Microsoft is making a significant announcement for developers today, upgrading and adding functionality to Visual Studio 2010 to make the product more cloud-friendly in anticipation of Microsoft’s release of its commercial cloud platform Azure. Visual Studio is Microsoft’s a development environment that can be used to develop web applications, sites and services based on Microsoft’s technology platforms.
Visual Studio 2010 will have additional testing options for developers to ensure quality code. Microsoft has included built-in tools for Windows 7 and Microsoft SharePoint 2010, and new drag and drop bindings for Silverlight and Windows Presentation Foundation. This is the first time that Microsoft has offered specific tools for building applications off of SharePoint. And with Visual Studio, developers can also build applications that cut across both Microsoft’s cloud computing platform Azure and on-premises databases.
Microsoft is making it much easier for developers to build on the Azure cloud with these new tools. The specific Windows Azure tools for Visual Studio let developers build ASP.NET web applications and services that are hosted in Azure’s cloud services operating system. The tools also includes a SDK environment, and a simulated cloud environment that runs on the developer’s machine, so developers can test and debug their applications locally.
Microsoft is also upgrading its .NET Framework 4, which will let developers experience smaller deployments with an 81 percent reduction in the framework size when using the Client Profile. Other benefits include additional support for industry standards, inclusion of the Dynamic Language Runtime for more language choice, new support for high-performance middle-tier applications (including parallel programming, workflow and service-oriented applications) and backward compatibility through side-by-side installation with .NET Framework 3.5.
Visual Studio is being restructured in terms of the product lineup, with customers now being able to choose from three main versions of Visual Studio 2010: Professional (which includes essential tools), Premium, and Ultimate (a comprehensive package of life-cycle management tools). Microsoft has also redesigned the UI of the MSDN developer website, including a faster version of the MSDN Library and additional community resources for programmers and developers.
Although we all know that Microsoft has strong ambitions in the cloud, it appears that part of its strategy involves providing developers with the best tools possible to build high-class applications off of Azure. Microsoft knows it must engage developers to help build momentum for the much-hyped Azure.
Ah.. really crowded developers, tired of following vs.net… So tied to enterprise, boring.
Azure. No Thanks
Microsoft do enjoy a strong developer community! Keeping in view the full release in March, this is really good news for them.
MS has the best dev tools hands down over anyone!
Besides, Balmer loves us developers :->
soooo true , ms has always cared greatly about us developers
Anything version 1.0 from Microsoft is sucks. Microsoft can not even backup their own cloud data properly (recent loss of data from sidekick).
should not be trusting your cloud data to Microsoft
Two faults here:
1. It wasn’t Microsoft itself, but rather a subsidary company which was at fault for the failure.
2. IIRC, all data was eventually recovered, it just took a damnsight longer than anyone expected.
And additionally, on a personal note, anyone who uses a Sidekick gets what they deserve.
@ john
Can you please keep your idiotic comments to yourself.
SP
I don’t think it is idotic comment. It is a fact that Microsoft lost their cloud data. Have you read news lately?
Lemme guess @John…your one of those that will choose anything as long as its not Microsoft?
Hope you’ve read that they’re gone restore most, if not all, incase you’ve lost it, can’t be restored, you’ll get $100.
http://www.tmon...lace-this-week/
What else do you expect from a co which releases products not just like google providing Gmail for more than 5yrs in Beta, so that no one can blame them.
hmmm $100 bucks. I will give you $1000 bucks if you lost all your datas. Do you want it?
Please don’t feed the Microsoft.
That first link appears appears to be wrong.
Am I the only one that thinks this is a bad idea? Cloud computing as a whole is a bad idea, but throw Visual Studio into the mix?
Mark Vaugn, I am interested to hear why having an IDE that allows you to easily develop for the cloud, including simulating the cloud environment on your own PC, is such a bad idea.
Because like most people he either did not (a) read, (b) understand or (c) take an unbiased objective view
A) Cloud computing is cumbersome and unreliable. B) Cloud computing in a world where sensitive data and privacy is crucial is a bad idea, and C) you fail at trolling.
Oh, and I’ve been using Visual Studio to write software since 1998. I’m not some “noob” off the street
One more reason behind that is, most of the developers reside outside US, in some services co’s, where they dont have internet connection in workplace
This posting reads like a press release. No opinions, no insights. This is not what I come to TechCrunch for.
The ability to reduce the .Net framework footprint is also quite important, so both Silverlight (in browser) and WPF applications (on the desktop) are much easier to install going forward.
An interesting question will be the eventual need for developers to work across the common cloud platforms, and the extent to which the vendors allow interoperation.
Because after that whole Sidekick-data-loss debacle, I really want to hear how MS wants to manage my valuable source code…
Second to that. I will give you $1000 buck if you lost your valuable source code.
Where in this post does it mention that MSFT are going to go anywhere near your source code? Answer: Nowhere!
We are using VS and Azure in beta form for a while now and very happy with what we saw so far. The integration with the dev environment and the SQL Server on the cloud are a true blessing that saves us a ton of time and resources.
I think you would be nuts to put your Code on the Cloud. Thats truly scary. I mean this isnt a subset tool that tracks projects status, or time management, or issues.. This is the code itself.
very scary.
There are already reliable services for hosting your source code in the cloud. Ever heard of GitHub, Google Code, Codeplex etc..? This isn’t new. It’s not scary.
Stop spreading FUD
I’d add that source code is simply data that gets compiled. Windows Azure offers significant data-security protection, whether your data is application data, DB data, or source code. None of it is publically available unless you specifically make it public.
If Google and MSFT can solve the most pressing issues of privacy and control of data with cloud computing, then it has a very bright future in the enterprise space. Until then, it has none.