So far, we have understood how the .NET remoting and ASP.NET Web services technologies differ in implementation. We have also had a detailed look at different factors to understand what technology to choose in what situation. Even though these two technologies are meant for different purposes, there are times where you will be able to use the combination of these technologies in your application. For example, in an application scenario where you are trying to address the needs of both internet and intranet clients, you might consider using both .NET remoting and Web services as shown in the above diagram. For the intranet .NET clients, you can use .NET remoting to enable cross appdomain communication. For the internet clients, you can expose the same functionality as Web services, allowing client applications running in different platforms to take advantage of the Web service.
Conclusion
Both the .NET remoting and ASP.NET Web services are powerful technologies that provide a suitable framework for developing distributed applications. It is important to understand how both technologies work and then choose the one that is right for your application. For applications that require interoperability and must function over public networks, Web services are probably the best bet. For those that require communications with other .NET components and where performance is a key priority, .NET Remoting is the best choice. In short, use Web services when you need to send and receive data from different computing platforms, use .NET Remoting when sending and receiving data between .NET applications. In some architectural scenarios, you might also be able to use.NET Remoting in conjunction with ASP.NET Web services and take advantage of the best of both worlds.
