Azure Thoughts, EAI Challenges

December 2011 almost a year ago I wrote a blog post for TechNet Wiki on Windows Azure- and Server AppFabric . Now on the Server part a cookbook has been released written by fellow Microsoft Integration MVP  Rick G. Garibay and Microsoft Architect Hammad Rajjoub .   I know both Rick and Hammad (both very active community leaders) have done a great job. Windows Server AppFabric can be viewed as a part of the Microsoft Integration Stack together with BizTalk, SQL Server and Azure ServiceBus. For lightweight integration Windows Server AppFabric together with WF (Windows Workflow) and WCF (Windows Communication Foundation) can be a right fit within your enterprise without using the more scalable, robust BizTalk Server or Windows Azure Service Bus. The eBook Contest I have teamed up with Packt Publishing and am organizing a give away especially for you my blog readers. All you need to do is send me an email with your view on Microsoft integration at SteefJan @ msn...

Microsoft today has put Windows Azure Service Bus EAI and EDI Labs on its Windows Azure Platform . These labs provides integration capabilities for the Windows Azure Platform to extend on-premises applications to the cloud, provides rich messaging endpoints on the cloud to process and transform the messages, and helps organizations integrate with disparate applications, both on cloud and on-premises. In other words, Service Bus EAI and EDI Labs provides common integration capabilities (e.g. bridges, transforms, B2B messaging) on Windows Azure Service Bus. Below you find list of resources (taken from Windows Azure Service Bus EAI and EDI Labs - December 2011 Release page ): Installing the Windows Azure Service Bus EAI and EDI Labs - December 2011 Supplies details about what is required to properly install and run Service Bus EAI and EDI Labs. Service Bus EAI and EDI Labs - Tutorials Start learning the basics of developing Service Bus EAI and EDI Labs solutions using these sho...

In a post yesterday I should a way to invoke a stored procedure in SQL Azure using WCF-SQL Adapter. There is another to invoke a stored procedure using AppFabric Connect for Services functionality in BizTalk Server 2010. This new feature feature brings together the capabilities of BizTalk Server and Windows Azure AppFabric thereby enabling enterprises to extend the reach of their on-premise Line of Business (LOB) systems and BizTalk applications to cloud. To be able to bridge the capabilities of BizTalk Server and Windows Azure AppFabric you will need Biztalk Server 2010 Feature Pack . In this post I will show how to leverage BizTalk WCF-SQL Adapter to extend reach of stored procedure to the cloud. First I will create a service that will expose the stored-procedure. I create a VS Studio project and select WCF Adapter Service. Steps that follow are also described in an article called Exposing LOB Services on the Cloud Using AppFabric Connect for Services . I skip first page concern...

Tomorrow I will be giving a master class around BizTalk and AppFabric at my company. It will be a Dutch presentation on BizTalk Server 2010, AppFabric Connect and Windows Azure/Server AppFabric. With AppFabric connect one can extend reach of BizTalk orchestrations and LoB applications to the cloud. Most of information I will be sharing is similar to what can be found in: TechEd Session BizTalk What’s it…?, What’s New..? and What’s next..?; BizTalk Server 2010 Training kit ; BizTalk Server 2010 AppFabric Connect For Services ; Windows Server AppFabric Samples ; AppFabric Connect ; BizTalk AppFabric Connect: An Introduction ; Working with AppFabric Connect ; Exposing LOB Services on the Cloud Using AppFabric Connect for Services ; Exposing BizTalk Applications on the Cloud using AppFabric Connect for Services . Session is open for all professionals inside and outside our company, partners and customers. With AppFabric integration will get a new meaning as capabilities with Microsoft te...

Tomorrow BizTalk User Group will get together for some interesting sessions at BTUG Meeting. One can still sign up for it. The BTUG meetings are for architects, engineers and project managers, who are interested in and have experience working with Microsoft BizTalk Server. BizTalk User Group (BTUG) aims to create a network of companies, which inspire each other and share knowledge. The purpose of the BTUG is to accelerate the learning effect on the application of new technology and the consequences for the organization. The BTUG provides a platform for knowledge and experience exchange between users and the ability to make informal contacts. Tomorrow the BTUG meeting will extensively dive into BizTalk 2010 and all Dutch BizTalk MVP’s will do a session: • BizTalk 2010, what's new? ( Randal van Splunteren and myself) • Extended and scalable integration through the cloud (Leveraging the Microsoft Application Platform and Windows Azure AppFabric to the max) ( Gijsbert in 't Veld ...

During European BizTalk Conference we were told BizTalk 2010 was going to be released before end of September and moment has come. It offers a developer edition, which can be downloaded . BizTalk Server 2010 Developer is a free edition of BizTalk Server that enables developers to build and test applications that run on BizTalk Server on both 32-bit and 64-bit platforms.  BizTalk Server 2010 Developer includes all of the functionality of Enterprise Edition, but is licensed only for development, test, and demo use.  Solutions from BizTalk Server 2010 Developer Edition can easily be packaged and deployed to a production environment that is configured with any other edition of BizTalk Server 2010. Besides that BizTalk Server 2010 introduces a new feature “ AppFabric Connect ”, which combines rich proven features of BizTalk Server and the flexible development experience of .NET to allow users to easily develop simple integration applications (See Installing the BizTalk Serve...

Few weeks ago I registered for BizTalk 2010 Release Party in Stockholm organized by Swedish BizTalk User Group led by Mikael Håkansson and Johan Hedberg . I went to this event that took place this week on Wednesday and Thursday. It turned out that BizTalk wasn’t released yet, it will happen somewhere at end of this month as we were told. Event was renamed to European BizTalk Conference, while most sessions where about AppFabric which is good (I will tell why in a minute). AppFabric can mean two things: Windows Azure platform AppFabric and Windows Server AppFabric enable IT professionals to build and manage applications more easily both on-premises and in the cloud . It is important to know when people talk about AppFabric in what context on- or off premises. Just recently the Windows Server AppFabric Customer Advisory Team released the Windows Server AppFabric Architecture Guide .There have one good resource already, but there is more: This book just released through Pack Pub...

Microsoft’s Windows Server AppFabric Customer Advisory Team ( CAT) has launched a new blog focused on AppFabric (both Windows Server AppFabric and Azure AppFabric), WCF, WF, BizTalk, data modeling and StreamInsight. This team contains the artists-formerly-known-as-BizTalk-Rangers, and they provide deep expertise on BizTalk Server, Windows Server AppFabric, WCF, WF, AppFabric Caching and StreamInsight (CEP). These technologies become more and more important in time to come, when it comes to integration, process automation, SOA and Cloud Computing. This is something to look at closely and I suggest to digest it’s content. Also I suggest to read Richard’s post on Microsoft Customer Advisory Teams, and why should know them. Technorati: biztalk server 2010 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 - WindowsSe...

New version of BizTalk Server 2009 R2 has been announced . It will no doubt about align with latest versions of Microsoft Platform like Visual Studio 2010, Windows Server 2008 R2 and SQL Server 2008 R2. So like BizTalk Server 2006, there will be R2 following up shortly. What I find interesting to see at blogpost from Thiago was that BizTalk Server 2009 R2 will be released in 2010 with AppFabric wave of releases, so my little endeavor with AppFabric yesterday comes in handy. I should say read Thiago post for starters and then move to Brain post with more information, background and thoughts. Of course you can also if you have the time watch PDC video about BizTalk Futures and roadmap. Technorati: AppFabric Roadmap BizTalk