What's New in the Reliable Web App Pattern for .NET

The latest version of The Reliable Web App (RWA) Pattern for .NET enhances its original objective of helping existing .NET web apps transition to Azure by now emphasizing improvements to production infrastructure. These enhancements are a direct response to user feedback, focusing especially on the importance of Infrastructure as Code (IaC) using Bicep best practices and network security. While the update maintains its foundational developer patterns, it also boosts network security for production deployments and streamlines the initial setup process.

In this blog post, we will explain what the reliable web app pattern entails, highlight the new features, and guide you on how to begin using it today. 

What is the reliable web app pattern (RWA)? 

The reliable web app pattern is one of the enterprise app patterns we created to provide you with proven prescriptive guidance and reference architecture for planning and building Azure web apps. These patterns are based on our experiences with complex enterprise Azure modernization projects with customers, and they aim to be your guide to the cloud maze. 

The reliable web app pattern focuses on re-platforming¹ an existing monolithic web application to the cloud with minimal changes to optimize it for the cloud. This way, you can lay the groundwork for future web app modernization and success. The pattern champions resiliency patterns such as retry, and circuit breaker, performance efficiency patterns like the cache-aside pattern and optimizes for cost and security. It also shows you how to achieve a 99.9% business service level objective (SLO) with multi-region support. 

Architecture of the RWA .NET reference implementation with multi-region support. 

What's new? 

We've kept the same great things about RWA and added new features and improvements that focus on simplicity, complexity, and reusability. Here are some of the highlights: 

• Improvements for simplicity: We made it easier for you to provision the Azure resources and deploy the application. Once you clone the repo, you can use a single Azure Developer CLI (azd) command to provision and deploy all the Azure resources and code for you. We’ve baked in options so you can deploy with what we’re calling a “dev profile” - to save you costs. We also provide demo scripts to help you understand the best practices implemented in RWA, such as circuit breaker, retry, and cache aside. 
• More complex scenarios: We don't hide the complexity of real-world applications - we embrace it and show you how to deal with it. In this release, we added a detailed architectural diagram that illustrates the hub and spoke network topology that we use for security and traffic control. We also provide Azure landing zone recommendations and guidance to help you integrate the pattern into your environment. 
• Reuse Bicep files: We know that many of you are using the Bicep files from RWA and expanding them for your own needs. So, we decided to modularize the Bicep files and make them even easier to reuse. You can seamlessly adapt and integrate those resources into various scenarios. 

Get Started 

1. Review the Documentation: Start by visiting the documentation at https://learn.microsoft.com/azure/architecture/web-apps/guides/reliable-web-app/overview. This comprehensive guide will help you understand the pattern, its components, and how it improves your .NET web applications' security, scalability, and reliability. 

1. Explore the GIT Repository: Access the GIT repository at https://github.com/Azure/reliable-web-app-pattern-dotnet Here, you will find the production-quality, ready-to-deploy reference implementation of the pattern. Clone or download the repository to get started with the code. 

1. Explore the videos: You can also watch our newly refreshed video series on YouTube that explains the pattern in more detail. 

1. Experiment with the Demo: Check out Demo.md in the GIT repository to run a demo of the pattern. This practical experience will help you understand how the components work together and how to handle transient faults effectively. 

 
The latest update to the Reliable Web App Pattern is an essential guidance for developers aiming to utilize Azure for re-platforming .NET web applications. This updated release merges comprehensive architectural guidance with actionable implementation tips, enabling you to develop robust, scalable, and secure applications on Azure with .NET. 

We are thrilled for developers to explore these assets, as it presents a tremendous opportunity for both learning and practical application, ensuring a seamless transition to cloud-based web development. 

¹Replatforming is one of the 5Rs of Gartner's recommended cloud migration strategy, also sometimes known as Revising or Refactoring.