The new US$999 BizTalk Server 2002 Partner Edition provides a relatively low-cost way for small organizations to connect their applications to those of a larger business partner. Partner Edition offers all of BizTalk Server's features for translating between application protocols and data formats and enforcing business rules. However, it allows an organization to connect only two of its applications with a single business partner. Partner Edition will therefore mostly benefit small organizations that need to connect to a single important customer (such as a small parts supplier that needs to connect with the supply chain management system of a large manufacturer).

The next step up, BizTalk Server 2002 Standard Edition, costs US$6,999 and supports connections between any number of applications and up to ten partners. Although this represents a 40% price increase over the corresponding edition of BizTalk Server 2000, the new release supports twice as many partners.

For further information, see "BizTalk Server 2002 Focuses on Deployment and Management" on page 3 of the Apr. 2002 Update. The BizTalk Server Web site is www.microsoft.com/biztalk.