Sergio Del Piccolo

   On Monday Microsoft announced the release of the next version of the ESB Toolkit (renamed from the ESB Guidance). The toolkit and it’s documentation is available for download, there is a ESB Toolkit MSDN site as well as a forum.

The ESB Toolkit 2.0 provides key building blocks required for implementing a service-oriented infrastructure (SOI) including:

• Endpoint run-time discovery and virtualization. The service consumer does not need to be aware of the service provider location and endpoint details; a new or modified service provider can be added to the ESB, without interruptions to the service consumer.
• Loosely coupled service composition. The service provider and service consumer do not need to be aware of service interaction style.
• Dynamic message transformation and translation. The mapping definition between distinct message structure and semantics is resolved at run time.
• Dynamic routing. Run-time content-based, itinerary-based, or context-based message routing.
• Centralized exception management. Exception management framework, services, and infrastructure elements that make it possible to create, repair, resubmit, and compensate fault messages that service consumers or BizTalk components submit.
• Quality of service. An asynchronous publish/subscribe engine resolves different levels of service availability and provides high availability, scalability, and message traceability for ESB implementations.
• Protocol transformation. Providing the ability for service provider and service consumer to interact via different protocols including WS-* standards for Web Services. For example, a service provider can send an HTTP Web Service request, which will result in sending a message via Message Queuing.
• Extensibility. Provides multiple extensibility points to extend functionality for endpoint discovery, message routing, and additional BizTalk Server adapters for run time and design time.

For more information, see SOA and Web Services section in the New Features in BizTalk 2009 Web page.

Links:
ESB Toolkit 2.0
Documentation
MSDN ESD Toolkit site
ESB Toolkit Forum

Microsoft, BizTalk, BizTalk Server, BizTalk Server 2009, SOA, Service Oriented Architecture, SOI, Service Oriented Infrastructure, ESB, Enterprise Service Bus

Microsoft released BizTalk Server 2009. New features in BizTalk include the following:

• Support for the latest platform technologies - including Windows Server 2008, SQL Server 2008, Visual Studio 2008 SP1, and the .NET Framework 3.5 SP1.
• Support for Microsoft Visual Studio Team System 2008 and Team Foundation Server. This enables the following capabilities:
  • Support for team development (including project manager, architects, developers, tester and ITPros.)
  • Seamless integration with Microsoft Project Server
  • Consistent automated application builds for ITPros with Microsoft build engine: MSBuild
  • Integrated source control
  • Bug tracking system
  • Support for unit testing
• Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) Guidance 2.0 – extends the capabilities of Microsoft BizTalk Server 2009 to support a loosely coupled messaging architecture.
• BizTalk Adapter Pack - The Windows Communication Foundation Line of Business (WCF LOB) SDK & BizTalk Adapter Pack 2.0 is now upgraded to the latest platform. In addition to enhancements to the existing adapters, the pack includes two new adapters:
  • The BizTalk Adapter for SQL Server
  • BizTalk Adapter for Oracle eBusiness Applications
• Improvements to Host Integration Server 2009 and the BizTalk Adapters for Host Systems.
• Enhanced Business Activity Monitoring (BAM).
• Extended BizTalk RFID capabilities.
• Enhance support for EDI and AS2.

Interestingly, the following BizTalk 2006 features were replaced in BizTalk 2009:

• Base EDI Adapter - BizTalk Server 2009 includes support for processing EDI and AS2 messages using XSD-based EDI schemas and pipeline components. This feature replaces the Base EDI Adapter and schemas included in previous releases of BizTalk Server.
• The MSMQt adapter - to communicate with Microsoft Message Queuing (MSMQ,) use the MSMQ adapter.
• Human Workflow Services (HWS) - as an alternative for Human workflow solutions, you should now use Office SharePoint Server.
• Business Activity Services (BAS) - You can use the EDI and AS/2 features for this functionality.
• Health and Activity Tracking (HAT) Tool - The tracked services and tracked messages reports that used to reside in the HAT module are now part of the New Query tab of the HUB group page.

Links
A 120 day trial of BizTalk Server 2009
Detailed feature list of BizTalk Server 2009

Microsoft, BizTalk Server 2009, BizTalk

Published earlier this month is the BizTalk Server 2009 Technical Overview. This word document is a technical overview providing a guided tour of BizTalk Server 2009. It includes the important features and business benefits that BizTalk Server provides and contains a detailed primer on how developers, administrators, and business users use BizTalk Server to develop and manage business process solutions.

