by community-syndication | Jul 17, 2011 | BizTalk Community Blogs via Syndication
While this information is now well known and has been covered by both Richard Seroter and Saravana Kumar, I wanted to throw my 2 cents out there as I was away on vacation when this information was released. Now that I am back, I have had some time to watch Tony Meleg’s presentation from the 2011 World Partner Conference. I have a feeling that this “talk” will be one of those that is referenced for years to come. Much like we continue to bring up certain “Scott Woodgate” talks.
A New Platform is born
For the past couple years, Microsoft has put significant emphasis on cloud computing and providing software and platform services that run in Microsoft’s data centers. From a platform perspective, these investments have been made to Azure. Today we have capabilities to run Web and Worker roles, SQL and Azure Storage, Caching and relay messaging in a production environment.
Microsoft continues to invest in this platform and is increasing the amount of capabilities that are provided in this platform. We are now starting to see some of the “middleware” capabilities being introduced in the form of CTPs that include Workflow, Pub/Sub and Queues. A future CTP will showcase additional “integration” capabilities including pipelines that will host message transformations.
New Platform’s impact on BizTalk
It has been very clear that Microsoft is betting on the cloud and as a result all new software investments will occur in the cloud first and then make its way to on-premise. The first example of this strategy was the release of CRM 2011 which was available in the cloud prior to making its way into on-premise.
To align with Microsoft’s cloud strategy, some tough decisions had to occur in order to include BizTalk functionality in the cloud. A key area that had an impact on BizTalk’s ability to move to the cloud was in the area of Workflow. A decision had to be made as to which “Workflow-ish” technology Microsoft would pursue between Windows Workflow Foundation and Xlang. The driver for this decision was Microsoft’s desire to reduce the amount of duplication of efforts across their platforms. As you can see from Tony’s presentation, Xlang did not make the cut. In my opinion, it makes sense to decide upon Windows Workflow as it can be used outside of BizTalk and is already used in other platforms like CRM and SharePoint. Tony does mention in his presentation that removing the Xlang Orchestration engine from BizTalk is like performing a major heart surgery and will take several years to fulfill.
Microsoft also has aspirations of ensuring symmetry between cloud and on-premise versions of its software. The current BizTalk architecture just didn’t provide a good fit especially when consider the desire to reduce the duplication of efforts across platforms. It was pretty clear that Workflow would be the engine of choice being a .Net based technology and its adoption by other platforms.
Another area that is at the top of customer’s “ask list” was more flexible messaging options. While BizTalk’s current durable messaging is a core requirement for many customers, the ability to by-pass durable messaging in order to increase performance is a core requirement for others. We have the ability to perform non-durable messaging with WCF and WF today so once again this is a natural fit over trying to change the existing BizTalk messaging engine.
Platform end state
Below is an image that I snagged from Tony’s presentation. It represents the new platform’s “end-state” in terms of capabilities. Within this diagram you should be able to find existing BizTalk capabilities and their alignment to the new platform including:
- Adapters
- Rules
- Pub/Sub
- Transformations
- Pipelines
- BAM
- TPM
We also have some enhancements or new capabilities not found within BizTalk natively like Caching, Web Apps, Workflow and the new Composition Model and AppFabric App Manager. I have discussed a few of the Composition Model and AppFabric Manager on my other blog http://www.MiddlewareInTheCloud.com and am looking forward to “BizTalk” app development being able to leverage these features. I was reminded of the convenience of the Composition Model when I recently deployed a BizTalk application to multiple servers that included deploying Web Services. The BizTalk deployment model could be optimized in my opinion when it comes to distributed deployments. Yes there are tools that help like MSBuild and the BizTalk deployment framework but it should be simpler. I would love to see the simplicity that the AppFabric Application model provides to “BizTalk” applications.
Timing
Tony asks people to “lower expectations” and “think long term”. Microsoft recognizes that they will not be able to move existing BizTalk functionality to this new platform in either the cloud or on-premise any time soon. It will take multiple releases to achieve the goals of the platform. Their timeline is somewhere around 5 years. In the mean time Microsoft is going to continue to release versions of BizTalk Server. Yes, you read that rightBizTalk is not dead. However, Tony cautions that we will not see a lot of innovation being baked into the new BizTalk bits. The updates to BizTalk server will be to align to updated platforms like Windows Server, SQL Server and Visual Studio. Updates may also include bug fixes or key customer asks that are reasonable to implement. However, the innovation will occur in this new platform.
In the short term, we will see features of the new platform being rolled out in the form of CTPs. We shouldn’t expect the new middleware features to hit production until sometime in 2012.
(another image that I swiped from Tony’s presentation)
Migration
As we move from our existing platform to the new platform, we should be expect some pain. Obviously Microsoft will take reasonable steps to ensure of smooth transitions to the new platform but we can expect some challenges along the way. There will not be an “easy button”.
