The patterns and practices team released the the application architecture guide last week this project guide provides design-level guidance for the architecture and design of applications built on the .NET Framework. It focuses on the most common types of applications, partitioning application functionality into layers, components, and services, and walks through their key design characteristics.This guide is a collaborative effort between patterns & practices, product teams, and industry experts.

This guide is a free download from Codeplex 

http://www.codeplex.com/AppArchGuide/Release

The Architecture Meta Frame is a conceptual framework used throughout the guide. By thinking about applications in terms of scenarios, application types, architecture styles, and requirements, you can very quickly determine relevant technologies, patterns, and solution assets. You can then use the Architecture Frame as an additional lens to identify potential hot spots in your application architecture. For example, by focusing on data access or validation, you can prototype and test potential solutions to figure out the best approach for your scenario.

Few topics which it covers are mentioned below

• Architecture & Design Guidelines
• Deployment Patterns
• Architectural Styles
• Quality Attributes
• Layers & Tiers
• Presentational Layer Guidelines
• Business Layer Guidelines
• DAL Guidelines
• Service Layer Guidelines
• Application Architecture types
• Web Applications
• RIA's
• Services
• Mobile Applications
• Office Business Applications
• Sharepoint LOB Applications

This is a must read guide to all Technical Architects and also to any .net developer

  Here is my interview of  Microsoft Architecture Evangelist David Chow at the PDC Underground.  What is a Architect Evangelist? ITs a person who specializes in a  Microsoft Technology and helps other Architects in the business world find the right answers and right people for the job at hand. David’s current Technology Platform is Microsoft Cloud Computing project known as Azure.  David describes to us how the could will help us extend out our current architecture from the internal data center out onto the cloud giving the enterprise environment more flexibility and a robust disaster recover model. He also explains that by taking our datacenters to the cloud we are given the ability to scale horizontally instantaneously with only minor costs increases. Microsoft has brought this idea into reality when it hosted its NBC Olympics on this platform using its Silver light player.  David firmly believes that this form of computing will democratize the way the internet works allowing everyone to host and scale as if they were a Amazon or EBay site during Christmas. It is truly a exciting time for the internet community as cloud computing is bringing in a age of cheaper hosting and easing designing for a architecture of scale. Look for this and more in this very exciting interview.

Topic Links

Microsoft Azure – http://azure.com

Microsoft Silver light – http://silverligght.com

Microsoft PDC – http://microsoftpdc.com

Davids blog - http://blogs.msdn.com/dachou/

PDC Undergound - http://underground.socalcodecamp.com/

I just attended a Microsoft Architect Council  about live services and Cloud Computing and I must stay that I am very impressed. A first impression it seems that Microsoft was well behind the game on the cloud computing front. The reality is that they know they have to get it right. It is easy to release a technology and fix it as it needs to be, but when you are are Microsoft you know you only get one first impression and that is they way it seems to me that the way that are going after this. David chow and fellow presenter Woody Pewit put on a great show with some of the best slides that i have seen on the subject. It seems that even at Microsoft's seemingly snails space of adoption everyone is trying to still pick up the pieces of what this all means and what it could do for me. Woody and David really get the juices flowing on what can be done with these nascent technologies.

  Here are the slides from the show

Make sure that you catch them at one of these upcoming events

XAMLFest - Dec. 16-18 – Mountain View, CA

http://www.isvconcierge.com/Lists/Articles/DispForm.aspx?ID=335

Architect Council - Dec. 18 - San Francisco, CA

http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/InviteOnly.aspx?EventID=5D-BC-15-14-81-B7-05-DA-9F-C0-E7-E4-23-88-67-BE&Culture=en-US

SOA & Business Process Conference 2009 - Jan. 27-30 – Redmond, WA

http://www.regonline.com/Checkin.asp?EventId=628664

MSDN Developers Conference 2009 - Feb. 19 – San Francisco, CA

http://www.msdndevcon.com/Pages/SanFrancisco.aspx

MIX 2009 - Mar. 18-20 – Las Vegas, NV

http://2009.visitmix.com/

Tech•Ed 2009 - May 11-15 – Los Angeles, CA

http://www.microsoft.com/events/teched2009/