What is ASP.NET Core?

This is a guest post by Jason De Oliveira, the author of Learning ASP.NET Core 2.0.

ASP.NET Core is a new cross-platform open-source framework for building modern web-based applications. It provides everything necessary for building web applications, mobile applications as well as Internet of Things (IoT) applications quickly and easily.

The first preview release of ASP.NET came out almost 15 years ago as part of the .NET Framework. Over the years Microsoft has added and evolved many of its features until coming up with a complete redesign of the ASP.NET framework called ASP.NET Core in June 2016. After ASP.NET Core 1.0 and 1.1, the third and latest installment - version 2.0 was released in August 2017.

ASP.NET Core 2.0 applications not only run on the .NET Core Framework but also on the full .NET Framework. The ASP.NET Core 2.0 framework was designed from the ground-up to provide an optimized development framework for applications, which can be deployed either in the cloud or on-premises. It consists of modular components with minimal overhead to retain a high degree of flexibility, when conceiving and implementing software solutions. Additionally, ASP.NET Core 2.0 applications run on Windows, Linux and MacOS.

Given these impressive set of features, millions of software developers have adopted it to build and run all types of web applications since its inception.

What are the key features of ASP.NET Core 2.0?

ASP.NET Core 2.0 applications have normally the following characteristics:

They are service-oriented

They provide very high-performance

They are easy to deploy and to configure

They support cross-platform scenarios

They contain high security levels

It helps developers build scalable, reliable, high-performance web applications in C#. Moreover, it allows them to achieve productivity and quality levels never seen before with any of the other frameworks available in the market.

Thanks to these impressive set of features, millions of software developers have adopted ASP.NET Core to build and run all types of web applications since its inception.

Why web developers need to know ASP.NET Core 2.0

Modern web applications, which can run on multiple environments are clearly the future. Developers, who want to invest in a sustainable technology, which is going to last for a long time, have to acquire advanced web development skills today. ASP.NET Core 2.0 will surely be the future market standard. It includes everything a web developer can dream of. This allows them to be more productive and provide higher quality, while lowering maintenance efforts, since everything is already built-in. You can build modern web applications as well as powerful Web APIs, which can be deployed in any environment. Furthermore, it supports the latest technologies and best practices such as Containers and Microservices.

But providing great web applications is not only about their development, which is only the beginning. Once developed, you need to assure that your applications are running successfully and that you can react quickly in case of unexpected behavior or errors during runtime. That is where supervision and monitoring come into play. A great developer needs to be open to these topics and understand them to build software, that supports them by default.

How ASP.NET Core 2.0 might be used in the future

If you want to prepare yourself for the future, you need to learn ASP.NET 2.0! It has been designed for the latest standards and best practices. It supports all current technologies and is open-source, which means that it will evolve over time and be adapted to new trends by Microsoft and the various developer communities.

Since it is running on Windows, Linux and Mac OS on-premises and in the cloud, you can deploy and host your web application in any type of environment. So, there is no lock-in or risk in using it for your applications.

No seriously, ASP.NET Core 2.0 is the most futuristic web development framework on the market! So start learning it today!