Taking the Voyage from BizTalk to Logic Apps

If your current BizTalk version is at the end of support, it’s time to initiate discussions for upgrade or migration to Logic Apps for a more modernized solution. 

For companies considering a migration to cloud, there are many factors to consider like benefits, risks, and what makes the most sense for your business. While there are many problems that can be solved by moving to the cloud, it is also essential to grasp the challenges during a redesign of enterprise integration models.

A couple of common questions we encounter:

• Is this a one-to-one migration from BizTalk Integration to Azure Integration services?
• Can we migrate all BizTalk components to Logic App serverless architecture? 

We’ll address the answers below.

1) BizTalk to Logic Apps – 1-to-1 migration?

I wish there was a migration tool that could help us migrate BizTalk components to Azure Logic Apps but unfortunately, there isn’t nor is there a straightforward procedure for performing the migration.

Moving into Azure Integration services requires a new approach and architecture to make use of many different concepts that are available. Below is one recommended approach.

Explore

Get into the vision of Azure integration services

• API Economy
• Logic Apps
• Serverless
• ISE (Integration Service Environment)
• Pay as you use

Assess

Evaluate the environment and identify use cases

• Investigate the current environment and identify a single pilot scenario
• Understand Azure integration concepts and create use case for pilot execution

Design

Discuss and design a target architecture

• Connectors
• API Economy
• Serverless
• Reactive Scale

Note: Every organization will have their own policies and processes. It is valuable to have conversations around both to detect their biases and find new perspectives. Adopting a cloud paradigm requires a different approach to expose the value of design at a strategic level and take advantage of modern concepts.

Migrate

Create a proper migration plan and consider the migration intricacy based on how current BizTalk components are designed and developed. A few tricky cases include:

• BizTalk implementation with a huge code base
• Lots of rules engine usage

2) Can we migrate seamlessly from BizTalk to Logic Apps?

Many different assets can be easily transferred from BizTalk to Logic App, including:

• Schema
• Maps
• EDI agreements

The following items need to be remodeled in Logic Apps:

• • Orchestrations
  • Pipeline
  • Custom code

Tricky cases that make it more complex and hard to move scenarios include:

• • Lots of rules engine
  • BizTalk implementation with custom code basis

The table below shows a few Azure integration services capabilities that can be leveraged during the process of migration from BizTalk to Azure Logic Apps.

Final Thoughts

All in all, making the transition from BizTalk to Logic Apps is possible, especially with the right support and expertise. If you believe it is the right time to initiate discussions for an upgrade or migration to Logic Apps, consider speaking with an expert. For instance, our team at SPR can help to set up a pilot project—providing a pathway to migrate from BizTalk and onto the cloud with proper assessment, planning, and implementation. For more details send us a request.