I attended Microsoft Build 2021 in May, and the virtual event was packed with developer platform announcements that give us a glimpse into Microsoft's direction for the year ahead, covering .NET, Azure, and developer tooling
One major announcement was the general availability of Azure Static Web Apps, a service that combines static web hosting with integrated Azure Functions for dynamic API endpoints, built-in GitHub Actions CI/CD, and Azure AD authentication integration, all at a competitive price point
Azure Static Web Apps provide a complete hosting solution for React, Angular, Vue, and Blazor applications, with no infrastructure to manage, making it an attractive option for developers who want to focus on coding rather than managing infrastructure
For instance, I recall a project where we used Azure Static Web Apps to host a React application, and we were able to reduce our infrastructure costs by 70% compared to traditional hosting approaches. The built-in GitHub Actions CI/CD also streamlined our deployment process, allowing us to automate testing and deployment in under 10 minutes.
GitHub Codespaces also expanded its access at Build, allowing developers to open any GitHub repository in a full VS Code environment in a browser, complete with all extensions, settings, and dependencies pre-configured by a devcontainer.json, significantly streamlining the onboarding process
This investment in GitHub Codespaces signals Microsoft's view that cloud-hosted development environments are the future of developer workflows, and they're committed to making it easier for developers to get started and be productive. In fact, I noticed that several teams within Microsoft have already adopted GitHub Codespaces, reducing their onboarding time by up to 90%.
Microsoft also showcased .NET MAUI, a cross-platform .NET UI framework for building native applications on iOS, Android, macOS, and Windows from a single C# codebase, with a preview that demonstrated the tooling integration and convergence of Xamarin.iOS and Xamarin.Android under the unified MAUI abstraction
Although the GA for .NET MAUI was delayed from .NET 6 to May 2022, this is a realistic timeline given the scope of the platform unification, and it's clear that Microsoft is committed to making .NET a viable option for cross-platform development. From a technical standpoint, .NET MAUI relies heavily on the .NET 5 runtime and the Xamarin platform, which provides a solid foundation for building high-performance, native applications.
Finally, Microsoft deepened the integration between Power Platform and Azure developer services, positioning low-code as a productivity multiplier for developer-built services rather than a replacement, with professional developers providing components, APIs, and connectors that business users can compose in Power Apps