I recently came across this great article that covers:
- Microsoft’s internal BizTalk 04 – 06 upgrade
- discusses biztalk 32-bit vs 64-bit performance gains
Grab it here – http://www.microsoft.com/technet/itshowcase/content/biztlk06upgtwp.mspx
(dont forget to grab the ‘technical whitepaper’ download on the RHS)
Here’s a snippet from the document
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Each of the 32-bit servers that ran BizTalk Server 2004 had a total processing power
of 19,661 MIPS. Generally, the e*BIS group did not experience any performance or reliability
issues with its BizTalk Server 2004 configuration. The 32-bit servers provided a robust
and reliable platform upon which to run BizTalk Server 2004. One of the limitations
that the group thought might affect its BizTalk Server environment is that in a 32-bit
environment, a single process cannot consume more than 1.5 gigabytes (GB) of RAM.
This limitation could cause problems in the future, as BizTalk Server hosts consume
and process an increasing number of transactions within the same CPU cycle. This limitation
does not exist in a 64-bit computing environment. Therefore, the group expected to
achieve better throughput and better performance by running BizTalk Server 2006 on
a 64-bit server. Because of the support for 64-bit computing that is included with
BizTalk Server 2006, the group determined that it could not only consolidate all of
its business feeds into a single BizTalk Server 2006 environment but also greatly
reduce the overall number of servers in that environment.
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