AppFabric
AppFabric refers to two related Microsoft products.
- Windows Server AppFabric
- Windows Azure AppFabric
Windows Azure AppFabric
Windows Azure AppFabric is a part of the Microsoft Windows Azure Platform. Positioned by Microsoft as middleware, it provides several cloud computing services:
Access Control Service
Provides an easy way for web applications and web services to identify users, and grant access control to the applications and services. The Access Control Service enables authorization decisions to be pulled out of the application and into a set of declarative rules that can transform incoming security claims into claims that applications understand. These rules are defined using a simple and familiar programming model, resulting in cleaner code. It can also be used to manage users’ permissions, saving the effort and complexity of developing these capabilities.
Service Bus
Provides secure connections between distributed and disconnected applications in the cloud. The Service Bus diversifies choices for various communication and messaging protocols and patterns, and saves the need for the developer to worry about delivery assurance, reliable messaging and scale.
Caching
Provides a distributed, in-memory, application cache service for Windows Azure and SQL Azure applications. It provides applications with high-speed access, scale, and high availability, to application data. The benefit is a widely available service for optimizing performance. This is a cloud service version of the Windows Server AppFabric technology (see below).
Integration
Leverages several capabilities of Microsoft BizTalk Server such as transforming messages from one format to another, or providing a queue for message passing. (Still under development.) An early mention is found in Information Week.
Composite App
Provides tools and APIs for developing and hosting a composite application expressly for deployment through the service. (Still under development.) The first public announcement was at the 2010 Professional Developer's Conference, as reported in Visual Studio Magazine.
Windows Server AppFabric
Windows Server AppFabric consists of two technologies with different purposes.
AppFabric Hosting Services
Provides an easy way for users to deploy and manage Windows Workflow Foundation workflows that are hosted in Windows Communication Foundation services. The software includes an extension of the Internet Information Services management tool that enables an IIS administrator to monitor performance of services and workflows.
AppFabric Caching Service
AppFabric Caching Service is an in-memory cache that runs on one or more servers to provide a performance boost for users anywhere on the Internet.
Beta Versions
Beta versions of the services are released in what Microsoft calls a Customer Technology Preview, or "CTP." Current CTPS are found by searching on MSDN.
History
Windows Azure AppFabric
AppFabric was originally called Microsoft .NET Services at its first public Community Technology Preview (CTP) release at the Microsoft Professional Developers Conference in October 2008. It originally consisted of three Internet-hosted services, Access Control, Service Bus, and Workflow Services. The July 2009 CTP release removed the Workflow Services feature. The PDC 2009 release revamped the Access Control service to use the OAuth Web Resource Authorization Protocol (WRAP) v0.9 REST protocol, and changed REST support for Service Bus.
AppFabric version 1.0 released in December 2009, with an extended free period out to April 2010.
External links
Microsoft sites
- Windows Azure AppFabric SDK download page, including the main documentation CHM file and the client binaries in an MSI installer
- Windows Azure AppFabric Documentation, online documentation.
- Windows Server AppFabric SDK Download page, includes documentation in a CHM file and installation binaries.
- Windows Azure AppFabric Overview, Microsoft's overview of the service suite.
- Windows Azure AppFabric CTP download page, beta version of soon-to-be-released software.
- Windows Azure AppFabric main product page
- Composite App
Labs
Non-Microsoft sites
ja:Windows Azure AppFabric zh:Windows Azure Platform AppFabric