BizTalk Roadmap for On-Premises, IaaS and PaaS

  • Article

Many of customers have been asking about BizTalk roadmap, what Microsoft is doing in the cloud, and questions about running BizTalk in Azure. Last week at TechEd North America 2012 Microsoft presented two sessions on the BizTalk Roadmap and demonstrations around BizTalk On-Premises, BizTalk IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service) and BizTalk PaaS (Platform as a Service) scenarios. This is exciting news that I wanted to get out to you as soon as possible. It reinforces Microsoft commitment to BizTalk for future on-premises versions and also in the Cloud. Additionally, I’ve provided information on our new Azure IaaS offering which will be rolling out that is leveraged by BizTalk IaaS. -Jonathan Moons

BizTalk Roadmap and Updates for On-Premises, IaaS, PaaS

TechEd provided two sessions around BizTalk futures:

Here is are some highlights from the two sessions at TechEd. Bala Sriram, Director of Development for BizTalk provided the introduction at the road map session and covered some key points around BizTalk:

  • More then 12,000 Customers
  • 79% of BizTalk users have already adopted BizTalk Server 2010
  • BizTalk Server will be released for “years to come” after this release. I.e. There will be more releases of BizTalk after BizTalk 2010 R2.
  • BizTalk 2010 R2 will be releasing 6 months after Windows 8
  • New Azure (Cloud-based) BizTalk scenarios will be available in IaaS and PaaS
  • BizTalk Server on-premises, IaaS, and PaaS are complimentary and designed to work together
  • BizTalk Investments will be taken forward

The second session was mainly around drilling in and demonstrating the up and coming capabilities in BizTalk Server on-premise, IaaS, and PaaS:

  • BizTalk IaaS:
    • Users will be able to bring their own or choose from a Azure IaaS template to quickly provision BizTalk Server virtual machines (VHDs)
  • BizTalk Server 2010 R2:
    • Native adapter to connect to Azure Service Bus Queues, Topics and Relay.
    • Native send port adapter for REST. Demonstrated this in connecting to Salesforce to get and update Salesforce information.
    • ESB Toolkit will be incorporate are part of product and setup
  • BizTalk PaaS:
    • HTTP, FTP, Service Bus, LOB Application connectivity
    • XML and Flat File processing
    • Message properties
    • Transformation, Archiving, Tracking
    • Content based routing

Azure IaaS – Persistent Virtual Machine

Azure IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service) and Azure Network are the most significant enhances to Azure since the initial release of Azure. If you are familiar with Amazon Web Services, this is what Azure IaaS is also about. It provides companies to ability to either take stock images that Microsoft offers or to bring their own VHD to Azure and quickly and easily set it up to run. VMs (Virtual Machines) can run standalone with be connected to the same virtual network and even federated with your on-premises servers.

This also becomes a key component to running BizTalk IaaS in Azure and allows customers to easily take existing BizTalk Server solution and run them in Azure. Here are a couple sessions explaining these new capabilities:

  • AZR201: Windows Azure IaaS and How It WorksWindows Azure IaaS and How It Works: Cover our Windows Azure Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) solution and how it works. Discusses how you provision, deploy, and manage Virtual Machines and Applications in Windows Azure. The session spends time covering both the new management portal and PowerShell management options.
  • AZR209: Windows Azure Virtual Machines and Virtual Networks: Covers Virtual Machine storage architecture and shows how to provision and customize virtual machines, configure network connectivity between virtual machines, and configure site-to-site networks that enable true applications that span from on-premises to Windows Azure.