Web Forefront

Why these characteristics are rarely employed -- if ever used -- on the client-side is debatable. But what is inevitable, is the ubiquity of web services, and the need for these enterprise type features to rise from the confines of the server, given the importance of SOA (Services Orientated Architecture's)

Windows Communication Foundation is slated to be a big part of Windows Vista ( once known as Longhorn ), but also seems to be a bigger 'umbrella' under which existing communication, routing, and network infrastructure is being placed. For example, parts of .NET such as .NET Remoting, .NET Enterprise Services are being unified under this same name.

This target is very much in line with what other industry players are naming : ESB - Enterprise Service Bus, although this vocabulary is not officially used by Microsoft. But semantics aside, the end result for both are the same : Being the cornerstone for deploying web services.

Having access to these features -- even on the yet to publicly released Windows Vista or as an add-on to Windows XP -- will open a big door for the development of web-services on client-side deployments.

Update: An interesting read from one of the people behind WCF/Indigo: Microsoft Indigo Architect John Shewchuk