by community-syndication | Sep 5, 2008 | BizTalk Community Blogs via Syndication
Microsoft announced BizTalk Server 2009 today, and gave the green light to talking about the new version. It’s due for release in the first half of next year, and is shaping up nicely. Microsoft is casting BizTalk Server 2009 as a major new version in its own right, rather than just an updated ‘release’ of BizTalk Server 2006. This is an important move, and one I strongly welcome. There is certainly enough in BizTalk Server 2009 to warrant thinking of it as a major revision of the product, although it retains the same familiar functionality and tooling we have been using since 2006 (or even 2004).
I’ve been fortunate in getting my hands on the current non-public CTP in the last month or so, and putting aspects of the new version through its paces. It’s not wise to go into much detail about this first CTP because some of those details will doubtless change in forthcoming betas, driven in part from the feedback Microsoft is getting. However, I will say a little about the new development and build features and expand just a little on the press releases. These are the areas I have been looking at in depth.
BizTalk Server 2009 will ship with bindings for Visual Studio 2008, and you will need to upgrade to this version of the IDE if you are still using Visual Studio 2005 (which you will be, of course, if you are a BizTalk Server 2006 user). It happens that, in previous months, I’ve seen more than one BizTalk shop where developers are having to run both versions of the IDE side by side in order to continue developing for BizTalk Server 2006 whilst exploiting features like WCF and WF in .NET 3.5. For many, the changes in BizTalk Server 2009 will come as a relief. This is not a cynical ploy by Microsoft to force people into upgrades for no additional benefit. The move to Visual Studio 2008 is accompanied by a very welcome move to a new project format, bringing BizTalk Server 2009 into line with mainstream .NET development. The new BizTalk project type is defined using MS-Build, just like C# or VB.NET projects. This has major implications in a number of areas. First, it means that, if you use TFS Build, you can now build BizTalk Server 2009 projects without having to write complex scripts that shell out to DevEnv. Just like C# projects, you can let TFS Build do the majority of the grunt work for you, and concentrate your attention more fully on ensuring that your automated build scripts are comprehensive and robust. This is worth the upgrade in its own right, and removes a major source of current irritation. Thanks to the rough edges in the current CTP, one of my colleagues has had the opportunity to get to grips with this side of BizTalk Server 2009 in some depth, and we can report that it is all looking very good indeed, once a few remaining gremlins have been chased out.
The other aspect of BizTalk Server 2009 which we have spent some time on is unit testing and debugging. In one sense, this is not really so much about new functionality, but more about bringing what has previously been considered ‘black-belt’ into the mainstream. In Biztalk Server 2006, we currently use BizUnit to drive black-box (grey-box?), end-to-end testing, but we have also created some additional code of our own to support unit testing of BizTalk maps, schemas and pipelines. Similarly, if you know the undocumented registry key in BizTalk Server 2006, you can get BizTalk to retain the generated C# code for debugging purposes, manually attaching to BtsNtSvc.exe processes in order to debug into orchestrations, etc. This has proved a life saver in certain situations. The new version of BizTalk Server is now designed to support these approaches seamlessly. Of course, it is designed to work with the integrated unit testing features of the IDE, rather than BizUnit. There are currently some outstanding questions with regard to the debugging support which I won’t go into here, because they simply reflect the unfinished state of the first CTP. However, unit testing certainly works smoothly with BizTalk Server 2009 projects, and will help to raise the bar in terms of the approach that is taken to development of BizTalk solutions. Again, I will avoid going into further here because I will hit issues that are still to be fully resolved, but things are generally looking good.
I have only mentioned those areas of BizTalk Server 2009 which I have been looking at in any depth. There is a lot, lot more. One thing I will monitor closely is the inclusion of ESB Guidance 2.0. I have some problems with some aspects of ESB Guidance 1.0, like the unfortunate way in which the UDDI resolver violates the UDDI standard! However, having spent the last year doing little else but designing and implementing service bus patterns using BizTalk Server and WCF (or, in one case, WSE), I regard the inclusion of ESB Guidance 2.0 as a really intriguing, and hopefully worthwhile, aspect of the new version. It is also intriguing that Microsoft has decided to release their implementation of UDDI 3.0 as part of the BizTalk package. Let no one tell you that BizTalk has no role to play in building service buses, or that it is to be regarded as ‘merely a hub-and-spoke message broker’. In my experience, the exploitation of the dynamic features of BizTalk (dynamic ports, BAM interception, the rules engine, etc.,) in a rigorous, policy-driven fashion provides good support for implementing many of the core patterns described within the world of ESB. The core design of BizTalk Server predates later ESB thinking, but is much better aligned to it that some people will admit.
Roll on 2009.
by community-syndication | Sep 5, 2008 | BizTalk Community Blogs via Syndication
Lately I’ve been using custom Xslt more and more instead of the BizTalk mapping tool. I still use the mapping tool in easy scenarios when I just need to do some straight mapping or maybe even when I need to concatenate some fields, but as soon as I need to to some looping, grouping, calculations […]
by community-syndication | Sep 5, 2008 | BizTalk Community Blogs via Syndication
Since the announcement of "Oslo" and the excitement around Windows WF and WCF, many customers have been concerned about their investment in BizTalk Server or questioning whether it is a wise investment today. Microsoft just published their roadmap for BizTalk Server including some important information about how the current and future releases will integrate with the "Oslo" modeling platform. In addition, the next release of BizTalk Server, still promised in the first half of '09, has been renamed BizTalk Server 2009 (formerly BizTalk Server 2006 R3) because of the significant improvements.
The good news is that Microsoft has clearly stated their intent on continued investment into this product over the coming years and has some clear ideas about the types of improvements you can expect to see in future versions.
