Microsoft has announced (on 05/31/2017) that BizTalk Services will be retired (https://azure.microsoft.com/en-au/updates/azure-biztalk-services-simplifying-our-azure-offerings/).
Let’s go back briefly on the reasons for this decision and what it means for you – customers – who want to use the integration by the cloud.
In June 2013, Microsoft – as part of its “full Cloud” strategy – ad “BizTalk Services”, a BizTalk as a PaaS (Platform As A Service) – https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/biztalk_server_team_blog/2013/06/04/windows-azure-biztalk-service-eai-overview/. The general idea of BizTalk Services is to take the features of BizTalk Server and make them available within the Azure Cloud in the form of services consumed on a PerUse model. No need to setup an infrastructure, scale the architecture or even acquire licenses.
We found in BizTalk Services a lot of concepts to which users of BizTalk Server are used: pipelines, maps, schemas, adapters,… and especially the ability to connect on-premises systems through the “BizTalk Services Hybrid Connections” feature allowing to make the bridge between the information system of a company and the cloud.
The announcement of the retire of BizTalk Services is important for several reasons.
On the one hand, it shows – if it were still necessary – the importance of Azure Logic Apps, services which, for several months now, can meet the needs of integration in the cloud in Microsoft technology. Logic Apps were announced in March 2015 (https://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/announcing-the-new-azure-app-service) and are evolving (a release each quarter with a great community around).
Microsoft demonstrates, with the retirement of BizTalk Services, that he believes strongly in the future of Logic Apps and it will, therefore, continue to invest in this area. This is great news for those who wonder about the right approach to do integration in the cloud while connecting systems on premises.
On the other hand, the retirement of BizTalk Services is a clarification of the Microsoft offer. Many customers asked us on the difference between Logic Apps and BizTalk Services. The message delivered by Microsoft wasn’t very clear in the past.
Microsoft provides a guideline to migrate from Microsoft BizTalk Services to Logic Apps: https://docs.microsoft.com/fr-fr/azure/logic-apps/logic-apps-move-from-mabs
News around Logic Apps and BizTalk Server is very active at this time, we invite you to follow the Integrate 2017 event being held in London from 26 to 28 June 2017. Members of MiddleWay, sponsor of this event, will be delighted to meet you on-site.
