I will be not the first nor last one that will blog, tweet or share through other social media that BizTalk Server 2013 is RTM. The 8th release in little over twelve years. That is amazing as I do not believe any Server Product has such a release cadence. Impressive as the Microsoft BizTalk Server Product keeps pushing out new features in the product.
There was talk, rumors or loud statements that this product was near its end. Some even pronounced or claimed it was dead. Au contraire is still alive as Microsoft will keep innovating the on-premise version. Besides on-premise you can run BizTalk in a VM i.e. IaaS solution for development/testing purposes. That is not all as BizTalk Services will follow in the Windows Azure Platform. This will be an enhancement of the previous EAI/EDI labs.
Microsoft’s BizTalk strategy will be that there is one BizTalk, on-premise and in the cloud.
The cadence of the Windows Azure BizTalk Services will differ as it will be innovated in a faster pace. I expect that the new on-premise release will follow in two years as we are accustomed to. In the end I believe the product will merge to one service that can be deployed on-premise or leveraged in Windows Azure.
The RTM of BizTalk is available through MSDN now and can be purchased starting in April. I like many fellow BizTalk professionals and Integration MVP’s will download it and install it on a VM.
Cheers,
Steef-Jan
