David Mitchell SmithAt Microsoft PDC09 in Los Angeles today. Lots of big news and interesting things to write about but the big word is fabric.The introduction of the AppFabric brand by Microsoft for its appserver is the tip of the iceberg. First of all, the idea of a fabric for running distributed applications is not new, but its applicability to better explaining Microsoft’s vision of running apps on premises and off premises using a consistent framework is new and is a good step forward.
So, as Microsoft is introducing a name for its appserver layer around 10 years after everyone else, it’s fitting that I had selected (completely at random) a shirt I’ve had for around the same amount of time. Its an old favorite from The Territory Ahead and it certainlyis unique. but i had no idea that talking about all the fabrics while wearing it would make me such an easy target… 
for those of you keeping score at home, there are now 4 distinct meanings and uses of the term "fabric" just by Microsoft alone:
1. Azure fabric controller (a management component, gives the elasticity to the VMs in Azure)
2. Appfabric – this is the new appserver brand.
3. Systems center also uses the term fabric as a management construct
and,
4. Live mesh also makes heavy use of a fabric.
Appfabric is an improvement over the Azure Services Platform and .net services (and the hopelessly confusing terms Windows Azure and the Windows Azure platform – yes they are different. Who knew?), but not without introducing new confusion.
So just when you thought nothing could be more confusing than cloud, here comes fabric. Hopefully it wont be as bad. But just in case,
I think I will trademark FOA. After all, Fabric Oriented architecture can’t be far behind 
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