An Overview of the Microsoft Technology Stack

Microsoft technically provides services to businesses and individuals to develop and deploy projects. It provides hundreds of tools for enterprises to manage their IT projects effectively. The ‘building blocks’ on the Microsoft Stack work together to deliver solutions for any enterprise project. The building blocks on the Microsoft Stack include tools, services, applications, or languages such as SQL. Most enterprises worldwide trust and depend on Microsoft’s technology stack for its performance. This blog gives an overview of Microsoft stack and outlines why you should use it for practical work. 

Table of Contents

1) What is Microsoft Technology Stack? 

2) Range of Microsoft Products for Businesses 

3) Microsoft Technology Stack - What does it Offer for You 

4) Key Technologies from the Microsoft Technology Stack 

   a) ASP .NET  

   b) ASP.NET Webforms 

   c) Microsoft .NET 

   d) Microsoft SQL  

   e) Microsoft Office 364 

   f) Microsoft SharePoint 

   g) Microsoft Azure 

   h) Microsoft Visual Studio 

   i) Microsoft Web API 

   j) Microsoft Dynamics CRM 

5) Conclusion 

What is Microsoft Technology Stack?

What do you understand by the word – stack in Microsoft Stack? you surely anticipated something like a heap of things together in one place. Microsoft Stack is also something similar. Microsoft Stack supports a diverse set of applications and tools that are designed to work together, beginning with back-end databases, development environments (such as Microsoft Visual Studio), coding languages (such as C++), platforms and applications such as cloud, Microsoft Office 365, and business applications such as Dynamics 365 Business Central.   

Microsoft Stack is the first choice for businesses, regardless of size or scale. Microsoft Stack is employed for application development, building software, testing and deploying, and offering reliable integration services that are essential in application development. With its systematic collection of software, the Microsoft Technology Stack is utilised by developers worldwide to construct applications and build websites using various programming languages, Microsoft development services and .NET framework, and many other tools.   

The "building blocks" on the Microsoft Stack work together to deliver an end-to-end solution with the help of an implementation partner. By "building blocks", we mean all the tools, applications or languages like C++ and every other service offered by Microsoft. Let's see how Microsoft Stack helps with an end-to-end solution. Consider that you are building a website. It's most likely that your first choice will be Microsoft programming language with Visual Studio development and hosting the website on a Windows server running Internet Information Services (IIS). You may also run a back-end database using an SQL server to record and show data. You are not expected to learn each of these tools, but you should be able to use Microsoft Stack for designing, creating and delivering the website.
 

Range of Microsoft Products for Businesses 

Microsoft is very popular with tech-breathing developers, who can rely on it for a complete solution for their projects. For decades, enterprises have depended on Microsoft Stack for its outstanding performance. Microsoft Stack is used across industries, including a start-up business that provides web development services to a well-established MNC that offers mobile application development services.  

The Microsoft Technology stack includes many tools and services for businesses in one place. Few popular among them are Adobe Flash, AnyChart, Apache (Cassandra, Commons, Cordova, HBase), Apiary, APImetrics, Apptio, Cedexis (Open (Bamboo, Bitbucket, JIRA), AppVeyor, BouncyCastle Crypto, Apteligent, Ascio Domain Registration, Aternity, BMC Remedy, BrowserStack, Bugsnag, Akamai (Fast DNS, Intelligent Platform), and CacheFly. 

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Microsoft Technology Stack - What does it Offer for you

So, now that you have understood what Microsoft technology stack is and what are popular Microsoft products. Now let's move to the benefits you will derive from using these Microsoft products. 

1) Excellent Support – Microsoft Stack provides the best support, maintenance and stability of tools. Microsoft is responsible for product roadmaps, supporting older versions, releasing regular, stable updates and ensuring utmost security. For example, unlike others with Microsoft, you can use NAV 2016 with SQL 2018 or Windows and with other latest updates without any hassle of switching or learning newer applications. You also get an entire community worldwide that can help you with any issue. This is a great advantage of using a well-known, popular provider. Ensure that you get the right people in your team who are well versed with the tools to support your solution. 

2) Seamless Integration – We are all aware of the trouble of integrating multiple components. Though the tool might be perfect, sometimes it's challenging for every tool, programme, application, or language to integrate and operate perfectly with everything else. Various firms develop products separately, which causes integration hassles which differ from the Microsoft Stack because Microsoft designs every component on its own on the stack, which helps in integrating these components to work together very conveniently.   

3) Organic Scalability – The complete solution on the Microsoft Stack is organic as all the components of the Microsoft Stack are designed to function together. It develops into an ecosystem that can enlarge, contract, and change to your demands. You can use the tools to assist you, change Dynamics, increase Azure's processing power, or perform any other tasks you may require. As a result, making changes is never tricky, and you can trust your tools, apps, and languages to be effective. Microsoft Office's flexibility and scalability have pushed enterprises to embrace cloud-based approaches. 

