Microsoft's new cloud-ready stack for building distributed applications unites tools, templates, and NuGet packages and includes an App Host for orchestration within the app model. Credit: Hussain Warraich / Shutterstock Microsoft’s .NET Aspire, an opinionated, cloud-ready stack for building distributed applications, is now generally available. The .NET Aspire stack was announced on May 21. Intended to simplify cloud-native development, the Aspire stack unites tools, templates, and NuGet packages to build observable, production-ready applications in .NET more easily, the company said. Developers can get started with .NET Aspire now in Visual Studio 2022 17.10, the .NET CLI, or the Visual Studio Code editor. The stack had been in preview since last November. .NET Aspire is part of an ongoing goal to make .NET one of the most-productive platforms for cloud-native applications, Microsoft said. .NET Aspire features a web-based dashboard that displays details about a running application during the inner development loop, when the developer is writing, building, and debugging code. The dashboard view includes resources in the application model and endpoints, environment variables, and console logs. It also displays OpenTelemetry data sent by resources, such as structured logs, metric information, and distributed traces. Open Telemetry is an open source observability ecosystem. NET Aspire is launching with components for connecting to database, messaging, cache, and client services. The stack also introduces an App Host project, so developers can use C# and familiar-looking APIs to configure application projects and hosted services that comprise a distributed application. These projects and services collectively are called resources, and code in App Host forms an application model of the distributed application. Launching an App Host project during the inner dev loop ensures all resources in the application model are launched according to how they are described. Adding an App Host project is the first step in adding .Net Aspire to an existing application, Microsoft said. Related content analysis Beyond the usual suspects: 5 fresh data science tools to try today The mid-month report includes quick tips for easier Python installation, a new VS Code-like IDE just for Python and R users, and five newer data science tools you won't want to miss. By Serdar Yegulalp Jul 12, 2024 2 mins Python Programming Languages Software Development analysis Generative AI won’t fix cloud migration You’ve probably heard how generative AI will solve all cloud migration problems. It’s not that simple. Generative AI could actually make it harder and more costly. By David Linthicum Jul 12, 2024 5 mins Generative AI Artificial Intelligence Cloud Computing news HR professionals trust AI recommendations HireVue survey finds 73% of HR professionals trust AI to make candidate recommendations, while 75% of workers are opposed to AI making hiring decisions. By Paul Krill Jul 11, 2024 3 mins Technology Industry Careers how-to Safety off: Programming in Rust with `unsafe` What does it mean to write unsafe code in Rust, and what can you do (and not do) with the 'unsafe' keyword? The facts may surprise you. By Serdar Yegulalp Jul 11, 2024 8 mins Rust Programming Languages Software Development Resources Videos