Integrating an on-premises process with processes running in Windows Azure opens up a wide range of opportunities that enable customers to extend their on-premises solutions into the cloud.

Based on real-world customer projects, we have designed and implemented a reference architecture comprising of a production quality hybrid solution that demonstrates how customers can extend their existing on-premises BizTalk Server infrastructure into the Windows Azure environment.

The solution is centered on the common requirements for processing large volumes of transactions that originate from an on-premises system and are then offloaded to take advantage of elasticity and on-demand computing power of Windows Azure. The reference implementation addresses these requirements and provides an end-to-end technical solution that is architected and built for scale-out.

The main technologies and capabilities covered by the reference implementation include: Windows Azure platform services (compute, storage), Windows Azure Service Bus, SQL Azure, and BizTalk Server 2010 (BAM, BRE, XML data mapping).

The reference implementation is founded on reusable building blocks and patterns widely recognized as “best practices” in Windows Azure solution development.

More information, including the complete source code package, can be found here.