What's the difference between Azure AppFabric and Windows Server AppFabric

Question

Seems like there are two products with similar names, but isn't what I expect. I thought that Azure AppFabric was the "cloud" version of Windows Server AppFabric, but there doesn't seem to be much in common between them.

Am I missing the bigger picture?

Argentum

duplicate? https://mcmap.net/q/825001/-why-2-kinds-of-appfabric – Earth

Answer 1

Right now, Windows Server AppFabric and Azure AppFabric offer two different sets of features, but the plan is to unify the two, so that you can have the same set of services either on-premises or in the cloud. I don't know what the timeline is for that unification, but the teams have mentioned this plan on various interviews/podcasts at recent conferences.

The current breakdown:

• Windows Server AppFabric: Caching and WCF/WF hosting
• Azure AppFabric: Service Bus and Access Control

Chicle

A quick update: At PDC 2010, Azure AppFabric added a Cache service (currently in CTP, and will be officially released in 1st-half 2011). This is similar to the caching found in Windows Server AppFabric. – Chicle

Answer 2

Hi Check out this post on the AppFabric TechNet Wiki. Feel free to comment on it.. TechNet Wiki is a public ("MS hosted") forum.

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/which-appfabric-am-i-looking-for.aspx

Feel free to contact me directly if you have comments on AppFabric documentation.

Kind regards, Mike McKeown [email protected]

Senior Programming Writer - Windows Server AppFabric User Education

AppFabric Community Content: - Contribute to a topic @ TechNet Wiki - Learn about AppFabric @ Windows Server AppFabric Wiki - View AppFabric posts @ Windows Server AppFabric Blog and NET Endpoint Blog - Post a question @ AppFabric Service and Workflow Management Forum

Hemistich

Interesting to see that content on Technet versus MSDN – Argentum

Answer 3

It seems to me that the Azure edition is a more cost efficient choice.

If you want to run a cache cluster locally, you need to deploy at least 2 servers running Windows ENTERPRISE licenses. This cost of such licenses are high.

We would that with small caches, that require high availability, azure is the way to go.

Simple math really.

Exon