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Tech·Ed 2005: What's New from Microsoft's Business Process and Integration Division?

The "Buzz" Around BizTalk Server 2006 Was Significant
By Brian Loesgen
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June 9, 2005 02:00 PM EDT
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 12,476
The Business Process and Integration Division was out in full force at Tech·Ed this year, unveiling several new product releases.
 
What’s new for BizTalk 2006, Commerce Server 2006, and Host Integration Server 2006? We will take a high level look at what some of these changes are, and you can look for further coverage in future editions of the .NET Developer’s Journal.
 
BizTalk Server 2006
The “buzz” around BizTalk Server was significant, and it was prominently featured around the convention center as well as in the conference keynotes. Tech·Ed attendees were given a “community technology preview” (a pre-beta version). If you weren’t at Tech·Ed, you likely won’t be able to get this as there are no plans to make it broadly available.
 
BizTalk Server 2006 is an evolutionary release, building on the BizTalk Server 2004 foundation. Enhancements include:
  • Improved management and deployment capabilities, and a new “application” logical container and unit of deployment
  • BAM enhancements including the ability to do BAM on messaging-only solutions, and the super-cool alerts capabilities from BAM (using SQL Notification Services)
  • Support for SQL Server 2005 and Visual Studio .NET 2005
  • Developer improvements for tools like the orchestration designer, and the introduction of a flat file wizard to assist with the schema generation process needed to define flat file structure
  • The ability to subscribe to failed messages (so you can implement corrective compensation)
 As announced by Paul Flessner during his keynote on Tuesday, BizTalk Server 2006 will launch on November 7th as part of a major three-way launch of BizTalk Server 2006, Visual Studio 2005 and SQL Server 2005. While the launch is planned for November 2005, the actual release to manufacturing of BizTalk Server 2006 will happen in the first half of 2006.
 
Commerce Server 2006
The Commerce Server team was handing out technology previews of Commerce Server 2006, a major revision to the product for building transactional e-commerce sites.
 
New Commerce Server 2006 features include:
  • Inventory module
  • Connected commerce: BizTalk adapters will allow access to the CS catalog and other data stores
  • BizDesk has been replaced by a smart client application that provides functionality through an Outlook-like interface
  • Services-oriented architecture is exposed as a .NET API and a Web services layer
  • Automation of common tasks such as security, configuration and campaigns
  • Built on and extends ASP.NET 2.0. For example, you can use the Commerce Server data store for ASP.NET’s membership system by adding Commerce Server as a provider.
One of the more interesting new features is the support for “staging”, which allows users to change both page content and store data in a staging environment, then once properly approved changes are deployed to production servers.
 
The planned release of Commerce Server 2006 is first quarter 2006.
 
Host Integration Server 2006
The Host Integration Server team showed off the functionality of their upcoming Host Integration Server 2006 release.
 
Host Integration Server 2006 builds on the Host Integration Server 2004 release, and adds new capabilities including:
  • Transaction integrator generates a proxy as in HIS2004, but HIS2006 extends this by directly generating a corresponding Web service
  • Discriminated unions, redefines in a COMMAREA
  • The data access tool is now integrated into Visual Studio and allows access to DB2 in the same was as developers can access SQL Server (previously this was a standalone user experience)
  • Data access tool allows importing of a file layout and creates a host column description for VSAM files
  • MMC snap-in for managing Enterprise Single Sign-on (just like BizTalk Server 2006)
Host Integration Server 2006 will ship in the first half of the 2006 calendar year, no beta schedules have been announced.
 
Summary
This is an exciting time for Microsoft’s Business Process and Integration Division, with a solid stream of product working their way through the pipeline. Tech·Ed 2005 was the place to be to see what lies ahead.
 

Published June 9, 2005 – Reads 12,476
Copyright © 2005 SYS-CON Media, Inc. — All Rights Reserved.
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About Brian Loesgen

Based in San Diego, Brian Loesgen is a principal consultant with Neudesic, a firm that specializes in .NET development and Microsoft server integration. A Microsoft MVP for BizTalk Server 2004, Brian has over 18 years of experience in building advanced enterprise and mobile solutions. He's a coauthor of six books, including the recent "BizTalk Server 2004 Unleashed," and has written technical white papers for Intel, Microsoft and others. Brian has spoken at numerous major technical conferences worldwide and is a cofounder and past President of the International .NET Association (ineta.org). He is the president of the San Diego .NET user group, leads the San Diego Software Industry Council Web Services SIG, and is a member of the Editorial Board for .NET Developer's Journal. Brian is also a member of the Microsoft BPI Virtual Technical Specialist Team. Brian's blog is http://blogs.ineta.org/bloesgen.

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