“People only see what they are prepared to see.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson

At the beginning of the year, I like to take a quick survey of the Microsoft application platform.  It helps me figure out where to put my bets and where to explore.  It’s a “see the forest, from the trees” exercise.

And oh, what a forest it is.  The beauty is it covers a wide spectrum and supports so many scenarios.  The challenge is finding your way around.  To find my way around, I map out the platform and I think in terms of application types:

• Web applications
• Mobile applications
• Rich Internet Applications (RIA)
• Rich Clients
• Web Services

By thinking about deployment targets such as cloud or desktop or browser or phone, etc. it makes it very easy to get in the ballpark in terms of context and technologies very quickly.  From there, I can worry about things like presentation or data access stacks or language platforms (native, .NET, or scripting.)   It’s also a quick way to explore relevant quality attributes (security, performance, reliability) or evaluate architectural styles.  In other words, it’s a way to hack through information overload and cut to the chase.

Microsoft Application Platform at a Glance
This is my draft map of the platform.   It’s a strawman that I use to walk the platform, find clusters of technologies, figure out what’s changed, and evaluate the latest story.  It’s easier for me to have conversations about the platform with customers or product teams when I start with a shared frame.  The hard part is putting the initial map together.  The easy part is improving it through feedback.  If something is missing, it’s easy to add.  If something is wrong, it’s easy to fix.

As simple as the map looks, it compacts a lot of information.  I stuck the code names in where I could find them.   Enjoy …

Where To Find Out More
I’m a fan of teaching people to fish, as well as giving some starter fish.  Aside from people, events, and social media, the three best ways I know to figure out what’s happening on the platform are Wikipedia, Channel9, and the MSDN Dev Centers.  I started you out with some pages below …

Wikipedia

• Index of Microsoft Code Names - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Microsoft_codenames
• ADO.NET - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ADO.NET
• ADO.NET Entity Framework - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ADO.NET_Entity_Framework
• ASP.NET - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ASP.NET
• Azure Services Platform - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azure_Services_Platform
• Parallel Extensions - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parallel_Extensions
• SQL Server - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_SQL_Server
• Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Communication_Foundation

Channel9 Training Centers

• Azure Platform Training Course - http://channel9.msdn.com/learn/courses/Azure/
• Identity Developer Training Course- http://channel9.msdn.com/learn/courses/IdentityTrainingCourse/
• Office 2010 Workshop - http://channel9.msdn.com/learn/courses/Office2010/
• SharePoint 2010 Developer Training Course - http://channel9.msdn.com/learn/courses/SharePoint2010Developer/
• Silverlight 4 Training Course - http://channel9.msdn.com/learn/courses/Silverlight4/
• Visual Studio 2010 and .NET 4.0 Training Course - http://channel9.msdn.com/learn/courses/VS2010/
• Windows 7 Training - http://channel9.msdn.com/learn/courses/Windows7/
• Windows Server 2008 Training - http://channel9.msdn.com/learn/courses/WindowsServer2008R2/
• Windows Server HPC Learning Course - http://channel9.msdn.com/learn/courses/HPCLearningCourse/

MSDN Dev Centers

• Architecture Dev Center - http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/architecture/default.aspx
• patterns & practices Dev Center - http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/practices/default.aspx
• .NET Framework - http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/netframework/default.aspx
• App Fabric Dev Center - http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/netservices.aspx
• ASP.NET - http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/aa336522.aspx
• Azure Dev Center - http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/default.aspx
• BizTalk Dev Center - http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/biztalk/default.aspx
• Data Dev Center - http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/data/default.aspx
• F# Dev Center - http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/fsharp/default.aspx
• Internet Explorer Dev Center - http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/ie/default.aspx
• Mobile Dev Center - http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/windowsmobile/default.aspx
• Office Dev Center - http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/office/default.aspx
• Parallel Computing Dev Center - http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/concurrency/default.aspx
• Security Dev Center - http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/security/default.aspx
• SharePoint Dev Center - http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint/default.aspx
• Silverlight Dev Center - http://silverlight.net/
• SQL Server - http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/sqlserver/default.aspx
• Visual Studio Team System Dev Center - http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/teamsystem/default.aspx
• Windows Dev Center - http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/default.aspx
• Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) Dev Center - http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/netframework/aa663324.aspx
• Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) - http://windowsclient.net/
• XNA Developer Center - http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/aa937791.aspx