Azure Thoughts, EAI Challenges

Windows Azure BizTalk Services (WABS) provides capabilities for EAI and B2B in the cloud. This relative new service was made available for customers in November 2013. WABS is a cloud integration platform or integration platform as a service or IPaaS . Characteristic of IPAAS is that you build your integration on premise, deploy in the cloud, where it is hosted in a service (set of dedicated hardware). The service is offered through a subscription model for operating the service in the cloud (for BizTalk Services this means Windows Azure hence the name Windows Azure BizTalk Services). Currently there are quite some players offering that service like Dell, Attunity, MuleSoft, TIBCO, and so on. Microsoft is currently pushing the service hard to catch up with some of these players and try to quicken/hasten the maturity of the product. Therefore, Microsoft has committed to have a release cadence for new features every three months. The recent release was in February 2014, which added new ...

In a previous post I explored a new feature of the Windows Azure SDK 1.7. in Visual Studio, the Service Bus Explorer. I demonstrated the capabilities of this feature in Visual Studio, creating new queues, topics, subscriptions and rules. The same capabilities are present in the Service Bus Standalone tool (Windows Forms Application) built by Paolo Salvatori . INTRODUCTION The stand alone tool can be download from MSDN Code Gallery. You can then open the compressed file. Subsequently open the solution in Visual Studio 2010 or 2012 RC. Build and run it. To use the tool you need to connect to the Service Bus. In menu bar you select Menu –> Connect. In dialog that pops up you fill in the details. You click Ok an connection with the Service Bus will be made. You can now start creating and using queues, topics and subscriptions similar as with explorer in Visual Studio. However, the user experience is different as the Standalone version offers more functions when you right c...

  Introduction In my post on Future BizTalk Server Release and Microsoft Integration Strategy I discussed the three pronged Microsoft integration strategy: On-premise BizTalk (a CTP of next version will be released this summer) BizTalk IaaS ( Infrastructure as a Services ), Windows Azure offers services like Virtual Machine and Virtual Network to enable to have your BizTalk infrastructure in the cloud; BizTalk PaaS ( Platform as a Services ) with EDI/EAI integration capabilities using the Service Bus. In this post I like to share my exploration of the Windows Azure Service Bus . My focus is on BizTalk professionals that do not yet have much experience/knowledge of the Windows Azure Service Bus.Two sessions by Clemens Vasters from last TechEd North America were my baseline before I started my exploration: Overview and Roadmap of Windows Azure Service Bus Achieving Enterprise Integration Patterns with Windows Azure Service Bus I will explore capabilities...