Preface

Windows Server AppFabric is an extension of the Application Server Role on the Windows Server Platform. In a nutshell, Windows Server AppFabric frees Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) and Windows Workflow Foundation (WF) Service developers from common infrastructure plumbing by providing a robust, secure, composable, and reliable platform which provides caching, hosting, and monitoring capabilities, including support for long running workflow services, all on the Windows Platform. As such, Windows Server AppFabric is an evolution of the Windows Server platform, providing essential building blocks for first-classing WCF (for code-based services) and WF (for declarative workflow services) that are built using the .NET Framework 4 and Visual Studio 2010.

As an extension to IIS and WAS, Windows Server AppFabric relies on IIS's proven capabilities for hosting and lifecycle management, adding additional useful capabilities for working with WCF and WF services. In addition, Windows Server AppFabric takes advantage of Windows Server's robust event tracing mechanism (also known as ETW). ETW provides optimized and high-performing kernel-level instrumentation which greatly minimizes impact on the performance of WCF and WF services hosted in IIS with Windows Server AppFabric.

Whether you are a developer who wants to avoid the same repetitive tasks when preparing your WCF and/or WF services for deployment, or an IT Pro who wants to avoid complex XML for configuring hosting and monitoring options for the services you manage, you will instantly benefit from Windows Server AppFabric. Best of all, Microsoft has made this key extension to the Windows Server Platform available free of charge.

Written by both a former MVP and now Architect Evangelist with Microsoft and a five-time Connected Systems Developer MVP, the authors of this book both worked very closely with Microsoft during the development of the product (then codenamed "Dublin") participating in Software Design Reviews and early incubation initiatives. Hammad and Rick have advised customers of all shapes and sizes and fielded these capabilities in countless projects across various verticals in the two years since its general availability.

This book is full of practical, step-by-step guidance including useful tips and techniques that will allow you to build scalable, reliable, and secure service-oriented applications on the Windows Server Platform with IIS and Windows Server AppFabric.