I am not only talking about MVPs, but the product teams themselves.

While this is now my second MVP Summit, and third time I’ve been on campus, I still marvel at how efficient things are run. From Microsoft Connect taxis that will shuttle you to any building you choose, to the extremely friendly and competent bus drivers and event coordinators that make the commute to and from Seattle run so smoothly. It was very cool to see the MVP Summit banners adorn the exterior walls of campus buildings including the Microsoft Convention Center and light posts along Microsoft Way.

Of course, one of the biggest highlights is the opportunity to catch up with my Phoenix MVP friends like Dave Campbell, Lorin Thwaits and Scott Cate. We joked that we have to fly up to Redmond to hang out which we must definitely fix! In addition, I enjoyed catching up with fellow Connected Systems Developer MVPs like Roman Kiss, Mick Bradan and Alan Smith and getting to know folks like Matt Milner whose work I’ve followed for quite some time- Brian Loesgen and Sam Gentile, you were definitely missed but I know someone has to work while we play :-)

And, as with last year’s summit, the genuineness with which the product teams interact with MVPs, and the effort put forth my the MVP leads, and Customer Experience folks like Ed Hickey is just remarkable. These folks live and breath this stuff, and the chance to geek out and be speaking completely the same language on the same wave length is something that few technologists really get a chance to experience. What I mean is that so often, our dialog can easily become a victim of the impedance mismatch that is pervasive in engineering communication (for more information, please see pattern language). The opportunity to have deep, rich discussions with the very teams behind the technologies that I work with customers on every day is truly a privilege.

So, again, while NDAs keep me from sharing any juicy details around all the tremendous vNext stuff emerging from buildings 42 and 43, I want to thank Toby and Rich for continuously building a case for the MVP program at the organizational level, Ed Hickey and Mark Clargett for making the CSD program what it is and putting forth the tremendous effort both every single day as well as in making this yearly event such a pleasure. I also want to thank members of the CSD team like Ed Pinto, Kenny Wolf, Matt Winkler, Don Box, Chris Sells, Richard Orr, Kent Brown, Cliff Simpkins and Marjan Kantlar- to name just a few- that make it so easy for guys like me to do what I do.