14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft has rechristened BizTalk Server 2009 R2 as BizTalk Server 2010, and is now telling customers that the evolution of the product recommends it as a major version versus a minor update. BizTalk Server 2009 R2 was designed mainly to bring to the table support for the company’s latest technologies, including Windows Server 2008 R2, SQL Server 2008 R2 and Visual Studio 2010. According to Arjun Bahree, architect advisor, while the release was initially focused on expanding support, sufficient new features were added throughout the development process in order for the rebranding to BizTalk Server 2010 to make sense, but also to illustrate that customers would be paying for a new major iteration of the product.
“Over the past year we got lot of feedback from our key customers and decided to incorporate few key asks from our customers in this release. Based on customer value we are delivering, and the positive feedback we are getting from our early adopter customers we feel the release has transitioned from minor release (BizTalk Server 2009 R2) to a major release (BizTalk Server 2010,” Bahree stated.
According to Microsoft, the rebranding will have no impact on the RTM and General Availability deadlines for the next version of BizTalk. Of course, the Redmond company has yet to announce the RTM and GA dates officially. All that the software giant has said so far is that BizTalk Server 2010 is on track for availability in the second half of 2010. Customers that will decide to buy BizTalk Server 2010 will benefit from a full ten years of support, five mainstream and five extended.
“We are on schedule to deliver BizTalk Server 2010 in the later part of CY2010. This name change will not impact the RTM dates.”
Bahree also enumerated a “list of key capabilities added to the release:
“- Enhanced trading partner management that will enable our customers to manage complex B2B relationships with ease. - Increase productivity through enhanced BizTalk Mapper. These enhancements are critical in increasing productivity in both EAI and B2B solutions; and a favorite feature of our customers. - Enable secure data transfer across business partners with FTPS adapter. - Updated adapters for SAP 7, Oracle eBusiness Suite 12.1, SharePoint 2010 and SQL Server 2008 R2. - Improved and simplified management with updated System Center management pack. - Simplified management through single dashboard which enables IT Pros to backup and restore BizTalk configuration. - Enhanced performance tuning capabilities at Host and Host Instance level. - Continued innovation in RFID Space with out of box event filtering and delivery of RFID events.”