Best and Cheap Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) Hosting

Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) is a framework for building service-oriented applications. Using WCF, you can send data as asynchronous messages from one service endpoint to another. A service endpoint can be part of a continuously available service hosted by IIS, or it can be a service hosted in an application. An endpoint can be a client of a service that requests data from a service endpoint. The messages can be as simple as a single character or word sent as XML, or as complex as a stream of binary data.

Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) Services can be hosted with Internet Information Services (IIS); with the new Windows Activation Service (WAS) installed with IIS 7.0; or with any managed application process including console, Windows Forms, Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF), or managed Windows service applications.

WCF is part of the .NET Framework 3.0 stack and thus is supported on the following operating platforms: Windows XP/SP2, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2003, and Windows “Longhorn” Server. Regardless of platform, you can access WCF services over many protocols including HTTP, TCP, IPC and MSMQ. Unfortunately, not all hosting environments are available to each platform, nor does every host support the entire suite of protocols-limiting your options at times.

Selecting the Best and Cheap Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) Hosting

Before you can decide which Web host meets your needs and which Web hosting package to buy, you need to figure out your basic requirements. These shared servers are affordable, but if you are worried about performance and speed, you need to be looking at dedicated or virtual servers.

Selecting the right hosting environment for your services is a choice driven largely by deployment requirements related to transport protocol and operating platform.

Choosing the Best and Cheap Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) Hosting Provider

When choosing a WCF web hosting provider, look for a host with web hosting best practices. Make sure you look for a WCF web hosting provider with a thorough understanding of WCF hosting. The best WCF web hosting includes reliable hardware and software, upgrades, backups, and securing the network against vulnerabilities, outages, and natural disasters. Also note, it is important that the WCF web hosting provider does not overcrowd the servers and provides support at all times.

In addition to reliable, secure web hosting, the WCF framework utilizes servers in specific ways. The hardware and software must be configured accordingly. To maximize the dynamic capabilities of WCF, look for a Windows hosting company that offers file and image hosting, audio/video streaming, blog applications, ample bandwidth and disk space, and an effective content management system.