Biztalk Server 2009 Ready for the Public
Added 28th Apr 2009The software's feature set is designed to make the server a more worthy enterprise business process middleware option and to better integrate it with other Microsoft software. BizTalk also includes enhancements to fail over clustering and integration with Microsoft's application life-cycle management tools.
Last September, Microsoft squashed rumors that BizTalk Server would be discontinued for a new offering code-named Oslo. At the time, Microsoft said BizTalk Server 2009, which started off life as BizTalk Server 2006 R3, would ship in the first half of 2009.
The 2009 version also features tighter integration with the virtualization features of Windows Server 2008. With the Enterprise Edition of that server, BizTalk 2009 users can run unlimited virtualized instances on virtual machines supported by Microsoft's Hyper-V.
"If you have licensed all the processors on the box [running Windows Server Enterprise Edition] you can run an unlimited number of virtual instances of BizTalk," says Darrell Cavens, director of product management for BizTalk Server at Microsoft.
BizTalk is licensed per processor.
Cavens says Microsoft is already working on the next two releases of BizTalk and is committed to a new release every two years.
For developers, BizTalk integrates with Visual Studio debugging features and aligns with the Visual Studio Team Foundation Server, with support for features such as automated builds, bug tracking and source-code controls. There is also a visual tool for editing XML files.
In addition to the platform support, Microsoft has improved the lineup of adapters, adding support for Oracle E-Business Suite. The software also includes a toolkit for OEMs so they can build a mobile RFID client interface to the BizTalk Server back-end.
Beginning May 1, BizTalk Server will be available in nine languages: Chinese simplified, Chinese traditional, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean and Spanish.
