I recently completed another round of interviews for my company in the search for BizTalk consultants. Yet again, it was a fairly depressing experience. I offer a few humble tips to folks claiming to be BizTalk architects/developers.
My first pet peeve is gigantic resumes. I know that headhunters often beef these things up, […]
A few months ago I wrote a couple of articles ( WCF-ORA , ORA-WCF ) about Message Transmission Optimization Mechanism (MTOM) interoperability between Oracle Application Server and Microsoft Windows Communication Foundation (WCF). Most of the feedback…(read more)
Help people around the world, win fame and prizes for your healthcare solutions
Are you a healthcare industry solution vendor? Do you want worldwide recognition for your company’s good work and the solutions you build using Microsoft technologies? Would you like an opportunity to win prizes including a roundtrip for two to Paris and a guest spot to judge at the Imagine Cup 2008? If so, Microsoft’s Developer and Platform Evangelist group (DPE) has started up a new industry solution showcase and contest that I believe will be of great interest to readers of HealthBlog.
For a little inspiration, visit the Microsoft ISV Showcase. You’ll see some examples of the terrific work being done by our ISV community to change the world of healthcare (as well as education, clean technologies, and manufacturing). Check out the video from Vital Images, a company that is using Microsoft platform technologies as a base to give doctors a revolutionary new view of their patients, and a powerful way to save lives. The ground-breaking software creates colorful 3-D images from CT, MRI and PET scans, allowing problems in the heart, lungs, colon, and brain to be detected quickly, affordably, and less invasively. Also, take a look at some of the other healthcare ISV solutions that are featured in the showcase.
With that under your belt, jump to the CONTEST and enter your healthcare solution that is making, or has the potential to make, a difference in the lives of people around the world. Good luck!
I went to this conference last year in Redmond and it was awesome. I highly encourage you to get along if you have the budget and time.
Microsoft SOA & Business Process Conference 2007
Microsoft is pleased to announce the 2007 Microsoft SOA & Business Process Conference to be held from October 29th through November 2nd, 2007 at the Microsoft Conference Center on the Microsoft Campus in Redmond, WA. During 4 days of breakout sessions, chalk talk discussions, hands-on-labs, peer networking, and social events you will learn about both Microsoft’s current portfolio and long-term strategy for SOA & Business Process initiatives. Whether you are a developer, architect, or business decision maker we will have something for you with tracks spanning technology, architecture, and business value topics.
What You Can Expect:
Thank you and we look forward to hosting you this fall!
SOA & Business Process Conference event team
Register here: https://dynamicevents.emeetingsonline.com/emeetings/websitev2.asp?mmnno=247&pagename=SITE52841
It’s update time again!
Soma and Scott have many more details on their blogs.
Soma and Scott have also recorded a Channel 9 video that will be published later today, which overviews these releases.
One thing that Soma mentioned in his post is that Silverlight RC is coming in the next couple of days. I have been using the RC of Silverlight over the last week and there are a few breaking changes that we all will need to address if we want existing Silverlight applications running on the web to continue to work after the RC!
The Silverlight 1.0 RC is “feature complete” and shortly we will also release an updated (CTP) Silverlight Add-in for VS 2008 so that developers can continue to collaborate with designers using the upcoming Expression Blend 2 August Preview to build Silverlight experiences.
Enjoy!
My article on BizTalk host throttling appeared in BizTalk
Hotrod Issue 2 – Todd VanNurden and Sal Cincotta have done a great job with
assembling and editing content, so be sure to take a look at the whole issue.
I’m hoping to write a follow-up piece that discusses custom throttling techniques
in a future issue.
(And before you ask, I don’t own a suit nearly half as nice as the one Todd
has photoshopped me into for the magazine.)
My article on BizTalk host throttling appeared in BizTalk
Hotrod Issue 2 – Todd VanNurden and Sal Cincotta have done a great job with
assembling and editing content, so be sure to take a look at the whole issue.
I’m hoping to write a follow-up piece that discusses custom throttling techniques
in a future issue.
(And before you ask, I don’t own a suit nearly half as nice as the one Todd
has photoshopped me into for the magazine.)
Introduction:
This post is the first in a series of posts that will describe a number of production considerations for Enterprise customers (“Enterprise” loosely defined as those with moderately complex BizTalk implementations)
This is in response to a great deal of confusion that I have encountered in the field and hopefully I can kill about 500 birds with 1 stone by publishing these findings (no offence to bird enthusiasts J ).
