So, COM+ provides a framework of operating system services. But that's not the whole story. ASP+ is actually a part of a brand new runtime framework that provides support for all kinds of applications in Windows. The framework is a key part of of Microsoft's Next Generation Web Services or NGWS. When you install this, you get ASP+ as part of the package. The NGWS framework supports all other server-side programming techniques as well, such as a new managed component service, support for building executable applications and Windows Services, access to performance counter APIs and Event Log APIs, etc.

The NGWS framework extends the Component Object Model (COM) architecture that we use to create re-usable and interoperable software components by adding new and enhanced services for scalable distributed applications:

• A unified, rich set of programming libraries
• A secure, multi-language runtime engine
• Simplified application creation, deployment and maintenance
• Increased scalability for distributed applications
• Protection of existing software and training investments

We'll look at how it does all these things next.