The .NET Vision

The long-term .NET vision doesn’t show up in any single Microsoft document. However, its broad outlines have emerged in the speeches of Microsoft’s top management, particularly those of Chief Software Architect Bill Gates and CEO Steve Ballmer.

The vision has three interlocking tenets:

• The “Web services” programming model will become the engine that fuels Internet-based application-to-application integration, sparking the next stage of the Internet.
• A set of “Foundation” Web services will provide a consistent way to handle key issues—such as user authentication and data storage—across Internet-based applications, making possible a variety of new, compelling end-user scenarios.
• PCs will play a prominent role, even as new devices such as Internet-enabled mobile phones and handheld devices proliferate.

The first tenet of Microsoft’s vision is widely shared among other key players in the industry, including Microsoft’s most ardent competitors. But the other two parts of Microsoft’s .NET vision are more controversial.