The Microsoft .NET Platform and Technologies

The complete .NET briefing for every IT professional and business decision-maker.

• Evaluating .NET: technologies and business opportunities
• .NET Web Services, e-business, and application integration support
• .NET tools and standards: Visual Studio.NET, ASP.NET, XML, and SOAP
• .NET Enterprise Servers: BizTalk, SharePoint, Mobile Information Server, and more

Now, there's an expert, straight-to-the-point introduction to Microsoft's .NET for IT professionals and business decision-makers. Microsoft .NET Platform and Technologies explores the design and goals of the .NET framework, the Microsoft technologies that enable it, what .NET means to the Internet, and what it means to your business. Simmons and Rofail begin by exploring the foundational concepts that underlie the .NET platform. They present a high-level overview of .NET's goals and processes, introducing the new Web services .NET is intended to support and showing how businesses can use them for competitive advantage. They walk through the .NET framework and its protocols and programming interfaces, introduce the Visual Studio.NET programming environment, and explain the central role of XML in .NET and Microsoft's approach to Web services delivery. The authors also review Microsoft's key .NET Enterprise servers, showing how they work and how they function within the .NET initiative.

• What .NET means to your e-business initiatives
• How .NET Web services may deliver competitive advantage-and how to build them
• .NET standards-including detailed coverage of .NET's XML and SOAP support
• .NET tools: introducing the Visual Studio.NET programming environment
• .NET Enterprise Servers: BizTalk, SharePoint, Commerce Server, Exchange Server, SQL Server, Mobile Information Server, and more

Highly readable and thoroughly objective, Microsoft .NET Platform and Technologies gives you .NET's essence without its hype. If you need to make intelligent decisions about .NET, this is the book you need by your side.

Contents

Preface.

I. MICROSOFT .NET COMPONENTS AND ARCHITECTURE.

1. Introduction to Microsoft .NET.
2. .NET and E-Business.
3. The .NET Platform.
4. Moving from COM to .NET.
5. Understanding and Working with XML.
6. Understanding ASP.NET.
7. Understanding and Working with Web Services.

II. MICROSOFT .NET SERVERS.

1. Microsoft BizTalk Server.
2. Microsoft Commerce Server 2000 and Microsoft Host Integration Server 2000.
3. Microsoft Application Center Server 2000.
4. Microsoft Internet Security and Acceleration Server.
5. Microsoft Exchange Server 2000.
6. Microsoft SQL Server 2000.
7. Microsoft Mobile Information Server and Microsoft SharePoint Portal Server.

Appendix A: Microsoft Windows 2000 Server and Active Directory Primer.

Appendix B: MMC Primer.

Index.