14 DAY TRIAL // Some customers can be resistant to the advent of the Cloud, especially if they have invested significantly in their on-premise infrastructure and associated solution and application deployments.
While it’s pushing Windows Azure as hard as it can, Microsoft has always underlined that it doesn’t ask companies to choose between the Cloud and on-premise, but that hybrid scenarios are always possible.
Case in point: BizTalk Server 2010 AppFabric Connect for Services. Released in October 2010 as the Biztalk Server 2010 Feature Pack, the BizTalk Server 2010 AppFabric Connect for Services is installed as a new BizTalk feature.
This means that customers running Biztalk Server 2010 can continue to leverage their existing investments, and especially their current on-premise applications in a Cloud context.
“To use this feature, you must have a valid licensed copy of BizTalk Server 2010 or BizTalk Server Adapter Pack 2010,” the software giant explained.
“This feature brings together the capabilities of BizTalk Server and Windows Azure AppFabric thereby enabling enterprises to extend the reach of their on-premise Line of Business (LOB) systems and BizTalk applications to cloud.”
With the BizTalk Server 2010 AppFabric Connect for Services feature, on-premise BizTalk Applications can be exposed as WCF Services.
Taking such apps into the Cloud implies the introduction of Windows Azure AppFabric Service Bus endpoints to BizTalk Server 2010.
The result will deliver customers hybrid cloud-based applications which stretch across on-premise and on-cloud environments.
“Once this feature pack is installed, customers can use one of the following BizTalk wizards: a) BizTalk WCF Service Publishing Wizard: To publish BizTalk Orchestrations or Schemas as WCF services with endpoints in Windows Azure AppFabric Service
“Or b) BizTalk WCF Adapter Service Development Wizard: To expose on-premise LOB systems by publishing BizTalk WCF LOB Adapters as WCF Services with endpoints in AppFabric Service Bus,” Microsoft added.
Biztalk Server 2010 Feature Pack is available for download here.