Today’s Topic – Starting the Production Infrastructure
BizTalk Server 2006 has a dizzying array of scalability options, but many options can mean complexity. This post will specifically discuss the most common “starting points” for production enterprise BizTalk systems and compare/contrast them so you can hopefully figure out which one best suits your needs.
The X + Y notation means:
X Dedicated BizTalk boxes
Y SQL Server Nodes
Server Configurations
Before we get started here, I have to emphasize that these are all common STARTING configurations. Configurations can (and do) scale out and up depending on your requirements.
Also, all of these configurations have some notion of high availability, no single node failure will kill the infrastructure. Way more options are available if you sacrifice High Availability (but that’s pretty unusual in the Enterprise isn’t it? J )
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This is probably my favorite starting point. It is the lowest cost, and scaling out with more BizTalk servers is really easy. If you’re not sure which one to pick, take this one. |
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Notice the additional SQL server, a pretty good rule of thumb is a ratio of 3:1 for BizTalk:SQL servers. Although this one is 3:1 with only 2 SQL servers, a failure of one node would change that ratio to 6:1. Seeing as how this configuration is for high volume scenarios, that would be bad. Invest a couple of bucks and have a passive node in the wings to keep things running if a SQL node goes down! |
Comparison Chart
| 0+2 | 2+2 | 4+2 | 6+3 |
High Availability | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Performance | Lowest | Medium | Medium | Best |
Cost (# Servers) | Lowest | Medium | Medium | Highest |
Ease of clustering SSO MSS | Hard | Easy | Easy | Easy |
Separation of SQL and BizTalk | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Dedicated Receive Nodes | No | No | No | Yes |
Dedicated Send Nodes | No | No | No | Yes |
Dedicated Process Nodes | No | No | Yes | Yes |
Easy to Scale out | Complex | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Call to Action
I know what I want to write about, but this blog isn’t for me! What topics do you want to see in the next article? Drop in a request in the comments section below and I’ll review before I start writing the next article (I promise)
When my mobile phone contract came up for renewal in December of last year, I decided to move into the 21st Century, abandoning my trusty Nokia 6330 and going for a Windows Mobile device. For my sins, I opted for a T-Mobile contract and the MDA smartphone. Unfortunately, it wasn’t all that smart and should […]
Introduction:
This post is the first in a series of posts that will describe a number of production considerations for Enterprise customers (“Enterprise” loosely defined as those with moderately complex BizTalk implementations)
This is in response to a great deal of confusion that I have encountered in the field and hopefully I can kill about 500 birds with 1 stone by publishing these findings (no offence to bird enthusiasts J ).
Today’s Topic – Starting the Production Infrastructure
BizTalk Server 2006 has a dizzying array of scalability options, but many options can mean complexity. This post will specifically discuss the most common “starting points” for production enterprise BizTalk systems and compare/contrast them so you can hopefully figure out which one best suits your needs.
The X + Y notation means:
X Dedicated BizTalk boxes
Y SQL Server Nodes
Server Configurations
Before we get started here, I have to emphasize that these are all common STARTING configurations. Configurations can (and do) scale out and up depending on your requirements.
Also, all of these configurations have some notion of high availability, no single node failure will kill the infrastructure. Way more options are available if you sacrifice High Availability (but that’s pretty unusual in the Enterprise isn’t it? J )
|
|
|
|
|
This is probably my favorite starting point. It is the lowest cost, and scaling out with more BizTalk servers is really easy. If you’re not sure which one to pick, take this one. |
|
|
|
|
|
Notice the additional SQL server, a pretty good rule of thumb is a ratio of 3:1 for BizTalk:SQL servers. Although this one is 3:1 with only 2 SQL servers, a failure of one node would change that ratio to 6:1. Seeing as how this configuration is for high volume scenarios, that would be bad. Invest a couple of bucks and have a passive node in the wings to keep things running if a SQL node goes down! |
Comparison Chart
| 0+2 | 2+2 | 4+2 | 6+3 |
High Availability | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Performance | Lowest | Medium | Medium | Best |
Cost (# Servers) | Lowest | Medium | Medium | Highest |
Ease of clustering SSO MSS | Hard | Easy | Easy | Easy |
Separation of SQL and BizTalk | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Dedicated Receive Nodes | No | No | No | Yes |
Dedicated Send Nodes | No | No | No | Yes |
Dedicated Process Nodes | No | No | Yes | Yes |
Easy to Scale out | Complex | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Call to Action
I know what I want to write about, but this blog isn’t for me! What topics do you want to see in the next article? Drop in a request in the comments section below and I’ll review before I start writing the next article (I promise)