Microsoft Build 2021 ran in May as a virtual event. The developer platform announcements represent Microsoft's direction across .NET, Azure, and developer tooling for the year ahead.
Azure Static Web Apps GA
Azure Static Web Apps reached GA at Build 2021. The service combines static web hosting (HTML, JS, CSS deployed globally to a CDN) with integrated Azure Functions for dynamic API endpoints, built-in GitHub Actions CI/CD, and Azure AD authentication integration. For React, Angular, Vue, and Blazor applications, it provides a complete hosting solution with no infrastructure to manage at a price point competitive with Netlify and Vercel.
GitHub Codespaces expansion
GitHub Codespaces, which provides cloud-hosted development environments, expanded access at Build. The ability to open any GitHub repository in a full VS Code environment in a browser, with all extensions, settings, and dependencies pre-configured by a devcontainer.json, changes onboarding: a new developer can be in a working environment in minutes rather than days. Microsoft's investment in this capability signals their view of where developer workflows are heading.
.NET MAUI preview
MAUI was showcased as the cross-platform .NET UI framework for building iOS, Android, macOS, and Windows native applications from a single C# codebase. The preview at Build showed the tooling integration and the convergence of Xamarin.iOS and Xamarin.Android under the unified MAUI abstraction. The GA was delayed from .NET 6 to May 2022, realistic given the scope of the platform unification.
Power Platform and low-code integration
Microsoft deepened the integration between Power Platform (Power Apps, Power Automate, Power BI) and Azure developer services. The fusion development story, professional developers providing components, APIs, and connectors that business users compose in Power Apps, represents Microsoft's positioning of low-code as a productivity multiplier for developer-built services rather than a replacement.