Microsoft's AppFabric, an ESB ?

Question

Hi all,

I'm looking for an ESB for .NET. I've seen nServiceBus (http://www.nservicebus.com/) but before digg, I've a question

can Microsoft AppFabric work as an ESB ?

Should I rather look for nServiceBus or AppFabric ?

Thanks for your help

Answer 1

There is a ServiceBus portion of Windows Azure AppFabric but it doesn't look as full featured by any stretch as some of the open source Java based stacks (Mule, ServiceMix) but it does look similar to the functionality offered by nServiceBus. You can see the AppFabric breakdown here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee922714.aspx

Most larger Microsoft shops would probably lean more towards using BizTalk and Windows Workflow to implement a bus type architecture but for smaller projects where licensing cost enters in, looking at these alternatives is a good idea.