Guidance (my opinion – take it as is without warranty)
The first piece of advice is: DON’T PANIC. It is still early and nothing is written in stone at this point. Microsoft has mentioned that this is a long term strategy and it will take multiple releases to address the vision. In the mean time they will continue to support and release more BizTalk. From a personal perspective, I am responsible for a Middleware team at a good sized Energy Distribution provider. We run BizTalk 2009 and I can confidently say that our business runs on top of BizTalk. If BizTalk goes down, many parts of our business slow down if not grind to a halt. We have been making significant investments in BizTalk for over 5 years. My intentions are to continue use BizTalk. We have an upgrade planned in the next 8 months and that will be a BizTalk upgrade. Most likely 2010, but if a newer v.Next release miraculously appears we will consider it.
From a developer perspective, this news is a bit of a wake up call. It is time to start diversifying your skill set. Microsoft is providing initial looks at this technologies through CTPs. Get involved! Download the bits, try them out and get familiar with some of the new concepts and models. I don’t think there is any reason to be really nervous though. The underlying core integration skills that you have built up over the years will not be for nothing. Some of the terminology will change, the toolset will probably change but many existing integration patterns will continue to exist whether there is a “cloudy thing” or not. If anything, I think there will be a lot of new opportunities for developers with Microsoft Integration skill sets. There will be a lot of existing BizTalk -> New Platform migrations that will need to occur in the next 3-10 years. Who better to work on these projects than people with BizTalk experience who have adopted the new technology.
by community-syndication | Jul 16, 2011 | BizTalk Community Blogs via Syndication
Charan: I have created one extension method to count the no of words (separated by character space , dot or question mark) in a string by following this link.
Now I want to know is it possible to use the extension method in Expression shape of BizTalk 2010.
This is the extension method I have created.
And this is test code to execute test it.
Rohit: The answer is no and yes.
In your test
by community-syndication | Jul 16, 2011 | BizTalk Community Blogs via Syndication
I’ve posted the third installment of my What’s New in ASP.NET MVC3 screencast series (version 2.0)
Part 3 explores the following topics:
Entitiy Framework Integration
Controller Enhancements
JSON Binding
Note: I recommend watching this video in HD Mode, full screen.
(Video: Watch this video on the post page)
Screencast Download Link:
High Definition (.mp4) (85MB)
Blog Post by: Michael Gerety
by community-syndication | Jul 15, 2011 | BizTalk Community Blogs via Syndication
Charan: I have a problem I have one schema which has one optional filed ‘Element1’ and I need to map this schema to other schema but the twist is if this optional filed is not present in the input schema then I need to map other filed ‘Element2’ to the output schema.Input schema with optional filed ‘Element1’
Output Schema
Rohit: You can do this using the Scripting functoid as shown below:Drag
by community-syndication | Jul 15, 2011 | BizTalk Community Blogs via Syndication
This week was an incredible week for people who were involved in BizTalk Server. At the Microsoft World Partner Conference 2011 Tony Meleg (Microsoft) delivered an important session "The Future of Middleware and the BizTalk Roadmap". Richard Seroter nicely summarized his view here. After so much buzz in the twitter and blog space, I decided to watch this video. Being a BizTalk Server MVP, we were aware of all these things slightly earlier than the general public, but it was good to get a recap. While watching the presentation, I was tweeting (@biztalk360) all the important statements from Tony Meleg, I summarized everything here so the tweets won’t disappear in the wild (you need to read from bottom to top :-).
At the end the main takeaway for me is, BizTalk as a product/brand name may go away after few years, few revisions of AppFabric vNext (which for the time being they call it as future of BizTalk). But the integration concepts like adapters, pipelines, work flows (Orchestration name will die), rules, BAM, etc are going to remain the same. We just need to learn how to do things in new way. This cloudy thing is big, we can’t ignore it. The great thing you need to keep in mind is "One strategy, make it run in the cloud, make it run on-premise full stop", that means you don’t need to learn multiple things.
Microsoft is great in delivering such things, proof is .NET Framework and it’s Languages. Whether you are a Web developer, WPF, Silverlight, SharePoint, BizTalk or whatever you got one framework and your one preferred programming language to do things.
If you remember the saying,
"The Only Thing That Is Constant Is Change" – Heraclitu, Greek philosopher
and I welcome the change.
