BizTalk Server 2004, due out later this year, will be the first of Microsoft`s Jupiter-codenamed e-business solution platforms. This suite will also include Content Management Server and Commerce Server, and is aimed at integrating legacy systems, complex heterogeneous systems and business partners.
Mark Berman, principal technology specialist at Microsoft SA, told delegates at Tech-Ed 2003 at Sun City yesterday that integration would be much easier with the upcoming version of BizTalk.
"Information workers (anyone accessing electronic data), IT professionals and developers will all benefit in terms of standard views and links to enterprise systems," he said.
Berman said the maturation of Web services standards such as XML and SOAP (extensible markup language and simple object access protocol) has made it possible to include these standards into Visual Studio .Net 2003, to provide support for generating the Web services that will run on BizTalk and other products.
In addition, Microsoft has written "emerging" SOAP extensions such as WS Security (or Web Services Security - handling SOAP message integrity), WS Routing (routing SOAP messages over a variety of protocols) and WS Transaction (verifying transactions between distributed applications). Other "frontier" standards include BPEL (Business Process Execution Language), which forms part of BPEL WS and likewise allows BizTalk to participate in business processes across business boundaries, said Berman.
Berman highlighted Microsoft`s ease-of-use strategy to provide a single integrated developer`s environment, also evident in other technologies showcased at Tech-Ed, including the upcoming SQL Server, codenamed Yukon. "BizTalk is integrated into Visual Studio, meaning developers can create new BizTalk projects in a familiar environment."
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