In November of 2006 .NET 3.0 has introduced a new Web Service implementation platform (WCF) simplifying the design, implementation and deployment of services with essential plumbing for scalability, performance, security, reliable message delivery, transactions, multithreading, asynchronous messaging and much more. In November 2007, release of .NET 3.5 introduced additional WCF features, including support for web programming models such as Plain Old XML (POX), Representational State Transfer (REST), JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) and syndication feeds such as Really Simple Syndication (RSS) and ATOM; Support durable, long running services; Seamless integration between WCF and Windows Workflows (WF) allowing for services to be written as workflows and workflows to invoke services, etc.
With this multiplicity of choices, many .NET developers often do not know which features to choose for their implementations what are the best implementation/deployment practices should be followed in each case. An excellent whitepaper by Michele Leroux Bustamante from IDesign provides an excellent summary on these multiple options. It is build around 5 common scenarios:
