Distributed Application Development

When we develop our 3-tier application in a Microsoft environment we'll effectively be developing using the Windows Distributed interNet Architecture (Windows DNA). This term refers to an n-tier logical application model, coupled with a framework designed to efficiently design and develop distributed applications. Crucially, it encompasses a number of tools and services that are enabling technologies – they make it possible to concentrate on the business requirements and code of a distributed application, and not have to worry too much about the plumbing of what goes where and how it works.

So, for example, some of the services make it simple to make certain parts of our project take part in transactions, and those services will control any transactions that take place. We just have to concern ourselves with deciding which parts of our project should take part in transactions, not how to control transactions in software.

The Windows DNA concept is now evolving into Windows DNA 2000 which is both a marketing term devised by Microsoft to help promote the Windows 2000 family of operating systems and a reference to the development of the original tools and services into a complete development platform.

The Microsoft Solutions Framework (MSF) Application Model we referred to above consists of a logical 3-tier services-based approach to designing and developing software applications, using Windows DNA.

The overall architecture looks very familiar. However, as we'll discover, the tools and services that underpin the whole architecture make developing complex applications quite straightforward:

Let's overview the tools and technologies associated with this approach. We won't be making use of all these technologies (some of them are for more advanced development than we're doing here), but we'll quickly introduce most of the names.