Summary
The .NET Platform delivers the promise and vision of building and using Web services. The software as services paradigm will change how many solutions are developed, delivered, maintained and purchased. As this is a new frontier for developers, end-users and businesses, there is no way to predict what the future will hold. Certainly you will see some flavors of the examples mentioned thus far, and surely many that are radically different. The enticing aspect of Web services is that it gives both producer and consumer a new, more flexible way to build and charge for solutions.
.NET is not "just" about Web services, however. As you now know, the .NET Platform addresses many of the challenges of traditional software development. It fixes the conflicts software have with each other due to the nature of Windows and DLLs; it liberates developers to use whatever languageor languagesthey deem best for producing a solution; it addresses many security issues; and it delivers a versatile, enterprise class tool to produce .NET solutions with Visual Studio .NET.