Most businesses today exist in a cut-throat environment that demands they develop various solutions and strategies to keep ahead of their competition. Many of these businesses have turned to IT to develop new business solutions that will help them increase revenue and cut operational costs in order to gain a competitive edge. Microsoft’s .NET Application Development Framework is ideally suited for businesses and is the perfect answer to many of the problems traditionally associated with the development of business applications such as lengthy development times, high cost of software ownership, inflexible applications that are difficult to modify, and applications that are difficult to deploy.

The Microsoft .NET Framework was developed by Microsoft in 2002. It is a one-of-a-kind platform that was built entirely from scratch and offers real benefits in business application development in diverse fields ranging from mission-critical business applications to building simple websites. The .NET platform can help develop business applications such as:

• Inventory applications
  • Warehouse and storehouse systems
  • Custom CRM systems
  • Accounting / Bookkeeping systems
  • Dynamic websites
  • Logistics and supply chain management solutions
  • XML Web Services
  • Business Intelligence applications
  • Mobile applications
  • And much more.

Microsoft .NET is an ideal business application platform with an environment that helps developers quickly and graphically build business applications. Let’s look at these in turn.

.NET re-usable libraries

The .NET platform contains tried and tested re-usable libraries, components and code that developers can use over and over again thus eliminating the cumbersome task of having to rewrite whole source code. This not only cuts down on development time but also reduces development costs. Some of the advantages of using the .NET Application Development Framework in the development of business applications include:

Reliability

. NET has proven itself to be a highly robust and reliable application development platform when it comes to business application development. Ever since its launch 10 years ago, the platform has been extensively used to by companies small and large as the platform of choice for organisational technical strategies

Scalability

.NET easily lends itself to the needs of rapidly growing businesses by providing the right framework for modifying business applications fast and efficiently. This means that your application can grow and evolve as your business grows.

Security

Business applications require high security levels. The .NET framework is perfectly cut with this in mind and comes with an in-built reinforced security mechanism that can detect security holes in your business applications. This is extremely important when developing business solutions such as e-commerce Shopping Cart Solutions.

The Common Language Runtime (CLR) provided by .NET gives the developer a clear picture of any compatibility issues that the application in development, might face with various hardware or software. The platform allows the developer to easily access various functionalities implemented in both new and old languages outside the programming environment. .NET’s huge library incorporates different programming and development needs including data access, user interface, database connections, networking, development and many more. Compared to other programming frameworks, .NET is a lot more developer-friendly and easy to work with.

The .NET Application Development Framework supports the implementation of high-level security methods by employing various industry-standard protocols such as SOAP, XML, TCP/IP and HTTP in a bid to facilitate the use of distributed application communications. It comes with cutting edge features such as runtime support for application diagnostics as well as easy maintenance and debugging processes. Web developers can use the development framework to gather a variety of data from various devices and crate websites that easily integrate with databases.

In a nutshell, the .NET Application Development Framework provides the following benefits to your business:

.NET for Business

The .NET Application Development Platform provides businesses with a comprehensive and highly consistent programming model with a common APIs set spanning various Microsoft Platforms. .NET enables businesses to build business applications for various client devices such as desktop PCs, smartphones and the cloud (both private and public).The platform lets you use a common set of application development tools across different software services.

Mission-Critical Business Applications

Many businesses today rely on .NET’s powerful framework to provide necessary management tools, security advancements and updates they require to build, test, deploy and maintain highly reliable and secure business software for mission-critical applications.

Optimized for Multiple Platforms

.NET encompasses a complete set of technologies that span various platforms such as desktop clients, web services, mobile devices and so on.The .NET frameowork provides your business with abroad reach across all these platforms.The .NET Compact Framework together with the open source .NET Micro Framework extend your reach further to smaller-footprint devices.

Public / Private Cloud Support

.NET provides you with the richest user experience and most productive way for creating your business applications, both on premise using Windows Server, and on the cloud using Windows Azure. You can now deploy and manage your applications right at your own data centre or across a Microsoft-managed global network of data centers.

Developer Tools Ideally Designed for Optimal Productivity

As a .NET developer, you can leverage your existing programming skills set by using common tools during the development process. This decreases ramp-up time and cuts down your learning curve. The new Microsoft Visual Studio 2012 offers a premiere development environment for .NET business application development. It comes with various features that are designed to maximise productivity and powerful ways for deploying advanced lifecycle management for software development teams and a means to incorporate open source libraries using the NuGet feature.

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