Infrastructure architects and the Logical Datacenter Designers in VSTS

The infrastructure architect's primary task is to model the network and datacenter onto which the application will be deployed.

Although not directly related to the software development effort, these models are critical to the success of an application because the application must be validated against these constraints to prove that it can be deployed to that environment. This concept is known as Design for Deployment.

Using Logical Datacenter Designers the architect will define the following:

• Type of servers (application Hosts: Web server, database server, and generic)
• Communication pathways between Hosts (server endpoints: HTTP, TDS, and generic)
• Type of communication boudaries (Zones: Intranet, VPN, DMZ, and Firwalls)
• Communication connection points (zone endpoints)
• Type of services enabled
• Configuration of application services
• Adding or removing setting resources to logical servers and endpoints

Adopted from Richard Hundhausen's book Working With Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Team System.