What is Windows AppFabric?

Question

Microsoft has released a beta version of Windows Server AppFabric, which "simplifies the collection, scaling, and management of web and composite applications that run on IIS."

MS also stated that you can deploy AppFabric on your servers, on a third-party host, and on Windows Azure.

So far, we have not done Azure development mainly because the API is different from ASP.NET, and you can only deploy your application in the cloud (and not on your own servers).

So, if I use the AppFabric API, will it allow me to create applications that I can deploy at home, on a third-party hoster or in the cloud with the same API? Will it be a “first-class citizen” in all of these cases?

Where does this leave the Azure API - is it a replacement for AppFabric? What about Azure SQL?

Answer 1

As far as I know, the main thing that AppFabric offers is what was previously codenamed "Velocity".

Velocity was Microsoft's original name for responding to MemCached in order to be written specifically for Windows (with x64 compatibility) as well as with better ASP.NET integration.

Microsoft has linked this to something for "managing software built with the Windows Workflow Foundation and the Windows Communication Foundation ." (The project, formerly codenamed Dublin .)

These two projects (Velocity and Dublin) are now put together and sold under the name AppFabric .

Answer 2

AppFabric is two more things: a caching provider and a monitoring service.

The cache object was previously called Velocity and has only recently been added to AppFabric. This caching facility, now called AppFabric Caching, provides local caching, bulk updates, callbacks for updates, etc. This is why it captures something like MemCache that does not provide these OOB functions.

Monitoring is a plug-in for IIS 7 that works in conjunction with two Windows services called the AppFabric Workflow Management Service and the AppFabric Event Collection Service. After installing AppFabric, you get 3 "features" in IIS Manager:

• AppFabric Toolbar
• End points
• Services

If you use WWF (Windows Workflow), then using AppFabric gives you advanced control over monitoring failures and troubleshooting workflows.

Answer 3

The new name for the technology, codenamed Dublin. An easy way to look at this is that it represents the latest evolution of pre-hosted hosting for applications based on WF and WCF. It will become the basis for scalable services, and as the same blue will become part of the landscape. We currently have our own hosting services for WF, but when we migrate to WF4, we test the App Fabric for long-term scalability solutions.

This is a lot based on existing technologies such as IIS, WF, WCF ETW, etc., and things like reporting, management, etc. are added on top of these MSs. I suspect that the azure api will form a lower level or more correctly cloud only api.

Watch channel 9 here. Related videos

Answer 4

in the Windows Server Developer Center> Learn> Windows Server AppFabric page .

A component of the Windows Azure platform that contains the service bus is called the Windows Azure AppFabric. Despite its name, this component does not currently use any technology with the Windows Server AppFabric. Microsoft says that will change, however. In particular, both AppFabric Caching Services and AppFabric Hosting Services will find their way into Windows Azure AppFabric in the near future. Once this happens, application developers will be able to use the same application infrastructure both on premises with Windows Server and in the cloud with Windows Azure.

Answer 5

even after 2 years of its release, appfabric is still trying to make its name on the market, which so far looks like a mission impossible for them. Microsoft tends to use the monopoly in the market, but not in the case of the application. some of the well-established and mature distributed caching products such as NCache , and some others work pretty well, so appfabric should come up with something new and compete extraordinarily with them