“Oslo” is a new modeling platform being developed by Microsoft that promises to simplify the way we design, build, and manage systems on Windows. Check out my last post on Introducing "Oslo" for more details.
Because CSD also includes the teams responsible for Windows Communication Foundation (WCF), Windows Workflow Foundation (WF), and BizTalk Server, it stands to reason that “Oslo” is related to these technologies to some degree. It’s also reasonable to question what future impact, if any, “Oslo” might have on your applications that were built using these CSD technologies.
There are many similarities between the current version of BizTalk Server and some of concepts that “Oslo” tries to address. These similarities raise some understandable questions about Microsoft’s future roadmap for BizTalk Server. There have even been rumblings of a complete BizTalk Server rewrite on top of the “Oslo” modeling platform. Given what a complete rewrite typically means to a product, this would probably not sit well with most enterprise customers who have made serious investments in BizTalk Server and are counting on a stable future.
In order to help answer these concerns, Microsoft recently announced their plans for the next version of BizTalk Server, which will carry the moniker BizTalk Server 2009 (instead of the previously planned “R3” title), and clarified the future roadmap for the product. They announced that BizTalk Server 2009 will focus on the following improvements/additions: updated Windows platform support (e.g., Windows Server 2008, SQL Server 2008, and Visual Studio 2008), improved service enablement, a built-in UDDI registry, improved B2B integration, increased developer productivity, and even Hyper-V support. Notice there was no mention of "Oslo" in the list of new features.
Microsoft also made it clear that they plan to continue releasing a new version of BizTalk Server approximately every two years along with interim service packs as needed. They seem genuinely committed to maintaining the stability of backwards-compatibility of the product. Microsoft has assured customers that even with “Oslo” on the horizon, the charter for BizTalk Server remains consistent – it allows the Microsoft application platform to connect and interoperate with other kinds of systems (e.g., LOB applications, legacy systems, RFID devices, and B2B standards). BizTalk Server will remain focused on these core strengths and will not be rewritten for “Oslo” until it can value for their customers.
Microsoft has emphasized that BizTalk Server will follow a disciplined, evolutionary path to ease customer adoption of the newer platform technologies while continuing to build on the current mature BizTalk Server architecture. They have also promised that BizTalk customers won’t be forced to migrate to a newer version of the product before they are ready, and they have committed to providing backwards compatibility for applications built against previous BizTalk Server versions.
Furthermore, BizTalk customers will be able to take advantage of the “Oslo” modeling platform benefits – without any architectural changes to the product – by simply service-enabling their BizTalk solutions and composing those BizTalk services into composite “Oslo” applications using the modeling platform components.
So if you’re a BizTalk customer and “Oslo” is making you nervous, you can relax. Microsoft doesn’t have immediate plans to redesign BizTalk Server around “Oslo” from what I understand. The product team will remain focused on adding new features and capabilities requested by customers, and they’ll take a longer-term approach for incorporating new “Oslo”-driven features when that makes sense.
The BizTalk team will have to decide, like everyone else, if the “Oslo” modeling platform brings enough value to customers to warrant changes that might impact customers in the future. If the business value is evident, customers will want it. Otherwise, customers simply won’t put up with it.
What's probably more likely in the shorter term is some convergence between BizTalk Server and the new "Dublin" extensions that were also announced at PDC. "Dublin" provides a hosting and management experience for WCF and WF applications that will remind you a lot of BizTalk Server. I don't know of any details but it seems like an obvious path forward. I'll write more about "Dublin" in a separate post.