We released our final release of the patterns & practices Application Architecture Guide 2.0 on Codeplex.  It's the "Microsoft playbook for application architecture."  This is our guide to help solution architects and developers make the most of the Microsoft platform.  It's a distillation of many lessons learned.  It’s principle-based and pattern-oriented to provide a durable, evolvable backdrop for application architecture.  It's a collaborative effort among product team members, field, industry experts, MVPs, and customers.

Key Links

• Application Architecture Guide 2.0 - http://www.codeplex.com/AppArchGuide
• Application Architecture Knowledge Base – http://www.codeplex.com/AppArch

Key Changes Since Beta 2

• Added a foreword by Scott Guthrie.
• Incorporated feedback from internal and external reviewers.
• Tuned and pruned the recommendations across the entire guide.

Architecture Meta Frame (AMF)
The Architecture Meta Frame integrates context, application types, architecture styles, and an architecture frame to help map out the application architecture space. 

The Architecture Meta Frame serves as a durable, evolvable backdrop for the guidance in the patterns & practices Application Architecture Guide 2.0.

Key Scenarios for the Guide

• Choose the right architecture for your application.
• Choose the right technologies.
• Make more effective choices for key engineering decisions.
• Map appropriate strategies and patterns.
• Map relevant patterns & practices solution assets.

Key Features of the Guide

• Canonical Application Frame.  Describes at a meta-level, the tiers and layers that an architect should consider. Each tier/layer is described in terms of its focus, function, capabilities, common design patterns and technologies.
• Application Types.  Canonical application archetypes to illustrate common application types.  Each archetype is described in terms of the target scenarios, technologies, patterns and infrastructure it contains. Each archetype will be mapped to the canonical app frame. They are illustrative of common app types and not comprehensive or definitive.
• Architecture Frame.  A common set of categories for hot spots for key engineering decisions.
• Quality Attributes.  A set of qualities/abilities that shape your application architecture: performance, security, scalability, manageability, deployment, communication, etc.
• Principles, patterns and practices.  Using the frames as backdrops, the guide overlays relevant principles, patterns, and practices.
• Technologies and capabilities.  A description and overview of the Microsoft application development platform and the main technologies and capabilities within it.

Team
Here's the team that brought you this guide:

• Core Dev Team: J.D. Meier , Alex Homer, David Hill, Jason Taylor , Prashant Bansode , Lonnie Wall, Rob Boucher Jr, Akshay Bogawat
• Test Team - Rohit Sharma, Praveen Rangarajan
• Edit Team - Dennis Rea.

Contributors / Reviewers
One of our themes throughout the guide was "Stand on the shoulders of giants."  We leveraged a lot of experts inside and outside of Microsoft:

• External Contributors/Reviewers - Adwait Ullal; Andy Eunson; Brian Sletten; Christian Weyer; David Guimbellot; David Ing; David Weller; Derek Greer; Eduardo Jezierski; Evan Hoff; Gajapathi Kannan; Jeremy D. Miller; John Kordyback; Keith Pleas; Kent Corley; Mark Baker; Paul Ballard; Peter Oehlert; Norman Headlam; Ryan Plant; Sam Gentile; Sidney G Pinney; Ted Neward; Udi Dahan
• Microsoft Contributors / Reviewers - Ade Miller; Amit Chopra; Anna Liu; Anoop Gupta; Bob Brumfield; Brad Abrams; Brian Cawelti; Bhushan Nene; Burley Kawasaki; Carl Perry; Chris Keyser; Chris Tavares; Clint Edmonson; Dan Reagan; David Hill; Denny Dayton; Diego Dagum; Dmitri Martynov; Dmitri Ossipov; Don Smith; Dragos Manolescu; Elisa Flasko; Eric Fleck; Erwin van der Valk; Faisal Mohamood; Francis Cheung; Gary Lewis; Glenn Block; Gregory Leake; Ian Ellison-Taylor; Ilia Fortunov; J.R. Arredondo; John deVadoss; Joseph Hofstader; Koby Avital; Loke Uei Tan; Luke Nyswonger; Manish Prabhu; Meghan Perez; Mehran Nikoo; Michael Puleio; Mike Francis; Mike Walker; Mubarak Elamin; Nick Malik; Nobuyuki Akama; Ofer Ashkenazi; Pablo Castro; Pat Helland; Phil Haack; Reed Robison; Rob Tiffany; Ryno Rijnsburger; Scott Hanselman; Seema Ramchandani; Serena Yeoh; Simon Calvert; Srinath Vasireddy; Tom Hollander; Wojtek Kozaczynski