BizTalk 2010 Beta and AppFabric

In my previous post I mentioned I was going to try out AppFabric on my BizTalk Server 2010 Beta VM. There is whitepaper out called BizTalk + AppFabric, Better Together, but I used different set of prerequisites:

• Latest version AppFabric that can be download from MS;
• SQL Server 2008 Enterprise Edition;
• BizTalk Server 2010 Beta;
• BizTalkWCFLOBAdapterSDK_x86_Beta.exe;
• BizTalkAdapterPack_x86_Beta.exe.

I forgot to install the hotfix, so when you want to configure AppFabric you will see the screen below.

You need to install this hotfix and IIS Web Deployment tool first, before you install AppFabric. Depending on your environment (operating system and architecture) you can choose :

• Windows Server 2008 x86 - WindowsServerAppFabricSetup_x86_6.0.exe <--- My choice for my VM
• Windows Vista x86 - WindowsServerAppFabricSetup_x86_6.0.exe
• Windows Server 2008 x64 - WindowsServerAppFabricSetup_x64_6.0.exe
• Windows Vista x64 - WindowsServerAppFabricSetup_x64_6.0.exe
• Windows 7 x86 - WindowsServerAppFabricSetup_x86_6.1.exe
• Windows Server 2008 R2 x64 - WindowsServerAppFabricSetup_x64_6.1.exe
• Windows 7 x64 - WindowsServerAppFabricSetup_x64_6.1.exe

And as soon as you got your AppFabric installed and configured you can follow the steps in the whitepaper, which are pretty straight forward as a walkthrough. In the end you can run the console app.

And check the results in SQL Management Studio.

I can conclude that AppFabric and BizTalk Server 2010 Beta with Beta Adapter SDK and Beta Adapter Pack work well together. Some other related resources you can check on BizTalk Server and AppFabric, see Thiago’s post and a post I did in the past Working with Windows Server AppFabric. This is definitely a technology to learn looking at future and confirmation that BizTalk is here to stay.

Technorati: biztalk server 2010 appfabric

BizTalk Server is here to stay.

Recently I saw a question on forum where some asked the question if Microsoft stops the production of BizTalk. If you look at BizTalk roadmap it ends at the version after the one that is coming up in Q3 or perhaps 4 this year. That roadmap can make you think that it ends after vNext, but my thinking is that with current evolution in Technology (which is at a fast pace) it is hard to assess how BizTalk will look like (feature wise) in 2014. In a current and future IT landscapes with Windows products in a dominant position there will always be a need for integration. Within the integration ecosystem there are various Microsoft and other products (i.e. ERP systems like SAP, which I see a lot in the Netherlands), and BizTalk still fulfills integration of that, which are not handled by any other product. For example, EDI, enterprise integration (be it application integration or inter enterprise integration), and ESB capabilities are still not handled by some other product well in a dominant Windows landscape. So BizTalk is here to stay for a long while and is not at the end of its lifecycle. It is being improved every two years and keeps pace with other technologies like .NET, Operating Systems and SQL Server. In the past there have been rumors, when Workflow came into play and project Dublin (now AppFabric) about BizTalk being retired. My thinking with current evolution of BizTalk is that it will become a first class citizen with Microsoft offerings. AppFabric and BizTalk will work together nicely as describe in the WhitePaper BizTalk + AppFabric, Better Together, which I am going to try out next in my BizTalk 2010 Beta VM.

Technorati: biztalk