Microsoft has announced it is expanding the abilities of Visual Studio 2017 by adding Azure Service Fabric Mesh to the service. The feature gives VS 2017 a hands-off version of Azure Service Fabric, while tooling with the service allows the creation of applications.
Azure Service Fabric is a distributed systems platform that allows scalable and secure applications to be built on containers and microservices. Previous limitations in VS 2017 have been solved by the introduction. Specifically, the service required users to create and self-manage the clusters in nodes.
By releasing Azure Service Fabric Mesh for the service, Microsoft says users can now use Service Fabric with managing the infrastructure.
The company also announced tooling for Service Fabric Mesh in VS 2017:
“Previously, you had to describe your Service Fabric applications with XML manifests, which was complex and tedious. The new resource-based application uses lightweight YAML files to describe your application and the resources that make it up, making it easier to specify and modify these resources. The tools also help you scaffold applications, debug microservices, and publish your application to Mesh.”
Azure Service Fabric
Service Fabric is a distributed systems platform that functions on Windows and Linus. Microsoft describes it has a foundational technology that implements in Azure infrastructure.
It also works across the company’s other cloud offerings like Skype for Business, Azure Cosmos DB, Azure SQL Database, and Dynamics 365.
Microsoft first discussed Service Fabric at Build 2018 in April. At the event, the company highlighted a roadmap for Azure Service Fabric Mesh. This is a fully-managed alternative that allows apps to be deployed with out the need of managing VMs.
