Integrate 2014 – BizTalk Roadmap

Microsoft’s focus at Integrate 2014 was on application platform/Integration in a mobile first, cloud-first world.  The key message was to deliver experiences that consumers like. These include shifting running app on mobile device, using touch, voice and sensors with data coming from people, as well as devices and systems that are orchestrated globally using SaaS services.

There is also a shift seen in B2B/EDI implementations with a need for global partner implementation to simply the partner onboarding process and support “Cloud Friendly” protocols.

Microsoft will be refactoring the application platform based on the following guiding principles

• Integrated app services
• Secure, hybrid cloud ( Hybrid is still reality and provides integration with on-premises connectivity )
• SaaS connectivity
• Business user friendly (Self-service oriented approach using web based experience and modern mobile devices)
• Ecosystem driven
• Enterprise grade
• Cloud scale
• Open (Support tools and technologies in open source area)

A refactored application platform will be delivered with Integration at the core to build modern applications.

• Common application container and cross-platform extensibility mode
• Integrated API management  to protect business critical solutions with authentication and key management and built in logging for analytics and insight
• Microservices runtime and development ecosystem that will support cross platform application, with deep diagnostics logging functionality
• Cloud Orchestration Engine will be built and delivered by BizTalk Team leveraging various microservices.  Web-based process designer toll will be created to enable developers and business users to easily define and track business process.   Orchestration engine will support both on-demand and long-running processes.
• Complete Web + mobile experiences
• BizTalk Microservices will be built and made available by Product team on Azure Ecosystem providing

• Out of the box Standard protocols ( HTTP, Ftp, Sftp, POP3, Rest )
• Common Enterprise Apps ( SQL Server, SAP, Oracle, IBM Db2 )
• Most popular consumer and enterprise SaaS connectivity ( Azure Service  Bus, Blob Storage, OneDrive, Salesforce, Dynamic CRM, WorkDay, SuccessFactors, Yammer )
• BizTalk Mediation Patterns & Feature set (Validation, Batching, Debatching, Transformation)
• Business Rules
• Trading Partner Management
• AS2 Protocol
• Batching
• EDIFact and X12 Protocols

Refactored application platform updates will be released (preview) in Q1 2015. From the on-premises perspective, the message was to migrate BizTalk on-premises version to 2013 or 2013R2.   BizTalk Team did reiterate plan on release cadence to have Major version every year and minor version every other year. Below is the Support Lifecycle for BizTalk, OS and SQL Server.

Product team also shared the general guidelines on how existing customer’s on-premises BizTalk implementation can leverage cloud features (hybrid scenario):

B2B

• With public internet protocols for EDI communication, we can migrate EDI features on the server and provide a seamless integration with the same functionality on MABS 1.0

Azure Recovery Services

• For disaster recovery across geographies, Azure recovery services are recommended for Backing/Restoring BizTalk Databases

Adapters on the Cloud

• Web-facing adapters can be hosted on the cloud and can be made highly available (Http, Https, As2, Ftp, Sftp )

Tracking Archive & Analysis

• Use of DocumentDb or similar store as archive store for tracking data can be leveraged to run complex BI queries using PowerBI for instance

Happy BizTalking!