Almost two years ago I posted a story on the BizTalk roadmap and made a statement that it here to stay. I ended the post with:
“My thinking with current evolution of BizTalk is that it will become a first class citizen with Microsoft offerings.”
I am not Nostradamus or a fortuneteller yet my feeling back then told that BizTalk is not dead yet. With such a strong and vibrant community and over 10.000 customers I could not imaging that Microsoft would stop investing in it. Another story that confirmed my thinking and of many others I think was the well known and written post “Is BizTalk Server Going Away At Some Point? Yes. Dead? Nope.” by Richard Seroter July last year.
Year 2012 Microsoft is still investing in BizTalk and bringing out the next version beginning of 2013. A lot of features/enhancements are revealed during TechEd North America. Kent Weare, BizTalk MVP from Canada has been cranking out some excellent posts on what Microsoft will be bringing out in the near future or what has been released now. His focus during the TechEd has been mainly been on integration and he elaborates a lot on Microsoft strategy (see also my post on Future BizTalk Server Release and Microsoft Integration Strategy). Here is list of blog post (reports) Kent wrote while attending the TechEd NA:
- Microsoft TechEd North America 2012-Day 1
- Microsoft TechEd North America 2012-Day 2
- Microsoft TechEd North America 2012-Day 3
- Application Integration Futures – The Road Map and what’s next on Windows Azure
- Building Integration Solutions Using Microsoft BizTalk On-Premises and on Windows Azure – Javed Sikander and Rajesh Ramamirtham
- Microsoft TechEd North America 2012-Day 4
Sessions given during TechEd can be watched online through channel9. Some of interesting ones concerning integration, BizTalk and IaaS are:
- Application Integration Futures: The Road Map and What’s Next on Windows Azure
- Building Integration Solutions Using Microsoft BizTalk On-Premises and on Windows Azure
- Overview and Roadmap of Windows Azure Service Bus
- Achieving Enterprise Integration Patterns with Windows Azure Service Bus
- Windows Azure Virtual Machines and Virtual Networks
- Windows Azure Today and Tomorrow
I think with the BizTalk Server community and enterprises running BizTalk will be filled with joy and relief hearing the news from Microsoft on its plans with integration. The product BizTalk Server is still standing strong and Microsoft will be investing in now with the upcoming release and beyond that. I believe it will become a first class citizen with the Microsoft Integration technology stack.
Cheers,
– Steef-Jan
