Microsoft Corp. and Avanade Inc., a specialist in Microsoft integration solutions, have teamed up to deliver a library of reusable components to help developers build .Net applications more efficiently.

Microsoft, of Redmond, Wash., licensed portions of ACA.Net (Avanade Connected Architecture for .Net) to create the jointly built library known as Enterprise Library, said Matt Joe, development integration and migration solution manager at Avanade, in Seattle. Enterprise Library technology will be available to developers in January. Avanade is using the technology in its consulting work.

"The problem Microsoft is trying to solve is that .Net is kind of complex," Joe said. "We've had a lot of success with ACA.Net, and it allows our developers to do a lot of work right out of the box and create applications faster."

The Enterprise Library is a repository of code featuring technology from ACA.Net as well as Microsoft patterns and practices called Application Blocks, Joe said. It features some, but not all, of the technology Avanade will be releasing in ACA.Net Version 4.0, which will ship in January.

Fidelity Information Services, a division of Fidelity National Financial Inc., of Jacksonville, Fla., has been using ACA.Net for development and will be using the Enterprise Library. FIS' Empower is a loan origination system that consists of a set of applications and tools for mortgage lenders.

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"Every enterprise-strength application requires certain architectural 'plumbing' in addition to the logic, etc., required to solve the business need," said David Spies, senior vice president and chief software architect at FIS' Empower division, in Sharon, Pa. "By commoditizing solutions to these architectural requirements, teams can realize the benefits of using proven code blocks and see a reduction in time to market and a reduction in the total cost."

Regarding the Enterprise Library, Spies said, "Every developer is going to have to solve the very problems Enterprise Library seeks to provide an answer to. Why not leverage all assets available to do so?"

Spies said FIS will build future versions of Empower using the ACA.Net Version 4.0 platform, upon which the Enterprise Library is based.

This article was first published on eweek.com.