Some good news in the BizTalk and Host Integration Server (HIS) world:

  • The new Host
    Integration Server Team Blog
    has launched! Looking forward to good content on
    the new features in HIS 2006.
  • The BizTalk
    Developer Center
    in MSDN has new content for december, focusing on integrating
    BizTalk with Windows Communication Foundation and Workflow Foundation:
    • The Reference
      Application Pack for Retail
      whitepaper: Presents one possible reference architecture
      for retail (store-oriented) applications based on Web Services and standards like IXRetail.
      The whitepaper comes with a sample implementation of a part of the model using WCF,
      BizTalk Server and Business Scorecard Manager.
    • Windows
      Workflow Foundation and BizTalk Server 2006 Code
      Sample
      : This is a simple example of integrating WF with BizTalk by having a workflow
      invoke a BizTalk orchestration exposed as a WebService. The scenario is that of a
      purchase order workflow validating the order and based on the total amount it either
      suspends it or sends it over to BizTalk for further processing.