I'm most excited about platform support in the 2009 release right now as I'd like to be running only visual studio 2008 on my machines and I LOVE Windows Server 2008 so I'd like to get all my test machines upgraded to the new OS. I'm interested to take a look at the new UDDI services and see how the directory support has been improved and can be used in a BizTalk solution as well. The idea of a directory for services is a powerful one and not many companies realize the value of them for the simplest thing like dynamic addressing of endpoints. All of your client applications can be built to use just a single address for the registry and lookup the endpoint information for the service.
by community-syndication | Sep 5, 2008 | BizTalk Community Blogs via Syndication
I’ve been a fan of RSSBus from /n software for some time. A few weeks ago our Executive Director / Chief Architect / Technology Overlord recently asked me to build a real, live enterprise mashup application to demonstrate for our IT leadership group. Our goal was to show that RSSBus could be used to quickly […]
by stephen-w-thomas | Sep 5, 2008 | Stephen's BizTalk and Integration Blog
Today Microsoft announced an updated Roadmap for BizTalk Server highlighting the next release of BizTalk and outlining plans for future releases every two years.
Included with this is a name change. BizTalk Server 2006 R3 will now be called BizTalk Server 2009.
While most people will see this as a simple name change. What this represents is Microsoft’s commitment to BizTalk Server as an Enterprise Class Integration Platform. This new name combined with the forward looking roadmap clearly showcases the future of BizTalk, which until now was a little unclear.
What to expect in the 2009 release of BizTalk:
- Support for the latest Microsoft Platforms including Hyper-V Virtualization, Visual Studios 2008, .Net 3.5, SQL 2008, and Windows Server 2008.
- Enhancements to SOA and Web Services, B2B Integration, and Developer Productivity.
- Additional enhancements driven by customer feedback.
Oliver Sharp talked about a release for BizTalk 2009 in the first half of 2009. He also talked about a CTP release that would be available around the end of the year.
And best yet! We have a new logo for BizTalk Server 2009!
by community-syndication | Sep 5, 2008 | BizTalk Community Blogs via Syndication
Good communication today about not only the name change, but more importantly, the updated roadmap for BizTalk Server (read Q & A here, see roadmap here, and see BizTalk home page here, see Steve Martin’s announcement here).
For me, the most important things communicated were:
greater clarification on what the Oslo release means to BizTalk Server
specific features […]
by community-syndication | Sep 5, 2008 | BizTalk Community Blogs via Syndication
Today, we announced updated plans for the next major version of BizTalk Server. We launched the first version of BizTalk Server back in 2000. Eight years later, we’ve seen our installed base grow to 8,200 customers making it the most widely deployed solution for enterprise connectivity in heterogeneous environments. We’re hearing from our customers that BizTalk has become a core part of their infrastructure, running mission critical applications. Our partners (over 1500 of them) tell us that the applications and adapters they build for BizTalk have become a significant part of their business. This positive feedback is our greatest reward.
We’re excited to offer more details on the next version of BizTalk Server-now dubbed BizTalk Server 2009 to reflect the full release that it is. Initially, We disclosed this as BizTalk Server 2006 R3, but it has so many exciting new features that it deserves a to be referenced as a full release. BizTalk Server 2009 will focus on a few key areas; as always, these areas are determined based on what customers have told us are their priorities. They are platform support, SOA and Web Services, B2B integration and developer productivity. In particular, the platform updates enable greater scalability and reliability, new Hyper-V virtualization support, and many advances in the latest developer tools.
I should also note that we’re still on track for the final release of BizTalk Server 2009 in 1H of CY2009. For all the features and details, go here or to PressPass.
We’ve actually already delivered a first Community Technology Preview (CTP) to select customers and we’re getting great feedback! The next CTP update is coming sometime in Q4 of CY08. We’ll use this broad feedback from customers and partners to help us validate the features and readiness of the product.
Looking into the future, the goal is to continue to provide a BizTalk Server release approximately every two years, plus additional interim releases of service packs as appropriate. At each milestone, we will take advantage of as much platform technology as is reasonable and consumable by our customers and will take advantage of updates to .NET, Visual Studio, Windows Server and SQL.
We’re also hearing from many of our BizTalk customers that they’re beginning to accelerate the development of more complex composite applications. As you know, one of our missions with “Oslo” is to simplify the development/deployment/management of composite applications through a model-driven approach to the application lifecycle. We see our BizTalk customers benefitting from Oslo’s core technologies, and are committed to providing choice, flexibility and a clear integration path for those who are interested in taking advantage.
by community-syndication | Sep 5, 2008 | BizTalk Community Blogs via Syndication
Some very interesting news around BizTalk today. Not only was there the announcement around BizTalk's future on the BizTalk Server Roadmap page, but there was a Q&A session with Oliver Sharp , the General Manager for the Connected Systems Read More……(read more)
by community-syndication | Sep 5, 2008 | BizTalk Community Blogs via Syndication
Completely off topic for this blog, but interesting nonetheless: Verisign yesterday reported that they processed more that 48 billion DNS queries per day in the second quarter of 2008. Wow.
VeriSign also maintained 100 percent uptime for the DNS system during the second quarter, as it has for the past decade. I think this must be […]
by community-syndication | Sep 4, 2008 | BizTalk Community Blogs via Syndication
…“We prefer to use the term secure traversal through diverse network topologies, instead"
-Jon Flanders talking about the BizTalk Connectivity Services (Relay)
Thank you all for attending the BizTalk User Group meeting in Stockholm last night. I personally did not think I’d find REST as interesting as I did. And it was obvious I wasn’t the only one stunned by Jon Flanders awesome presentation. Anyone signed up for his book yet?
Thanks Jon, we hope to see you again next year.
