“Dublin” and the .NET Framework 4.0 Meet the Needs

To address these new requirements, Microsoft is enhancing Windows Server including key components in the .NET Framework.  The company is adding significant functionality to the new version of Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) and Windows Workflow Foundation (WF) as part of the .NET Framework 4.0 release, including new messaging and REST capabilities in WCF, new workflow models, seamless integration between WF and WCF to support stateful and conversational services, and a new visual designer.  The company is also introducing a set of enhanced Windows Server capabilities codenamed “Dublin” that will offer greater scalability and easier manageability, and will extend Internet Information Services (IIS) to provide a standard host for applications that use workflow or communications. 

Taken together, these enhancements to the Windows Application Server will simplify the deployment, configuration, management, and scalability of composite applications, while allowing developers to use their existing skills with Visual Studio, the .NET Framework and IIS. This new Application Server capability will be delivered as a separate release of technologies that can be downloaded and used by Windows Server customers; the first preview will be available at Microsoft’s Professional Developer’s Conference in October 2008.