Announcing Volta

Microsoft Live Labs continues producing amazing things around internet-centric technologies. Yesterday they announced Volta.

Volta is an experimental developer toolset that enables developers to build multi-tier web applications by applying the familiar techniques and patterns of developing .NET applications.  In effect, Volta extends the .NET platform to further enable the development of software+services applications, using existing and familiar tools and techniques.  Similar to other technology previews from Live Labs, the purpose of releasing Volta as an experiment, allows for testing of the model with customers and partners in order to gather early feedback and continually influence the direction of Live Labs technologies and concepts.  In addition, where and how Volta will fit into a product roadmap is not the end goal, but rather to experiment with new alternative models to enable Microsoft to continue to be innovative in this new generation of software+services.

• Volta is an experimental developer toolset that enables developers to build multi-tier web applications by applying the familiar techniques and patterns from the development of .NET applications.
• o Developers can use C#, VB, or other .NET languages utilizing the familiar .NET libraries and tools.
• o Volta offers a best effort experience in multiple environments without requiring tailoring of the application.

• Volta furthers Microsoft's software+services efforts by making it easier to write and build multi-tier applications.
• o Volta automates certain low-level aspects of distributing applications across multiple tiers, allowing programmers to devote their creative energy to the distinguishing features of their applications.
• o Via declarative tier splitting, Volta lets developers postpone irreversible design decisions until the last responsible moment, making it faster and cheaper to change the architecture to accommodate evolving needs.
• o Through MSIL rewriting, Volta follows developer's declarations to turn a single-tiered application into a multi-tiered application, generating boilerplate code for communication and serialization.

• Volta, like other technology previews from Microsoft Live Labs, is an example of the rapid innovation of web-centric technologies happening at Microsoft.
• o The purpose of the technology previews, such as Volta, is to test new technologies and product concepts with customers and partners and to gather early feedback to influence the direction of Live Labs projects.