The suitability of the .NET platform and XML Web services for distributed computer applications was investigated. A distributed computing application was built using .NET XML Web services. The architecture of the distributed computing cluster was defined by the use of Web services as entry points being called from remote nodes. Web services provided adequate performance for the cluster when the nodes spent several minutes working, and then reported back to the server. Web services offered rapid development and performance that is appropriate for distributed computing systems. The cluster performance evaluation, operational characteristics, software structure, and design criteria were all provided within a proposed integrated framework that merged .NET platform and XML Web services for distributed computing applications.