Text Version
- BizTalk as product/brand name may go away after few years but the integration concepts are going to remain – SK
- Managed to watch the full video http://bit.ly/n2vpth very open transparent view from Microsoft about direction of BizTalk
- Migrate the whole application is not going to happen, its more like migrate each artifacts pipelines, rules, workflows etc -Tony M #WCP11
- Invest in migration tools/guidance, Make the platforms work together – Tony M, #WPC11
- Continue to ship current BizTalk architecture, because we don’t know how long this new thing is going to take – Tony M #WPC11
- We are building only one thing, cloud first and then suck those pieces down as server version – Tony M #WPC11
- Set your expectations very low with what we have shipped, it will take a long time to realize the vision – Tony M #WPC11
- This picture is the next BizTalk Server – Tony M #WPC11 http://yfrog.com/khhn0p
- AppFabric ServiceBus team responsible for unifying, rationalizing and delivering a messaging platform on behalf of the company – TM #WPC11
- AppFabric Container is the heart of future middleware, it’s the host capable of elastic scale – Tony Meleg #WPC11
- It’s multi-year, multi-release vision – Tony Meleg #WPC11
- 1. BizTalk Investments, 2. Build cloud based middleware plat, 3. Solve capability islands, remove duplication – Tony Meleg #WPC11
- One strategy, make it run in the cloud, make it run on-premise full stop – Tony Meleg #WPC11
- Replacing BizTalk Orchestration engine with WF is like doing major heart surgery, really difficult -Tony Meleg
- Finally watching Tony Meleg’s talk
Video Link:
http://digitalwpc.com/Videos/AllVideos/Permalink/e821e9f8-e379-45b0-8879-12fe271c86be#fbid=8XvnxCo6v9U
Presentation Link:
http://digitalwpc.blob.core.windows.net/sessions/2011/AP03_Meleg.ppt
Nandri!
Saravana
by community-syndication | Jul 14, 2011 | BizTalk Community Blogs via Syndication
If you are interested in future of BizTalk you can view session from World Partner Conference 2011 in Los Angeles by Tony Meleg: AP03 The Future of Middleware and the BizTalk Roadmap
Detail:
If you have a development practice or you are an ISV and you create complex solutions for customers, you need a number of middleware capabilities at your disposal. BizTalk Server has been at the center of Microsoft’s Middleware platform for a number of years, to provide many of these capabilities. AppFabric, both on-premise and on Windows Azure provides additional capabilities as well as some overlapping ones. So what is the strategy here, what is Microsoft up to long term and short term? How will this affect solutions you create and what opportunities will it create for your company? In this session, you will get the answers to these questions.
by community-syndication | Jul 14, 2011 | BizTalk Community Blogs via Syndication
Another conference, another batch of “BizTalk future” discussions. This time, it’s the Worldwide Partner Conference in Los Angeles. Microsoft’s Tony Meleg actually did an excellent job frankly discussing the future of the middle platform and their challenges of branding and cohesion. I strongly encourage you to watch that session. I’ve avoided any discussion on the […]
Blog Post by: Richard Seroter
by community-syndication | Jul 14, 2011 | BizTalk Community Blogs via Syndication
Hi all
This blog will move to http://blogs.eliasen.dk/technical/ before long. No new posts will be added to this blog, and as soon as I have the time, I will try to set up some forward mechanism that automatically forwards from this blog to the new one so I can delete it.
I am really hoping that this will mean a minimum of inconvenience to all readers of this blog.
The reason I am momving away from this blog is that I am using dasBlog, which oer the years has grown more and more unstable and useless. It will not remember my login, the text editor on the blog web site has lost its wysiwyg editor. Windows Live Writer can no longer post to it and more. Basically, dasBlog hasn’t moved along with .NET and it is simply time for me to move away from it. Also, BlogEngine.NET has just released version 2.5 which has the option of having multiple blogs in one installation so I am consolidating my blogs into one installation, making upgrading to newer versions a one-time-action instead of a one-tim-per-blog-action 🙂
The new RSS feed will be located at http://blogs.eliasen.dk/technical/syndication.axd – please update any RSS readers accordingly. Thanks
—
eliasen
Blog Post by: Jan Eliasen
by community-syndication | Jul 14, 2011 | BizTalk Community Blogs via Syndication
I’ve posted the second installment of my What’s New in ASP.NET MVC3 screencast series (version 2.0)
Part 2 explores the following topics:
Razor View Engine
Views
Validation
Note: I recommend watching this video in HD Mode, full screen.
(Video: Watch this video on the post page)
Screencast Download Link:
High Definition (.mp4) (85MB)
Blog Post by: Michael Gerety
by community-syndication | Jul 14, 2011 | BizTalk Community Blogs via Syndication
Try these virtual labs to learn more about BizTalk Server 2010.
MSDN Virtual Lab: BizTalk Server 2010: Examining a BizTalk Application
MSDN Virtual Lab: BizTalk Server 2010: Creating a BizTalk Orchestration
MSDN Virtual Lab: BizTalk Server 2010: Creating Transactional Business Processes
MSDN Virtual Lab: BizTalk Server 2010: Monitoring Business Activity
MSDN Virtual
