Beginning SharePoint 2013 Development

MOVING TO THE CLOUD

The .APP structure enables you to configure and deploy apps to SharePoint while also building, packaging, and referencing libraries that are deployed to the cloud. Although the new app model is very “cloud-centric,” you’re not always forced to deploy code into the cloud. Alternatively, you could deploy your cloud data to an on-premises IIS server. In this deployment scenario, the code does not live on the SharePoint server, but you’re still using the cloud-app model to deploy it to IIS. In this non-cloud application, you’re using IIS — which could be an entirely on-premises installed and deployed app (which might be the case if you’ve installed the full SharePoint Server version on-premises). In the cloud app, the Windows Azure domain is off-premises (for example, in the public cloud data centers that Microsoft manages). However, both types of apps have two components: the configuration file (.APP), and the assemblies that execute your code, which are deployed into a separate server domain. Thus, you’re either running these new SharePoint Apps in your or your customer’s premises or the Internet.

The point is that the method for deploying a cloud app in each architecture is similar; the difference lies in where each app is hosted. Figure 2-4 illustrates two potential application architectures, reflecting on code that is deployed to Windows Azure or code that is deployed to IIS. In the non-cloud application, you’re using IIS — which could be an entirely on-premises ...