MSDN Architecture Center Microsoft's Architecture Center is dedicated to providing information, ideas, and community to software architects and business decision makers. We offer a vision into the latest technologies and applications, providing unique insights and examples about how these integrate into successful architectural implementations. As you visit our industry centers, community areas, and special coverage sections you will find references to articles, videos, ARCasts, and code that will enable you to make well informed architectural decisions. Architecting Solutions with Virtualization in Mind (TechNet Magazine Special Issue) Virtualization means you need far fewer physical servers to run your business. The result? A smaller carbon footprint, a lower electric bill, and more room in your data center. Learn about Hyper-V in Windows Server 2008, Management, Application Virtualization, Planning, High Availability, and Disaster Recovery. Get guidance on Virtualization technologies on TechNet. [CIO]How Microsoft Hyper-V Helped My IT Shop Revamp Disaster Recovery Review: Visual Studio 2008 SP1 Is Icing-and More Cake Going far beyond bug fixes, Service Pack 1 to Visual Studio 2008 and .Net Framework 3.5 adds many important new features Related links: About Visual Studio 2008 SP1 and .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 What's New in Visual Studio 2008, Visual Studio 2008 SP1 What’s New in Data Download Visual Studio 2008 SP1 Software + Services for Architects (webcast) This session will provide an updated architect’s perspective on S+S. Taking into consideration the existing and upcoming investment in cloud-based infrastructure, we will be going through the architectural challenges faced by ISV architects in building S+S solutions, as well as the ones faced by architects in large enterprises mostly consuming S+S solutions. Emerging patterns and best practices will be discussed for these scenarios. [download] Review: Visual Studio 2008 SP1 Is Icing-and More Cake Microsoft Architecture Journal Issue 18 - Call For Papers Software as a Service as a Disruptive Technology Software + Services for Architects (webcast) Microsoft Architecture Journal Issue 17 - Call For Papers Microsoft Architecture Journal Issue 16 - Call For Papers IT Manager Webcast: Real-World SOA Governance: Augmenting Your Control with Value More... Recent Headlines OBA Composition Reference Toolkit Version 2.0 Version 2.0 of the OBA Composition Reference Toolkit is now available. This version evolves the initial release of the toolkit to add-on IT administration capabilities, a prescriptively secure OBA composition user experience, incremental deployment of OBAs, support for installing the OBA Composer on a Vista client and connecting to a remote SharePoint Server, and a sleuth of new out of the box components that cover scenarios pertaining to HR recruiting, Expense Reporting, Purchase Requisition Management, Financial services, and Health & Life Sciences solutions. Most notably, this is a shared source release that includes the full source code of the OBA Composition Reference Toolkit (framework, tools, and all sample components). ISVs and Solution Integrators are encouraged to explore and extend/customize the toolkit to repurpose it for their individual requirements as seen fit. What is an “architect”? Join the discussion What does it mean to be an Architect: for you, your organization and the industry. Join the discussion about your role and the challenges you face. Journal 15: The Role of an Architect Welcome to the 15th issue of The Architecture Journal! In this issue, we wanted to kick start a discussion about our emerging profession. We've assembled a wide variety of perspectives from architects throughout the industry and at organizations like IASA and the Open Group. Making the Business Case for Software Factories In this article, the authors discuss their approach, the difficulties encountered, and the quantitative results of building a thin, vertical slice of a system by using the software-factory paradigm. The goal of this work was to show the quantitative, measurable business value of introducing the software-factory methodology in a large enterprise development project. Application Platform Capability Assessments: Where is your organization headed today? If you want to improve your organization’s capabilities, you have to understand where you are before you can determine where you want to go. Microsoft has created a series of vendor-agnostic assessments based on common business practices that can help you build that profile. These assessments measure results aggregated from you and your contributors to provide you with a comprehensive ‘snap-shot’ of your organization today. Strategic Architecture Forum Sessions The past SAF conference was hosted at the MS Conference Center (Redmond, USA) over three days during November, 2007. All the keynotes and informational sessions are available here for download. Latest Architecture Forum Threads More... Schedule Announced for Conference & Workshops on SOA, SaaS, Virtualisation & ECM p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;font-size:12.0pt;font-family:'Times New Roman';} h1 {margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;page-break-after:avoid;font-size:8.0pt;font-family:Verdana;} p.MsoBodyText, li.MsoBodyText, div.MsoBodyText {margin:0in;margin-botto... more Shaguf Wednesday, September 03, 2008 12:14:54 AM MVC pattern - where does display "logic" go? Hi all,I've read the Head First Design Patterns book MVC pattern section several times in an effort to understand MVC.  I finally have a project that can really implement it (most of the time I'm doing web app development and find it difficult to apply the MVC pattern to ASP.NET - yes I realize ther... more Peter Lanoie Wednesday, September 03, 2008 6:07:54 PM Ent Lib Validation   Hi! I was wondering if its possible to validate that a Guid is not empty. Thanks, Oz Oz22 Monday, September 01, 2008 12:14:03 AM Two instances of a service or two threads? I need a workflow running two times. Now, I’m not sure whether I should create two threads or better use two instances of my service… The goal is to get a stable and high-performance environment. I thought two services would be the better choice because it’s more error proof, isn’t it? What would yo... more Dunken Friday, August 29, 2008 3:05:48 AM key/Value based access I am design a service which allows user to query data in inmemory database and return it. I am thinking what is best way to provide access.   QueryObject patterns gives the good way to provide an api to client with url of remoting service which expose interface for  supplying fields and criteria.... more ssawhney Friday, August 29, 2008 1:24:31 AM

