Websites, by default, are entirely file based. This means that the source code is usually deployed to the server. The server then compiles that code when pages are requested. In this scenario, you can deploy a website to a web server by simply copying the files to the correct directory on the server. No special deployment software is required.
If your website is to be deployed to an array of web servers, you can use any file-synchronization tool to copy the files between the servers. This allows you to deploy to a master server and have the deployment synchronized across the web farm.
If your website has a database, requires special web server configuration, or needs different configuration settings in a release environment, simply copying files will be insufficient.
Visual Studio 2010 includes a new Publish Web dialog box that allows you to configure each of these settings once, and then publish a website to one or more web servers with a single click.