Azure Thoughts, EAI Challenges

I wish you all a happy new year 2009. This is my last post of the year and number 100 (special, not really more a coincidence). I expect a lot to happen in 2009. New release of BizTalk, ‘cloud computing’ (than fortunately does not have an acronym like Web 2.0, SOA or ESB) and credit crunch (yes there will be a recession, but we will get over it). I am very motivated to make 2009 a great success, personally and professionally. Good luck to you all of you that is reading this post.

Yesterday I have received the Inter Access Writers Award from our new CEO Michel de Meijer during Christmas drink. I was very happy to be recognized as a writer and to be able to making the brand Inter Access stronger in the Dutch press. I have written a couple of articles in Software Release Magazine and Software Development Network. Article involved BizTalk, Internet Service Bus (BizTalk Services now appropiately named .NET Services), Enterprise Service Bus (Microsoft ESB Guidance), WCF and integration with SharePoint (Business Case). Besides the article I did a number of blog posts this year and became member of Computable SaaS topic expert panel. This award really made proud and is an recognition for all of my writing efforts. Year 2008 has been a wonderful year with LEAP last January, PDC 2008, articles, blogging, projects and working with colleagues like Edward, Johan, Diederik, Paul, Rogier, Edwin, Kees, Martijn, Hugo, Jan-Hugo, Eli, Marcel, Marco, Martin, Joseph, Eveline, Ar

As anybody doing BizTalk probably knows that BizTalk Server 2009 CTP is available . I for one wanted to try it out so I download a couple things to get a BizTalk Server 2009 instance up and running. I download a couple of trail software, mimic a situation where one does not have a MSDN subscription available but still is able to create an BizTalk Server 2009 environment: Windows Server 2008 Enterprise Visual Studio Team Suite 2008 SQL Server 2008 Enterprise To install Windows Server 2008 Enterprise on VPC 2007,I found a good post how to do it. I succeeded by following explanation in the post. Done with any problems. I added one role IIS (and WAS). Next installed SQL Server 2008 together with prerequites in this case NET 3.5 SP1. I done a stand-alone installation of SQL Server 2008 Enterprise Edition with Basic Features: database engine, management console. Set-up is easy and went smoothly. After installation I noticed mscorsvw.exe (.NET Runtime Optimization Service)

Thanks to Richard I noticed BizTalk Server 2009 public beta is available (Microsoft Connect). After struggling a bit with my browser (Vista, IE7) and File Transfer Manager I downloaded: BizTalk Server 2009 Beta - Release Notes BizTalk Server 2009 Beta - Installation and Configuration Guide BizTalk Server 2009 Accelerators Beta Evaluation Download BizTalk Server 2009 Public Beta Evaluation Download With this public beta I can also now try out ESB Guidance 2.0 CTP released last October through CodePlex. The Guidance is intended for developers working with Microsoft BizTalk Server 2009 (us after having public beta) and who build solutions that leverage the Service Oriented Architecture pattern (Architects). To take full advantage of the Microsoft ESB Guidance, developers should possess the following on a VPC: Microsoft BizTalk Server 2009 Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 SP1 So I finally work with this release (try it out). Thanks Richard for info. Technorat

A couple of days ago new BizTalk Server 2006 R2 documentation was released . It is available in two formats : CHM and HxS. Technorati: BizTalk 2006 R2 BizTalk Server 2006 R2 BizTalk

I found out that Microsoft released another whitepaper around BizTalk Server recently than the one from Dennis Mulder. There is an other around troubleshooting SOAP adapter in docx format. Summary: Microsoft® BizTalk® Server uses the SOAP adapter and orchestrations to receive and send Web service requests. The SOAP adapter enables orchestrations to be published as Web services and consume external Web services. Because configuring and/or using Web services can be complex, BizTalk Server handles many of these complexities on behalf of the user. Even so, there are still issues arising from time to time. This white paper is designed to highlight common issues and to provide guidance for how to resolve them. Another good resource :) Technorati: BizTalk 2006 R2 BizTalk Server 2006 R2 BizTalk

I will be attending SOA & BPM Conference next year end of January. Today I received an email from Paul Sanford that one can expect the following during the conference: Network With Your Peers Arrive early on January 27 th for the welcome reception co-sponsored by Microsoft Dynamics.  There will also be a reception the evening of January 28 th hosted by Global Premier Sponsor HP.  Agenda and Session Lists will soon be available! By Friday, December 5 th the full session list and other information will be posted on the event website, please click here to view.  Real World Customers Roundtable Discussion In a first for the SOA & Business Process Conference, you will have the opportunity to talk to customers at the end of day 1 in an unmonitored, peer-to-peer discussion so that you can learn directly from those who have been in the trenches. Microsoft Product Groups Roundtable Discussion Microsoft product group representatives

Dennis Mulder has written a whitepaper available through MSDN about Developing Integration Solutions using BizTalk Server 2006 and Team Foundation Server. Last BTUG meeting he did a presentation around BizTalk and TFS with focus on msbuild. Whitepaper The provides developers with techniques for designing, developing, and deploying solutions within Microsoft® BizTalk® Server 2006 (R2) in conjunction with Team Foundation Server. This paper was based on "Developing Integration Solutions with BizTalk Server" by Angus Foreman and Andy Nash and updated for BizTalk Server 2006 (R2) and Team Foundation Server. Technorati: BizTalk 2006 R2 BizTalk Server 2006 R2 BizTalk

There are various approaches for developing BizTalk solutions in team environments e.g. isolated "sandbox" models versus shared development servers, the use of VPC or physical boxes and moving from development to staging to production. Having a “sandbox” is best option, which is something I learned recently during a session at BTUG. Having an isolated environment to develop, test and build your solution is a good thing, because it is difficult to develop a single solution with more developers and one will get in the way with another during development (have to share the same management database for instance). Using TFS for source control is a good thing and one can check in/out his solution in his own environment with his own management database and so on. Isolated environment can be a VPC or a physical box with an operating system Windows Server 2003 or even Vista, which Jay Kinker did a recent post about. Yes an installation of BizTalk is possible and works fine on Vista,