So much talk about Windows Server 2008 as an important part of infrastructure. So what does it mean to architects and developers?
Let's recap some of the goals...
What are some of the technologies provided?
Specifically, I would like to call out .Net framework 3.0 and IIS7 which are closer to the hearts of application folks.
The Microsoft .NET Framework 3.0 is the managed code programming model for Windows. It combines the power of the .NET Framework 2.0 with new technologies for building applications that have visually compelling user experiences, seamless communication across technology boundaries, the ability to support a wide range of business processes, and an easier way to manage your personal information online.
Useful Resources
.Net Framework Developer Center
Microsoft .Net Framework 3.0 Community
More than a Web server, Internet Information Services 7.0 (IIS7) provides a secure, easy to manage platform for developing and reliably hosting Web applications and services. IIS 7.0 is designed for modularity and provides an extensibility architecture for hosting content.
What are IIS7 Modules? IIS 7.0’s web-server feature set if componentized into more than thirty independent modules. A module is either a Win32 DLL (native) or a .NET 2.0 type contained within an assembly (managed). Similar to a Lego set, modules are added to the server in order to provide the desired functionality for your applications. Likewise, all IIS modules can be removed, or replaced with custom modules developed using the new IIS 7.0 C++ APIs, or the familiar ASP.NET 2.0 APIs.
What scenarios does this enable? In the past, ASP.NET modules were limited in functionality due to the ASP.NET request processing pipeline being separate from the main server request pipeline. In IIS7, with the Integrated Pipeline architecture, managed modules become virtually as powerful as native modules. Most importantly, the services provided by managed modules can now be applied to all requests to the server, not just requests to ASP.NET content like ASPX pages. Managed modules are configured and managed in a consistent manner with native modules, and can execute in the same processing stages and orderings as native modules. Finally, managed modules can perform a wider set of operations to manipulate request processing via several added and enhanced ASP.NET APIs. In summary...
What is new in IIS7 Administration? IIS7 provides a comprehensive managed-code API that allows complete manipulation of the XML configuration files and convenience access to server objects. IIS7 includes Microsoft.Web.Administration, which is a new management API for the web server that enables editing configuration through complete manipulation of the XML configuration files and also provides convenience objects to manage the server, its properties and state. The configuration editing aspect of the API provides programmatic access to read and write configuration properties in the IIS configuration file hierarchy and specific configuration files. The object management aspect of this API provides a series of top-level administration objects for direct management of the server (i.e. sites, application pools, worker processes, etc.).
The management classes reside in the Microsoft.Web.Administration namespace. The classes provide a weakly-typed interface to access configuration sections and convenience objects with properties and methods representing attributes of the configuration (like the path of a virtual directory) or actions to take on the object (like recycling an application pool). In summary...
http://www.iis.net/default.aspx?tabid=2&subtabid=25&i=952