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Technical Articles

• ARCast.TV - Rapid Response with Udi Dahan
  

  Udi Dahan is a solution architect from Israel and just the other day Udi and I answered a couple of questions from the MSDN architecture forum about layering and business rules.

• A Day in the Life of an Enterprise Architect
  

  An enterprise architect’s role is multi-faceted and extremely dynamic. Not only must they keep track of IT concerns, but also those of the business. Through the work performed on strategic initiative, EAs strive to make alignment between IT and the business more transparent.

• A Walkthrough Towards SOA and S+S
  

  An up-to-date journey towards ESB, SOA and S+S using Microsoft technologies in the SOA space.

• Rocky Lhotka and Anthony Handley on WPF
  

  Carl meets up with Rocky Lhotka and his associate, Anthony Handley, at ReMix in Boston to discuss the work they have done separating the roles of designer and developer using WPF.

• Microsoft BizTalk LoadGen 2007 Tool
  

  This tool is intended for developers and IT professionals to simulate load on a BizTalk Server. Using this tool, you can simulate load to instrument performance and stress against a BizTalk deployment. In addition, this tool may also be extended by developers to simulate load for custom transports.

• Optimizing Your Server Infrastructure
  

  Enterprises worldwide are embracing a digital work style to stay competitive in a dynamic and increasingly global business environment. This work style requires that teams collaborate seamlessly across organizations and time zones, while success relies on speed, mobility and connectivity.

• Secure Access Anywhere
  

  This column focuses on the network and security design aspects of an anywhere-access solution, rather than providing details on managing the Terminal Service components. I'll describe the methods and best practices for creating such a solution based on technology included with Windows Server 2008.

• CSLA with Rockford Lhotka
  

  Rocky talks about CSLA 3.0, the relationship with WPF and Silverlight, "paranoid" code, publishing and his experience with ebooks.

• Find and Fix Vulnerabilities Before Your Application Ships
  

  In software development, a small coding error can result in a critical vulnerability that ends up compromising the security of an entire system or network.

• Microsoft Code Name "Acropolis" July Community Technology Preview
  

  Building on the vision of software + services, Microsoft Code Name "Acropolis" makes it easier to build and manage modular, business-focused, client applications for Microsoft Windows with the .NET Framework. It builds on the rich capabilities of Microsoft Windows and the .NET Framework, including the Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF), by providing tools and pre-built components that help developers quickly assemble an application from loosely-coupled parts and services.

• Packaging & Building Software Factories
  

  One of the most challenging parts of creating an installer for a software factory solution is knowing exactly what dependencies, components, and configuration need to be installed to a target machine. For the types of package project types (VSX, GAT and DSL) involved in software factory solutions today, this information is neither obvious to derive nor trivial to implement.

• Dynamic Business Management Application Architecture
  

  This paper endeavors to define a dynamic framework for business management applications development. The framework is based on the concept of business components and groups with a focus on business process implementation. An important goal of the framework is to enable the architects and developers to envision the bigger picture during the application design phase. This will support development of a software architecture that will be cost-effective and easily adaptable.

• Enterprise Applications Management
  

  Although the application architectures make dynamic configuration and run-time configuration possible, the post-deployment management of enterprise applications is a very complex activity. This document describes the nature of enterprise applications from one management point of view, and it describes the issues and challenges that need to be considered when designing an enterprise application management framework.

• Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA)
  

  My name is John Evdemon and I'm an Architect in the Architecture Strategy team. Please visit the SOA section, where you'll find guidance, best practices, case studies and the most recent related resources.

• ISVs are from Mars, and Hosters are from Venus
  

  Software as a Service (SaaS) is simply the idea that instead of paying for the bits and running them on your server, you ought to be able to buy the service you want and let somebody else manage it. In this case study overview we meet Remend one of the new crop of companies who are moving to a SaaS business model.

• Unity Application Block
  

  “Unity” is a lightweight, extensible dependency injection container. It facilitates building loosely coupled applications and provides developers with simplified object creation, abstraction of requirements, increased flexibility and service location capability.