Today marks the release of Microsoft BizTalk Server 2016. This is an important milestone that not only reinforces strong on-premises application integration capabilities, but also provides flexibility and control to our customers to adopt cloud applications as and when it makes sense for the business. We realize that every company is undergoing digital transformation with the proliferation of applications, data and services. Whether your applications run in the cloud or on-premises, you should have the flexibility to seamlessly connect applications, unlock data and automate business process anywhere.
Earlier this year, I shared our commitment to build a comprehensive hybrid integration platform. Today, Microsoft is the only vendor that provides a truly hybrid integration platform, offering a consistent experience to our customers and partners whether they are looking to connect on-premises or cloud-native applications. This consistent experience is enabled through Microsoft BizTalk Server and Azure Logic Apps forms the foundation of our vision.
Why upgrade to BizTalk Server 2016?
With BizTalk Server 2016, customers can automate mission critical business processes, leverage support for latest first party platforms and gain newer capabilities within the BizTalk Administration console. With this release, customers also have the flexibility to adopt a hybrid approach in their digital transformation journey by choosing to connect to SaaS applications, or running BizTalk Server on Azure leveraging full support in production environments. Below are some key capabilities that I want to highlight:
- Hybrid connectivity: With BizTalk Server 2016, customers can now connect to cloud native applications, web and mobile back end systems, and custom applications through the Azure Logic Apps adapter. This acts as a bridge to rapidly integrate numerous SaaS applications using pre-built, out-of-the box connectors. Azure Logic Apps adapter uses enterprise messaging in the cloud across partners and vendors and leverages the Microsoft Cloud to help you build holistic integration solutions. Customers can now take advantage of Azure Services like Functions, Cognitive Services, Machine Learning and more to gain actionable intelligence on their data and make informed business decisions.
- Integration with the latest Microsoft products such as Windows Server 2016, Visual Studio 2015, SQL Server 2016 and Office 2016. Leverage first-class integration experience with the latest Microsoft products and services to enable seamless integration through BizTalk Server 2016.
- SQL Server 2016 Always On Availability Groups offer a highly available solution in Azure, and on-premises. The traditional log shipping mechanism is now enhanced with an automated, faster and better way to achieve high availability and disaster recovery.
Customers are already reaping the benefits of hybrid cloud with this new release of BizTalk Server. Abid Nasim, CIO, Generalsoft Corporation, which develops custom software noted, “As of date, we’ve migrated all of our integrations and presently running regression tests. We are finding incredible potential for the Logic Apps adapter. This appears to be the best BizTalk release since BizTalk 2006 R2.”
Here is what Steef-Jan Wiggers, principal consultant, Macaw (Unit of Macaw Business Solutions) had to say about BizTalk Server 2016, “BizTalk Server 2016 makes your enterprise communicate with any application, data and business process anywhere. It offers bigger, better, more capabilities, features and connectivity options.”
I want to thank our customers and partners who have participated in this journey with us as we evolve BizTalk server into a product that continues to be the gold standard for enterprise integration in a hybrid cloud world. Learn more about other customers that benefit from the hybrid cloud experience by leveraging Microsoft’s integration products from Mexia, one of Microsoft’s gold partners.
We are committed to help customers in their journey of digital transformation by helping build holistic solutions using our Hybrid Integration platform. Learn more about the cool new features of BizTalk Server 2016 and be sure to check out this blog post by Codit, another one of our gold partners. As always, we want to hear from you – please share your comments and continue to engage with our teams.