Lead Analysts: Michael Cherry [bio] and Greg DeMichillie [bio]
Posted: May 12, 2003

[This report is an updated version of the Feb. 2002 Research Report "The .NET Development Platform." It reflects several changes in Microsoft's development and operating systems platforms, including Windows Server 2003 and IIS 6.0.]

The .NET development platform, released in early 2002 and updated with the shipment of Windows Server 2003 and Visual Studio .NET 2003, marks the first major change in Microsoft’s development platform in nearly ten years. The development platform consists of a new software infrastructure (the .NET Framework and ASP.NET) for loading and running applications, programming languages to support that infrastructure (for example, C#), and a major set of enhancements to Microsoft’s developer tools (Visual Studio .NET).

Microsoft hopes that, with the release of the .NET Framework version 1.1, critics and IT planners alike will no longer consider the platform a “version 1 product.” The company hopes instead that developers will find it ready for the most demanding, mission-critical applications, and find it to be an easy way to build Web applications (particularly Web services) on Windows. This realization might turn more developers into advocates for the company's OS and server products and draw them away from the competing Java platform.

Microsoft customers can use the platform as a more reliable, secure, and unified base for applications, and Microsoft partners could strengthen their relationship with the company by helping to create early wins for the platform. However, both customers and partners should be aware that the new platform requires them to master essentially new application programming interfaces and programming languages, and it can lock them into Microsoft's OS and server products.