Book excerpt: A guide to architecting, designing, and building distributed applications with Windows Communication Foundation Windows Communication Foundation is the .NET technology that is used to build service-oriented applications, exchange messages in various communication scenarios, and run workflows. This guide enables developers to create state-of-the-art applications using this technology. Written by a team of Microsoft MVPs and WCF experts, this book explains how the pieces of WCF 4.0 build on each other to provide a comprehensive framework to support distributed enterprise applications. Experienced developers will learn both theory and practical application using the familiar Wrox approach. .NET developers will learn to design services, create a hosting environment with Dublin, build cloud-based integrations, and much more. Coverage Includes: Design Principles and Patterns Service Contracts and Data Contracts Bindings Clients Instancing Workflow Services Understanding WCF Security WCF Security in Action Federated Authentication in WCF Windows Azure Platform AppFabric Creating a SOA Case Creating the Communication and Integration Case Creating the Business Process Hosting