ASP.NET MVC: Ready for the Enterprise

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ASP.NET MVC: Ready for the Enterprise

By Jonathan Goodyear

Just about everybody has heard the old saw that newMicrosoft products can't be considered trustworthy and ready for usage in theenterprise until version 3. The theory goes that version 1 is more like aglorified beta, version 2 fixes all the bugs from version 1, and version 3includes the features, fit, and finish that everyone envisioned should havebeen in version 1. Ironically, Apple products often follow this timeline, butnobody gives them any lip about it. For instance, it took until version 3 toget copy/paste on my iPhone, yet adoption in the enterprise was almostimmediate.

A recent conversation with colleagues got methinking that there may, at times, be other factors in play that impacttechnology adoption timelines. For instance, the Microsoft ASP.NET MVCframework (see www.asp.net/mvc) introduces a fantastic new way fordevelopers to take absolute control over the functionality and output of theirweb applications. It would seem to be a perfect match for enterprise websiteswhere extreme customization is the norm. Now, it is built on the fundamentalinfrastructure of ASP.NET that provides the platform upon which the Web Formsmodel rests. It is also a software development pattern (the Model ViewController) that has been around for years. You'd think that these factorswould lead to quick adoption by big enterprises. However, while the MicrosoftASP.NET MVC has gotten a lot of attention among leaders and innovators in theASP.NET community, it hasn't really caught on yet in the enterprise.

I don't think that the enterprise is waiting forversion 3. I think that the reason that the MVC framework hasn't taken holdright away is because big corporations are a lot like glaciers very hard to getmoving, and very hard to stop or change once they're going in a particulardirection. (This pace of adoption is true for many other technologies by manyother vendors.) Web Forms appeal to the way that most developers in theenterprise currently build applications, and there's a lot of support for themby third-party component vendors. Creating a shift against this enormousmomentum is very difficult, even if it is for the enterprise's own good. Forinstance, MVC promotes a clear separation of concerns, which becomesincreasingly more important as the size of an application increases. I can'tcount the number of times that I've walked into a consulting engagement where Ihad to tackle a huge monolithic application with business logic tied to eventhandlers in the code behind Web Forms. It is just too easy to fall into that trap.

A big strike against the MVC framework is thatwhile it's a better way to skin a cat in many scenarios, it's not a disruptivetechnology advancement in the same way that Silverlight has been. If a newtechnology enables things to be done that either weren't possible (or wereimmensely difficult to do) then the speed of adoption is greatly accelerated.Enterprises are willing to deal with the potential risk in exchange for thevery real reward.

I'll be the first to tell you that applying a baddevelopment methodology to a good technology is still going to yield a badresult. However, using tools and techniques that make it harder to do the wrongthing makes it more likely that the finished product is going to be somethingthat you can easily maintain and enhance down the road. The MVC framework,while certainly not a cure-all, fosters good development practices. Those gooddevelopment practices translate into lower total cost of ownership (TCO) forthe web application. That's something that even the suits up in the corneroffice can appreciate.

Visual Studio 2010 will ship with ASP.NET MVC 2.0,so it will be interesting to see how this integrated deployment scenarioimpacts the adoption rate of MVC. My hope is that the timing will be right fora shift to begin. MVC certainly isn't right for every web application, but Ithink that it's being under-utilized at the moment out of sheer ignorance aboutboth its presence and capabilities. Rest assured that asp.netPRO magazine is going to cure both of those ills withincreasing coverage of this powerful web development platform. We'll get youready to tackle your next project with ASP.NET MVC. Convincing your boss to useit... well, we'll just have to leave that you.

Jonathan Goodyear ([email protected])is president of APSOFT, an Internet consulting firm in Orlando, Florida. He isMicrosoft Regional Director for Florida, an ASP.NET MVP, a Microsoft CertifiedSolution Developer, and a contributing editor for asp.netPRO.