Dev Pro's Best and Most Memorable Development Articles in 2013

Looking back at 2013, the year was chock-full of new and exciting changes for those working on the Microsoft development stack. In the spirit of the New Year, let's take a moment to reflect on our best and most memorable development articles in 2013. I think you'll see distinctive industry trends in this list, which I believe will continue to gain traction in 2014. Without further ado, here's Dev Pro's best articles from 2013, in no particular order:

BUILD 2013, Windows 8.1, and Microsoft's Deep-Tech Team: Hopeful News for Devs. In this commentary, Tim Huckaby discusses what Microsoft's changing culture means for developers. With Microsoft's announcement of Windows 8.1 and their newly-assembled dream tech-team (Avengers, anyone?), I'm eager to see what Microsoft has in store for developers in the coming year.

Visual Studio 2013 Emphasizes Agile Development & DevOps Collaboration. In less than a year since the launch of Visual Studio 2012, it was during TechEd North America 2013 where developers got their first taste of Visual Studio 2013. The word of 2013 might be "cadence", as Microsoft has clearly shown its committment to rapidly delivering updates to users. Not only does Microsoft appear to be poised on the agile development front through its cadence-release schedule, but the company also showed this committment through several new agile- and DevOps-focused features in Visual Studio 2013.

Microsoft Launches Visual Studio Online, Windows Azure-Based Toolset for Developing Apps in the Cloud. During Microsoft's Visual Studio 2013 launch in November, the company surprised us with their latest foray in the cloud with Visual Studio Online. It's still too early to see what lasting impact Visual Studio Online will have for developers, but I'm eager to see how it continues to develop, which I assume we'll be hearing a lot more about at Build 2014 in San Francisco in April.

New Visual Studio 2013 Security Feature: ASP.NET Identity. In this article, Don Kiely explains why Visual Studio 2013's new ASP.NET Identity feature is a great option over the old Membership system. As Don likes to say, with "one ASP.NET Identity system to rule them all", meaning that the feature is usuable with all ASP.NET frameworks, including MVC, Web Forms, Web Pages, Web API, and SignalR, it's hard to shy away from this new security feature.

The New MSDN Site: Microsoft Developer Network. Although it might have initally had a rough start, Microsoft delivered a new MSDN website that went by the new name of the Microsoft Developer Network. In this commentary, Tim Huckaby shares his thoughts on how Microsoft is making the hub a go-to spot for simple and relevant development resources.

What Microsoft Really Needs in a New CEO. With four names still in the running for Microsoft's next CEO, we're all eager to see who is named as Steve Ballmer's successor. In this reflective commentary, Michael K. Campbell discusses some growing pains that Microsoft is currently experiencing and how that translates into the search for the next Microsoft CEO.

Real-Time Communications with SignalR. Although there's several different ways to implement real-time communications in your web pages and applications, SignalR has proved to be a popular pick among developers in 2013. And don't let SignalR fool you -- it's useful for much more than your everday chat application.

Microsoft Doesn’t Get Enough Credit. Microsoft is far from perfect; however, in my opinion, this company gets the most kudos for taking bold, new risks. Michael K. Campbell sums up the company's successes that get taken for granted, which I think is a perfect way to think about 2013 and beyond.

Was there an article that didn't make the list? Let us know in the comments or on our social networks! Happy New Year!