4) Maximum Utility – As Microsoft builds all the components on the stack, they all look and operate similarly. And all these components can work together, adding to the utility. For example, if you have NAV with Microsoft Office 365, you get easy access to all features from NAV. In addition, you can easily transmit it to Excel by clicking a button in NAV or sending a quote using Outlook. Microsoft has pioneered the path for developing solutions that make it simple to link Microsoft products with other systems' tools and data. Also, Power BI adds robust reporting features, making it simple to create apps rapidly that bridge gaps across systems and even design workflows that automate activities. 

5) You’re on the Right Track – Whether you're running a business or working for a firm, you must already be using Microsoft Stack for one or the other component. Expand from here; let's say you want to replace QuickBooks or traditional ERP on windows. You can quickly shift with Dynamics ERP using Microsoft's vital services. 

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Key Technologies from the Microsoft Technology Stack

The Microsoft technology Stack is a powerhouse that significantly impacts popular software and apps created by tech-loving organisations and developers. Microsoft has successfully responded to the trends and developments in technology today. Time and again, Microsoft has proved its ability to operate with modern frameworks and languages. Let's understand why Microsoft is the leader in this industry by going through some of the key technologies on the Microsoft Stack. 

ASP .NET

Microsoft developed ASP.NET, an accessible server-side framework to create interactive web services and applications. Since it is built on CLR, an open-source programme that substitutes Microsoft's ASP, it allows you to create dynamic web pages. The SOAP extension framework enables ASP.NET elements or components to interpret SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol) messages. 

ASP.NET Webforms

Microsoft Technology Stack offers a web application framework called WebForms and may be created using any language that accepts the CLR (Common Language Runtime). These are made from the critical components known as server controls, which operate as reusable parts to generate HTML markup and react to events. 

Microsoft .NET 

Both element-based and web-based apps can be made using the .NET framework, a software development framework. It can create various apps for the web, consoles, mobile devices, and Windows.   

Microsoft Office 365

MS Office 365 is the best for businesses whose employees work remotely, as it offers desktop features that make it easier to use their cloud-based applications. You can use Microsoft Office 365 (SaaS) solutions to access a suite of Microsoft services. It offers many built-in security options that manage mobile devices and prevent data loss. One of the built-in security features of MS Office 365 is (ATA) Advanced Threat Analytics, which uses machine learning techniques to detect threats. It includes applications like MS word, Excel, PowerPoint and other MS office applications. You can create custom solutions using this tool. Its flexibility options allow you to return to the older versions whenever required.
 

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Microsoft Azure

Microsoft Azure is a collection of cloud services that enable customers to design, test, deploy, and manage applications and services across a worldwide network using Microsoft-managed data centres. Microsoft Office's flexibility and scalability have pushed enterprises to embrace cloud-based models. It provides hybrid-cloud facilities for an on-premise utility like financial reporting, expense reporting and global audits, among many other services. The Azure stack design allows you to create Azure services for remote locations. Its integrated systems from the Azure Stack deliver a fast integrated delivery experience. The Nagios addon or the System Center Operations Manager Management Pack make it simple to integrate the Stack into the data centre.   

Microsoft Visual Studio 

Microsoft Visual Studio is an IDE (Integrated Development Environment) that provides users with a productive environment for accurately coding, debugging, and testing their applications. Microsoft Visual Studio delivers a consistent development experience with a fantastic user interface. It is employed in creating software for computers, websites, web applications, and mobile apps. 

Microsoft SQL  

Microsoft's relational database management system, called SQL Server, uses encryption to offer credible server security. It manages several vital tasks like data retrieval, restoration, backup and recovery, storage, and more. The straightforward installation process of MS SQL makes it simpler to understand, learn, and carry out.   

Microsoft SharePoint

Microsoft SharePoint is an entirely web-based platform that supports client-side and server-side development. It aids in simple integration with the page-and-part model and supports Microsoft graph for open-source tooling. It helps developers develop end-to-end applications that are not dependent on Microsoft .NET. Additionally, it provides the capability of hosting client-side web components alongside already existing sites. It is a robust development framework due to its iterative build-testing with Gulp and project scaffolding with Yeoman.   

Microsoft Dynamics CRM

A class of linked data-driven software solutions is represented by Microsoft’s CRM system. This software technology may be used to fit the diverse needs of a particular firm and effectively automates the marketing, sales and customer support areas. 

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Microsoft Web API

Using HTTP, Web services, SSL, JSON, and XML as its working protocols, the Microsoft Web API is a simple-to-use web development platform that can be used by desktop, mobile, and web apps to get information from the server. It is a helpful tool for pushing data to the server, where it can either be saved in one of the permanent layers or evaluated by the server code.  

Microsoft's CRM system represents a class of linked data-driven software solutions. This software technology may be used to fit the diverse needs of a particular firm and effectively automates the marketing, sales, and customer support areas. 

Conclusion

Now that you know the Microsoft Stack and its applications for your business, select the technologies based on your requirement. If you're thinking about purchasing new business software for your company or yourself, look at the overall picture first rather than constructing a checklist in isolation. Choose technologies or applications that integrate and function together for maximum productivity.  

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