Applied Architecture Patterns on the Microsoft Platform: An in-depth scenario-driven approach to architecting systems using Microsoft technologies

I believe any self-respecting architect in the application platform space needs to read that book. The real value of the book to me was how it presents a way of applying the Microsoft application platform technology stack to the decision framework.The content is not available on any other book that cover the app plat technology stack. By taking an approach of `given this scenario with these real life considerations this is how I would you build the solution' it shows the author's thought process which sometimes is the hardest part of a project.

What can I say about person like Stephen W Thomas, he is already a well known tech guru and this book is a good work done by all these well known tech experts.The first chapter talks about the decision framework for solution which describes the factor one need to think about while creating a solution and the next few chapters are premier on technologies like WCF,WF,AppFabric,BizTalk,SSIS,SSSB and Windows Azure.The think that I most like about this book is that it contains useful patterns and the authors have done a very good job of evaluating different technologies using the decision framework for implementing these, which give you a clear idea which technology to use when. Another plus point about this book is that you get the chance to implement these patterns using these different technologies and I prefer to do hands-on instead of just reading.

As a developer who has become an architect-by-accident, I picked this up to make sure my knowledge of Microsoft technologies was up-to-date and complete (which BizTalk aside it was). But it's also full of useful guidance about the architectural process which is illustrated with some very well thought-out case studies.It has certainly helped me to re-think my approach to using the Microsoft stack as well as evaluating my rationale for selecting technologies and architectures. A thoroughly informative read.

When I found out that Stephen Thomas was writing a book about the upcoming technologies with some of the experts in these technologies, I immediately thought to myself I need to read this book. So after getting my hands on a copy of Applied Architecture Patterns on the Microsoft Platform I found myself with both some interesting reading material as well as a crash course on some of the architectural designs for upcoming and current Microsoft technology.To start off I make my living as a software consultant and I pride myself on my knowledge of many areas of technology, currently in the Microsoft stack. Because of this I think my view of the book has been slightly skewed, to further complicate things I also view myself as an early adopter oftentimes tinkering with the latest CTP of the developer tools for various new products.The book starts by going across the architectural overview that attempts to set down the parameters for what the rest of the book is built against. This section of the book is reserved for the youngest among the developer an architect crowd, and I would imagine would be the most skipped out of all the chapters.The next section of the book deals with primers for each of the different technologies that they are working with including windows communication foundation and workflow foundation, app fabric, biz talk, SQL server (SSIS and SSSB) , and windows azure. These particular chapters I found to be of little help, simply because I keep up with many of the technologies. However if you are walking into a situation where you know nothing about these technologies, then you might find the primer chapters useful.The next section of the book consists of problems that were picked so that they would meet the needs of the examples. But while this is not an uncommon practice in the realm of technology education literature, it is slightly frustrating and let me to wonder exactly how well these technologies would perform under real-world circumstances. The most informative part of the sections includes the side by side comparison of multiple solutions and the bare information provided to develop quick skills with the particular technologies. In many cases I think the book would be useful in the instance that you needed to have a crash course on one of the technologies that was presented.On the other hand there are some chapters in the book that deal with very specific instances of solving real issues that occur when working with the toolset. At least one of the chapters in the book deals specifically with an issue that I have encountered before and stepping through the pages for that particular chapter were in many ways like reliving that assignment complete with the solution.But in the end I don't think most people will read the book the same way I did from cover to cover, and it may not be a great reference for someone looking to update their skills in a particular area. However if you have been out of touch with the latest offerings from the Microsoft stack for more than two years you may find this book extremely helpful as it gives step by step instructions that will act as an introduction too much broader discussions.In the end the book is a blend of content ranging from very specific instances that function more like a recipe than a tutorial to broad overviews of the technology. I think that there is a little something for all architects and developers to pull out from this book, and the format allows you to pull out a specific portion of knowledge and digest it without having to go through the entire book. In this way it represents more of a collection of loosely connected detailed articles than a tome of technical knowledge. In the end I was not upset with the amount of time spent reading the materials. I think much of the information that I gained I will be able to put to good use.

This book covers different architectural perspectives, and provides a nice overview on the latest shipping technologies on the Microsoft enterprise platform including WCF/WF 4.0, Windows Server AppFabric (which is one of the most interesting things on the Microsoft platform today IMO, including the Windows Azure AppFabric), BizTalk Server, SQL Server and StreamInsight, and Windows Azure platform. It then goes into more detail around various types of application and data integration patterns (and at different levels; not just messaging patterns), and discusses the trade-offs and best practices for the multiple solutions that can be used to apply each pattern, and scenarios.It's not another one of those "what's possible with cloud computing" books. The authors took a pragmatic approach to identify and describe today's real-world architectural issues and patterns, from simple workflows, the requisite pub-sub, content-based routing, message broadcasting, etc., to complex event processing, master data synchronization, handling large data and burst Web traffic; and provided architectural considerations (including on-premises and cloud-based models) and options on how these commonly encountered patterns can be implemented with the components of the Microsoft enterprise platform.