BizTalk ESB Toolkit 2.0 Available for BizTalk Server 2009

Following the release to manufacturing of BizTalk Server 2009 at the end of April 2009, and its general availability on May 1st, Microsoft is now updating the guidance around Enterprise Service Bus. Customers running BizTalk Server 2009 will be able to take advantage of BizTalk ESB Toolkit 2.0, the successor to ESB Guidance 2.0. At the start of this week, the Redmond company released BizTalk ESB Toolkit 2.0 to web, with the collection of tools and libraries designed to kick BizTalk Server 2009 capabilities up a notch available for download.

“This toolkit extends BizTalk Server 2009 capabilities to support a loosely coupled and dynamic messaging architecture. It functions as middleware that provides tools for rapid mediation between services and their consumers. Enabling maximum flexibility at run time, the BizTalk ESB Toolkit 2.0 simplifies composition of service endpoints without ‘hard-wiring’ them and also provides management of service interactions at enterprise scale,” a member of the BizTalk Team explained.

The label overhaul from ESB Guidance 2.0 to BizTalk ESB Toolkit 2.0 is not the only change implemented by the software giant. The move is also synonymous with migrating the resources away from CodePlex and onto the BizTalk Developer Center. Microsoft is attempting to position the toolkit as a BizTalk Server 2009 value-add.

But, at the same time, customers familiar with the old ESB Guidance 2.0 will also notice the new support model. Yes, BizTalk ESB Toolkit 2.0 is now officially supported by Microsoft. According to the Redmond company, version 2.0 of the toolkit is set up to bring to the table both architectural enhancements as well as new capabilities compared with the previous ESB guidance available.

“The BizTalk ESB Toolkit 2.0 provides key building blocks that are required for implementing a comprehensive service-oriented infrastructure (SOI) including: endpoint run-time discovery and virtualization; loosely coupled service composition; dynamic message transformation and translation; dynamic routing; centralized exception management; quality of service; protocol transformation; and extensibility.”

BizTalk ESB Toolkit 2.0 is available for download here.
Microsoft BizTalk Server 2009 is available for download here.