What is the AppFabric component in Cloud Computing?

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  Gandalf

  Windows Azure AppFabric provides pre-built, higher level middleware services that raise the level of abstraction and reduce complexity of cloud development. These services are open and interoperable across languages (.NET, Java, Ruby, PHP…) and give developers a powerful pre-built “class library" for next-gen cloud applications. Developers can use each of the services stand-alone, or combine services to provide a composite solution.
  These services include:
  [h=2]Service Bus[/h]Service Bus provides secure messaging and connectivity capabilities that enable building distributed and disconnected applications in the cloud, as well hybrid application across both on-premises and the cloud. It enables using various communication and messaging protocols and patterns, and saves the need for the developer to worry about delivery assurance, reliable messaging and scale. #-Link-Snipped-#.
  [h=2]Access Control[/h]Access Control provides an easy way to provide identity and access control to web applications and services, while integrating with standards-based identity providers, including enterprise directories such as Active Directory®, and web identities such as Windows Live ID, Google, Yahoo! and Facebook. #-Link-Snipped-#.
  [h=2]Caching[/h]Caching provides a distributed, in-memory, application cache service for Windows Azure and SQL Azure applications. #-Link-Snipped-#
  [h=2]Integration[/h]Integration provides common #-Link-Snipped-# Server integration capabilities (e.g. pipeline, transforms, adapters) on Windows Azure, using out-of-box integration patterns to accelerate and simplify development. It also delivers higher level business user enablement capabilities such as Business Activity Monitoring and Rules, as well as self-service trading partner community portal and provisioning of business-to-business pipelines. Integration is not yet available for developer preview, but will be coming as a CTP in 2011.
  [h=2]Custom Code[/h]In addition to the pre-built middleware services AppFabric also delivers a complete hosting environment for running your .NET custom code and components, such as web services built using Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) and workflows built using Windows Workflow Foundation (WF). This provides powerful and elastic-scale hosting of your middle-tier business logic as part of your cloud application.
• 

  Gandalf

  Optimized Infrastructure
  Both the AppFabric Middleware Services, and your custom built services, components and applications are built upon an advanced, high-performance application infrastructure that has been optimized for cloud-scale services and mid-tier components.
  The AppFabric Container provides base-level application infrastructure such as automatically ensuring scale out, availability, multi-tenancy and sandboxing of your application components.
  
  The main capabilities provided by the AppFabric Container are:
  Scale-out and High Availability
  The AppFabric Container provides scale-out by allowing application components to be cloned and automatically distributed; for stateful components, the container provides scale-out and high availability using partitioning and replication mechanisms. The AppFabric Container shares the partitioning and replication mechanisms of SQL Azure.
  Sandboxing and Multi-tenancy
  The AppFabric Container enables high-density and multi-tenancy of hosted components. The container captures and propagates the tenant context to all the application and middleware components.
  State Management
  The AppFabric Container provides data and persistence management for application components hosted in the container.
  Dynamic Address Resolution and Routing
  In a fabric-based environment, components can be placed or reconfigured dynamically. The AppFabric Container automatically and efficiently routes requests to the target components and services.
  
  
  Read more: #-Link-Snipped-##-Link-Snipped-##-Link-Snipped-##-Link-Snipped-#