You’ve heard the hype about the .Net vision. Here’s how Microsoft’s strategy effects you.

.NET: Platform of the Future

You’ve heard the hype about the .Net vision. Here’s how Microsoft’s strategy effects you.

• By Michael Risse
• October 01, 2000

The Microsoft .NET platform is the company’s vision for its next generation of software and services. Microsoft’s plan for .NET is that it will enable every developer, business, and consumer to benefit from a powerful combination of new devices and programmable Web services that characterize the next generation of the Internet. The .NET vision will shape the broad range of applications, tools, services, and operating systems products that we’ll release over the next three to five years.

How will the .NET vision affect you? As a Microsoft Certified Professional or Microsoft Certified Solutions Provider (MCSP) partner, how can you benefit from Microsoft .NET—and at what cost? These are the sorts of questions that many MCPs have been asking since we unveiled this vision last June. Let me clear up some misconceptions and explain the possibilities.

First, the .NET platform isn’t a change in direction for Microsoft. Although .NET represents a revolution in Internet possibilities, it’s an evolution in Microsoft product development. We’ve been working on this direction for quite a while—in the case of our tool strategy, for a couple of years. Many of our current tools and products reflect elements of the .NET strategy, such as deep XML support. New versions of .NET that emerge over the next few years will reflect that strategy more clearly.

The .NET strategy will leverage much of your current knowledge, expertise and investment—that is, it will be easier to adopt than you may have thought. But whether you work as a consultant, for an MCSP, or in an in-house IT department— what are the benefits of adopting a .NET strategy?

First, you’ll gain flexibility—including the ability to unite various Web sites, databases, and applications on the back end, and to present integrated data views not just to browsers, but to a broad range of palm-based PCs, smart phones, set-top boxes, and dedicated devices.

Second, these solutions now will be easier, faster, and more cost-effective for you to create than ever before—and they’ll leverage existing data and solutions.

With the .NET platform, our Solution Provider partners will be fully equipped to offer the customized products, solutions, and services that customers want in order to take advantage of the third generation of the Internet. IT departments, meanwhile, will become even more important strategic assets in furthering the corporate mission.

To get ready for the .NET platform, you might want to check out news about our new server-based products and about XML, which provides much of the functionality for third-generation Web solutions. Visit www.microsoft.com/msdn/xml; to get current on our .NET strategy, go to www.microsoft.com/net/.