Windows Server AppFabric reaches Beta 2 milestone

On March 1, Microsoft released for download Beta 2 of its Windows Server AppFabric set of application services for building Web and composite/"mash-up"-style applications.

Microsoft took the wraps off AppFabric in November 2009 at its Professional Developers Conference. At that time, officials described App Fabric as a collection of services, including the “Dublin” app server, “Velocity” caching technology, and .Net Services (the service bus and access control services).

Microsoft released Beta 1 of Windows Server AppFabric at the show (which officials said has been downloaded by 8,000 developers since then). The Beta 2 Windows Server AppFabric bits are available on the Microsoft Download Center.

Microsoft officials said on Monday that the company plans to release the final version of Windows Server AppFabric in the third calendar quarter of 2010. They didn't provide an update on the complement to the product, Windows Azure AppFabric, which officials also announced at the PDC last fall. Windows Azure AppFabric will allow customers to develop cloud apps and hybrid cloud/on-premises apps using a comparable set of services. The Azure version of AppFabric includes the service bus and access control functionality that was formerly known as .Net Services.

Windows Server AppFabric targets applications built using ASP.NET, Windows Communication Foundation (WCF), and Windows Workflow Foundation (WF) that run on Microsoft's Web server, Internet Information Services (IIS). It is designed for use with Visual Studio 2010 and .Net 4.0, both of which are expected to be released in final form in April 2010.