Microsoft’s .NET was first released in 2002 and it has come a long way since then. It has grown into a full-fledged framework encompassing several state-of-art tools and technologies. 

Recently, a lot of developments have been happening within it which presents a great opportunity for developers and enterprises alike to create top-notch systems and applications.

But in order to do that, you first need to be aware of the latest .NET technology trends and this post is here to help you with that by discussing the latest .NET developments. But before moving on to that, let’s brush up on what we already know about it.

We know that the .NET framework is a Microsoft-grown technology that has become highly popular among developers. It boasts an extensive ecosystem that comprises a comprehensive set of development tools including numerous pre-built components, a CLR (Common Language Runtime) for effective execution of .NET programs, and packages for functionality extension.

Its support for other important programming languages like C#, F#, and VB .NET and for frameworks like ASP.NET and Xamarin, makes it a potent platform for creating desktop, web, and mobile applications. But let’s have a look at its latest developments that will make it shine brighter in 2023.

 

.NET MAUI
Also known as Multi-platform UI, .NET MAUI is a framework that is used for the development of cross-platform applications that can run on iOS, macOS, Windows, and Android. Developers will be able to code cross-platform apps in C# and XAML using a single shared codebase in Visual Studio.

With .NET MAUI, they will be able to share designs and UI layouts across different platforms along with tests and business logic. This can help them in reducing overall costs and development. Some of its notable features include:

– a unified set of APIs
– adaptive UI components meant for different screen sizes and form factors
– highly customizable, built-in theming support
– an animation system that enables developers to create and run animations on multiple platforms

 

BLAZOR
Blazor has been in the tech industry for only five years and it is already setting the market ablaze with its intuitive features and impressive tooling. This web framework enables developers to create pragmatic web apps by combining .NET and C#.

A huge benefit of using Blazor is that it offers support for both client-side and server-side models for UI rendering. Other outstanding features of Blazor include:

– a component-based architecture
– hot reload feature in Visual Studio
– data binding and dependency injection
– JavaScript interop for calling existing JS APIs and libraries from C#

 

AZURE CLOUD DEVELOPMENT
Cloud computing is a necessity, especially with BYOD (bring your own device) and WFH (work from home) on the rise. Microsoft’s Azure is a cloud platform that allows businesses to develop, deploy and handle their systems, apps and services through a global network.

But what’s going to be on the list is Azure cloud development combined with .NET. As enterprises worldwide are quickly adopting cloud computing, this trend is going to be on the rise. 

Whether it’s an on-premise application or hosted in Azure, developers get access to Azure services via the Azure SDK for .NET. Available as a series of NuGet packages, the Azure SDK can be used for both .NET Core (version 2.1 and above) and .NET Framework (version 4.6.1 and above). 

Though there’s a long list of things and services that developers can cater to, some significant ones for .NET developers are:

– Azure container apps for running micro services
– Azure Cognitive services that enable the addition of AI-based capabilities
– Azure App Service for hosting APIs and web apps in Azure
– Azure Blob Storage for storing and retrieving files in the cloud

 

ML.NET
ML.NET is Microsoft’s Machine Learning framework that helps developers with the integration of ML algorithms into their .NET applications. The best thing about this framework is that it enables .NET developers to create custom models in C# or F# languages.

This means that developers do not need any prior or extensive experience in ML and can utilize their existing .NET knowledge and skills. ML.NET comes with an array of algorithms including classification, anomaly detection, clustering, and regression which proves useful in designing models that can recognize patterns and predict outcomes.

Other key features of this cross-platform framework are:

– support for a wide range of data types and formats, including images and texts
– integration with other popular machine learning libraries like TensorFlow and ONNX
– support for model interpretability
– automatic model selection and hyper parameter tuning for performance optimization

 

SECURITY SYSTEMS
One of the key measuring factors of any framework is its security architecture. That being said, one can rest assured about .NET since it’s Microsoft’s technology, a company that’s known for its security, a primary reason for its enterprise-favor zone.

Whether it’s validation, code access security, or authentication, .NET comes with a robust set of features and tools for building secure systems. Given below are some instances of security features that you can implement with .NET:

– Encryption and cryptography for sensitive data protection like passwords and credit card numbers
– SSL and TLS support for secure communications
– Application logging and monitoring for detection and appropriate response to security breaches
– Input validation for prevention of security vulnerabilities like XSS attacks

 

XAMARIN
Xamarin is going to be a trending .NET technology in 2023, even though Microsoft already has already launched its advanced version which is listed here as .NET MAUI. So why will it trend? 

First of all, Xamarin is an open-source, cross-platform technology for building native iOS, Android, and Windows apps with the help of the .NET framework and C#.

Its support for modern coding practices like CI/CD and agile methodology makes it all the more favorable. 

It also encourages code sharing which means that developers can share a large chunk of the codebase across multiple platforms which brings down the overall development time and cost. Other notable Xamarin features include:

– access to platform-specific APIs for taking advantage of device-specific features like camera and GPS
– integration with Visual Studio to facilitate development with familiar tools
– a cross-platform UI toolkit called Xamarin.Forms (being replaced by .NET MAUI)
– Xamarin Test Cloud for testing mobile apps with simulated real-time interactions

One important thing to note here is that since Microsoft has integrated Xamarin with .NET 6. Furthermore, Xamarin.Forms will be replaced by .NET MAUI and by May 2024, Xamarin will be replaced totally by .NET MAUI, which can be cited as a major reason for the technology’s use.

Conclusion

So, you have the list of the major six .NET technology trends that are likely to shine in 2023. But we all know that nothing’s completely predictable in this industry. 

So the best thing is to make hay while the sun shines, by which we mean that it is better to utilize the listed technologies and get the best software systems or apps for your business.