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Lead Analyst: Rob Horwitz [bio]

Contributing Analysts: Michael Cherry, Paul DeGroot, Rob Helm, Peter Pawlak, Matt Rosoff, and Maurice Willey

Executive Summary

The .NET initiative is three things: a vision for how software will be designed to more fully exploit the Internet’s potential; a software platform for building applications that fit into the vision (and also for addressing longtime security, reliability, and other shortcomings of Windows); and a set of Microsoft-hosted services targeting developers, consumers, and businesses. Similar to the company’s Windows strategy more than a decade ago, the .NET initiative represents a long-term company wide focus that will have broad implications for Microsoft customers, partners, third-party developers, and competitors alike. However, for a variety of reasons— including Microsoft’s difficulty in communicating it clearly—.NET has been widely misunderstood and misinterpreted.

This report provides an in-depth explanation of the three main tenets of the .NET vision, the five major parts of the .NET platform, and several planned .NET hosted-services. It also explores the reasons that Microsoft felt compelled to launch .NET, as well as the formidable array of challenges Microsoft must overcome to make .NET a success. Readers will find the report an invaluable guide for understanding what .NET actually is, for evaluating the opportunities and threats .NET may pose to their business, and for interpreting Microsoft’s technical and strategic moves from this day forward. [Table of Contents]

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