Link: BizTalk Server 2009 Technical Overview 

Microsoft, BizTalk, BizTalk Server 2009

After what seems like a lengthy layoff (10 months without an issue), BizTalk HotRod has returned. Issue #5 is available and contains some interesting articles on BizTalk unit testing, SOA and BAM. The issue includes the following:

• Application Servers: BizTalk Vs Dublin
• Unit Testing in BizTalk Server 2009
• Better Together - The Solution for Tough Economic Times
• Monitoring a WCF Service with BAM
• Operations Management for BizTalk
• Governing the SOA Runtime with AmberPoint
• BizTalk monitoring and exception handling from any desktop
• Add Governance to BizTalk with SOA Software

Links
Read and download the current issue (and past issues): BizTalk Hotrod site
Subscribe: Editor@biztalkhotrod.com

BizTalk Server, BizTalk, BizTalk Hotrod

There’s a relatively new BAM whitepaper on MSDN that’s worth reading if you’re interested in finding out more about Business Activity Monitoring. Written by Jesus Rodriguez and Joe Klug it covers the following topics:

• a deep, low-level review of how BAM works and how it can be extended
• a review of BAM basics showing ways in which BAM data can be collected
• the BAM infrastructure
• a demonstration of methods for collecting BAM data
• how BAM can be extended to non-Microsoft technologies

Read here article here - http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd320628.aspx 
Downloaded the whitepaper with sample code here - http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=139086

BizTalk, BizTalk Server, MSDN, BAM, Business Activity Monitoring, Jesus Rodriguez, Joe Klug

K2 released K2 blackpoint today. K2 blackpoint is feature-rich software eliminating complexity and allowing business users and non-developers to quickly build workflow solutions and process-driven applications within Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 and Windows SharePoint Services 3.0. K2 blackpoint offers drag-and-drop tools, a Microsoft Office-style designer (K2 Studio) and a Silverlight-based K2 Web Designer.

It can be used to create new SharePoint workflows that span libraries, sites, InfoPath forms, server farms and organizations; manage approvals; and route documents and list items. With K2 blackpoint everything can be built without code, and users can assemble new applications from information that already exists and workflows that have already been built.

K2 blackpoint is a subset of K2 blackpearl features and tools. It offers an upgrade path so organizations can grow their investment and add capabilities over time. K2 blackpearl is the centrepiece of the K2 platform for building enterprise-ready, process-driven applications.

Pricing for K2 blackpoint is extremely competitive starting at $5,000 for up to 200 users. Automated workflow is now more achievable than ever!

Make sure you evaluate K2 blackpoint today!

K2 Underground - K2 blackpoint forums

SourceCode, K2, K2 blackpearl, K2 blackpoint, K2 Underground, MOSS, Microsoft Office SharePoint Server

  I was recently asked about how MetaStorm compares to K2 blackpearl. Having spent a great deal of time with K2 technology and none with MetaStorm, I decided some research was required. Luckily for me one of my fellow K2 Insiders, Jason Apergis, has pondered the same question. He wrote a great article on what each does and what their differentiators are. His article can be viewed here: http://www.k2distillery.com/2009/02/k2-blackpearl-and-metastorm-comparison.html

SourceCode, K2, K2 blackpearl, K2 Insiders, Jason Apergis, MetaStorm

The Microsoft SOA & Business Process Conference sessions for 2009 are available for download and viewing. The conference which was held at the end of January contained some interesting sessions on SOA, BizTalk, Oslo and Dublin.

The content can be viewed on Windows Live here: http://soaconference2009.spaces.live.com/default.aspx

One of the best sessions I attended was on the ESB Guidance 2.0 presented by Peter Kelcey. Peter’s session can be found here: http://soaconference2009.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!FA6FC7F5DB1C07!136.entry

Microsoft, Microsoft SOA Conference, BizTalk,   Enterprise Service Bus Guidance, ESB Guidance Toolkit, Peter Kelcey

K2 announced the release of the K2 blackpearl Migration Utility. This tool is used to transfer and manipulate data from existing K2.net 2003 databases to K2 blackpearl databases. It enables you to seamlessly start new and continue the execution of all currently running K2.net 2003 process instances on K2 blackpearl.

It requires the K2 blackpearl 0807 release with the KB000370 update, both of which are available on the K2 Customer Portal.

Prior to installing and migrating your data read the accompanying documentation as it is imperative that you evaluate your K2.net 2003 processes and test the migration in a non-production environment before attempting to migrate production servers.

• If you require K2.net 2003 archiving functionality, it is recommended that you do not migrate at this time
• If you make use of a user manager other than Active Director (ADUM), please contact support prior to starting the migration process, even in a test environment

K2, SourceCode, K2 blackpearl, K2.Net 2003

There’s a new BizTalk poster available for download from the Microsoft Download Center. It’s called the BizTalk Server 2009 Scale-out Configurations Poster and describes typical scenarios and commonly used options for scaling out BizTalk Server 2009 physical configurations and illustrates the following:

• Scaling out to achieve high availability through load balancing and fault tolerance
• Configuring for high-throughput scenarios

Other available BizTalk Server posters include:

1. BizTalk Server 2006 R2 Legacy Modernization with Host Integration Server 2006
2. BAM Poster for Microsoft BizTalk Server 2006 R2
3. BizTalk Server 2006 R2 Capabilities Poster 
4. BizTalk Server 2006 R2 Capabilities Poster - Interactive Web version
5. BizTalk Server 2006 R2 Database Infrastructure Poster
6. BizTalk Server 2006 R2 Runtime Architecture Poster
7. BizTalk Adapter Pack 2.0/WCF LOB Adapter SDK Poster

Microsoft, BizTalk, BizTalk Server 2009, Microsoft Download Center