Avanade Inc. on Monday is partnering with Microsoft Corp. to release Enterprise Library, which features reusable code, tools, and guidance intended to make it easier to develop in the .Net environment.

Expected to be available in January, Enterprise Library draws upon the ACA.Net (Avanade Connected Architectures) framework and Microsoft patterns and practices Applications Blocks. Enterprise Library and ACA.Net feature a process, tools, and software code for speeding up application development. Application Blocks contains codified patterns residing on top of .Net, providing functionality such as logging or data access.

The new package boasts a library of code from which developers can more quickly build .Net applications, according to Avanade. Enterprise Library serves as a successor to Application Blocks.

"It addresses a lot of complaints that a lot of application developers have had that the Blocks are not consistent, the Blocks do not work well together, the Blocks are hard to configure, and they"re also very hard to learn," said Matt Joe, solution manager at Avanade.

With the Enterprise Library, developers get out-of-the-box features they would otherwise have to create themselves, Joe said. Enterprise Library includes seven Blocks, for caching, cryptography, configuration, data access, exception handling, logging and instrumentation, and security.

To improve extensibility, the release of ACA.Net 4.0 -- planned for January and being built on top of Enterprise Library -- will provide a platform for building service-oriented architectures and aspect-oriented programming development, Avanade said.

Avanade offers Enterprise Library for free but generates revenue by selling services on top of the offering.