Woo who!!! It’s done!
BizTalk Server 2006 released to manufacturing today. My heart-felt congratulations go out to the developers, testers and program managers who have marched through the marathon of the monumental task that is shipping major software.
This is by far the strongest version of BizTalk Server that Microsoft has shipped to date. It is certainly the most customer focused version ever. Great attention has been placed on simplifying installation, upgrade, application deployment, management, process visibility and even licensing. The documentation is incredible. There is not 1, or even 2, but there are 3 complete real-world, installable, BizTalk reference applications in the SDK and documented in the core docs under “Scenarios for Business Solutions”.
BizTalk Server 2006 is the stake in the ground from Microsoft that will carry the industry to unparalleled Business Process Management System capabilities moving forward. As bright as that future is, today is all about one thing, RTM: That one most major milestone in a product’s life cycle. I gotta tell you this feels great!
The RTM version of BizTalk Server 2006 Developer Edition will be available on MSDN downloads as soon as the site administrators can get through the process of placing it there. I’m told that will be either today or tomorrow. The software will be Generally Available, or on the price list for purchase on May 1st.
--mike