The .NET Platform

Microsoft’s .NET initiative envisions software services on the Web that enable businesses to tie together their disparate information systems and let consumers take personal data with them as they move from device to device or Web site to Web site. To support the vision, Microsoft is delivering a software platform designed to allow developers to build reliable and secure Web services. The platform is also being created with the intent of addressing longtime security, reliability, and other shortcomings of Windows.

The .NET Platform consists of both entirely new products and technologies, as well as updates to pre-existing offerings. With .NET, Microsoft is essentially replacing a considerable portion of Windows itself—including the parts that install, load, and execute applications—with an entirely new infrastructure called the .NET Framework. The company is also revamping its languages and development tools, operations systems, and server applications to better support applications written to the .NET Framework. And finally, it is creating an entirely new platform element—”Foundation Services,” code-named HailStorm—to provide Internet enabled applications with data storage, authentication, and notification services. Collectively this “.NET platform” will replace Windows DNA as the company’s overarching product set for enterprises and developers. (See the illustration “The .NET Platform.)