Introduction
DevOps is rapidly transform in last few years, There was
a time when people used to code on VB 6 to create EXE that will used on
Win XP to check if .NET framework is installed, Now a days we travel from
.NET 1.0 to 4.5.x and Now .NET Core.
.NET structure, CLR, MSIL has changed a lot over years,
.NET is not limited to only Windows or specific version of OS, it has
improved a lot and supporting modern features like Cross platform, Microservices, Docker
container, Mobility, Cloud computing and reliability, But
the question remain same, When to choose .NET Framework and When
to choose .NET Core, Lets walk through this article, it will help you to
choose between .NET Framework and .Net Core for server Apps.
Preparation
If you want to develop web based applications/web apps
then there exist two strong foundations from which you can either use .NET
framework or .NET Core, No doubt, both are having many similar components but
there exist some fundamentals difference too. Depending on your requirement and
nature of application you can choose either of them.
When to choose .NET Framework
The one-liner answer for this question is "You need
to choose it, when .NET Core not able to replace .NET framework in all server
applications and its related component"
1.
If you are having
existing application in .NET framework and want to develop some new part
in .NET Core then Don't try it, instead of Using .NET Core,
just create a separate addon (in .NET Core) and call it from .NET
Framework (e.g. Microservices using .NET Core)
2.
There are much chances
that you are using any 3rd Party DLL which is in .NET framework but not available
in .NET Core, then you should go with .NET framework only
3.
If there are any .NET
framework technologies that are not available in .NET Core then do not go for
.NET Core, Here is the list of .NET framework common technologies that are not available
in .NET Core
1.
WCF Services
implementation : You cannot consume WCF services from ASP.NET Core, but may be
in the future they will consider it.
2.
WWF (Windows
work flow foundation) is also not available in .NET Core.
3.
ASP.NET Webforms :
There are no web forms exist in .NET Core and might be there is no future plan
too.
4.
Limited
Languages support : VB (Visual Basic) and F# are currently there in .NET
Core but not supported by all project types.
5.
ASP.NET Web pages are
also example of it.
But Microsoft are working on those things and trying to
fetch as many things in .NET Core as they can, you can check the list here
When to choose .NET Core
This is the brand new .NET technology with different base
structure than .NET, no doubt, it is not having that much classes
and libraries that support in .NET framework, but it is faster
and modular than .NET Framework
1.
If you want to run
your application on multiple platforms then you can go with it, .Net
Core supports all popular platforms like Windows, Mac, Linux, Cross
platform is the biggest advantage of .NET Core
2.
If you want to develop application
on MACOs or Linux then you can go with .NET Core, as you can do it
using Visual Studio code (Which is open source and free, visit Code.Visualstudio.com for
more details) , Additionally there are some third party editors available for
it.
3.
When you want to use
Microservices then you can choose .NET Core. (In Micro services we break down
large project in smaller independent runnable modules, these modules are
communicated with each other via API calling) This will also help us to mix
different technologies in single project (Like we can mix Java, ruby, .NET
Framework)
4.
You can use .NET Core,
when you need scalability with good performance. .NET core is faster than .NET
framework, it helps to reduced server and VM cost, it loads with
minimum set of libraries that are really needed.
5.
.NET Core has seamless
support to Containers, .NET Core can be used with
different design patterns and microservices. ASP.NET Core is cross
platform it is much easier to deploy docker containers in .NET Core than
in .NET framework.
6.
.NET Core allows you
to installed different version of .NET Core on same machine, so that you can
run .NET Core application side by side that targeted to their specific
installed .NET Core versions
Finally
Developers are very curious about learning
and implementing .NET Core but there are some pros and cons to it.
If you are running large enterprise application that built on .NET
Framework do not try to migrate it, Consider your requirement first
and then proceed.
Technologies are introduced and enhanced to overcome
earlier technology problems, but some where we need decide to move on or
not. Here time, cost, resources and need are the four
factors affecting to take this decision. Finally it's your choice that
what you want to accomplish
Thanks
koolprasad2003
