ASP.NET (Active Server Pages .NET) is a web development technology from Microsoft. Part of the .NET Framework, ASP.NET allows developers to build dynamic web applications and web services using compiled languages like VB.NET and C#. Using Visual Studio, the development tool from Microsoft, web developers can develop very compelling applications using ASP.NET, with the ease of drag-and-drop server controls.

ASP.NET offers several important benefits: Manageability. ASP.NET uses a text-based, hierarchical configuration system that makes it easier for you to apply settings to your server environment and Web applications. Because ASP.NET stores configuration information as plain text, you can apply new settings without using local administration tools. Security, ASP.NET provides default authorization and authentication schemes for Web applications.

Developers can easily add to, remove, or replace these schemes. Easy deployment, you can deploy an ASP.NET application to a server by merely copying the necessary files to the server, without restarting the server. Enhanced performance, ASP.NET is compiled code that runs on the server. ASP.NET takes advantage of early binding, just-in-time (JIT) compilation, native optimization, and caching services out of the box. Flexible output caching, ASP.NET can cache page data, portions of a page, or entire pages.

When ASP.NET is running on Windows Server 2003 with IIS 6.0, ASP.NET can cache entire pages in the high-performance IIS kernel cache. Mobile device support, ASP.NET supports any browser on any device. Scalability and availability, ASP.NET includes features specifically designed to improve performance in clustered and multiprocessor environments.