Why did we start using the Microsoft .Net Framework when the beta version came out and why have we never looked back?
Improved Reliability
The .NET Framework takes the core achievements originally made in Windows 2000. With advanced ways of monitoring the health of running applications, as well as isolating applications from each other, applications built using the .NET Framework stay up-and-running longer than ever before.
Increased Performance
Server applications have never been faster than with the .NET technology. Customers who have moved from ASP to ASP.NET are seeing significant increases in speed on the order of 300 to 500-percent.
Fast and Easy Deployment
Application isolation and automatic version control of components can help prevent versioning conflicts. Property Browse built using the .NET Framework can be deployed to a server machine simply by copying the application directory to the target machine, no registration is required.
Powerful, Granular Security
The code access security can collect evidence about the origin and author of an application, then combine that evidence with administrator-set or default security policies to make fine-grained decisions about whether to run that application or enable it to access a particular resource.
Integration with Existing Systems
The COM interop technology in the .NET Framework generates a wrapper around your existing COM components and Windows-based applications, such as Microsoft Office, enabling you to program against them as though they were originally written using the .NET Framework.
Web Services
Web services provide a simplified mechanism to connect applications regardless of the technology or devices they use, or their location. The loosely coupled messaging approach supports multiple connectivity and information sharing scenarios via services that are self describing and can be automatically discovered.
Native XML Web Service Support
Designed from the ground up to support XML Web services, a model for cross-platform, distributed computing based on standard protocols, such as XML, SOAP, and HTTP. Web services can be used to integrate applications running on different platforms, or to offer software as a service.
Flexible Content Access and Scalability
ADO.NET, is designed for today's Web-based style of data access. Using ADO.NET, developers have the option of working with a platform-neutral, XML-based cache of the requested data, instead of directly manipulating the database. This approach to data access frees up database connections and results in significantly greater scalability.
Mobility Support
The .NET Framework provides one unified programming model for developing smart client and Web applications for both PCs and mobile devices, such as Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) and mobile phones.