• Chart: BizTalk Server 2004 Limits

The forthcoming release of BizTalk Server 2004 will increase application and partner connectivity limits for Standard and Partner Editions, giving businesses using those editions more headroom to grow their BizTalk networks before incurring additional licensing costs. BizTalk 2004 customers will also receive free copies of Visual Studio .NET (VS.NET) and InfoPath 2003, which could encourage businesses to build workflows with user interaction using BizTalk’s new Human Workflow Services feature. Pricing and packaging for BizTalk 2004 is similar to that of BizTalk Server 2002: only the product’s Developer Edition shows a price increase.

Same Editions, Expanded Connectivity

BizTalk is designed to automate intercompany business processes, such as purchase order exchanges between trading partners, and enable intracompany enterprise application integration scenarios, such as connecting a company’s warehousing and enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems. Such functionality allows businesses to exchange information among systems with incompatible data formats and communication protocols.

Like its predecessor, BizTalk 2004 will be available in Enterprise, Standard, Partner, and Developer Editions. Editions differ primarily in the number of processors the product can use in a multiprocessor machine, the number of trading partners that can be interconnected, and the number of applications integrated by BizTalk. Additionally, the Enterprise and Developer Editions offer support for load balancing and failover, which are not supported in the Partner and Standard Editions.

For the Standard Edition, BizTalk 2004 allows connections to 20 trading partners and 10 applications, up from 10 partners and five applications with BizTalk 2002. The Partner Edition will support three partners and three applications, compared with two each in BizTalk 2002. The Standard and Partner Editions run on only a single processor per server. The number of processors, trading partners, and applications is unlimited for both Enterprise Edition and Developer Edition; however, Developer Edition can be used only for development and testing, and not in a production environment. (Limits for BizTalk 2004 editions are outlined in the chart "BizTalk Server 2004 Limits".)

Because BizTalk 2004 depends broadly on VS.NET—workflow processes or "orchestrations" are built in BizTalk’s VS.NET development environment, for example—all editions include a copy of VS.NET (for use with BizTalk only). Customers of the Standard, Partner, and Enterprise Editions can use this copy only on the machine running BizTalk 2004. Licensed users of the Developer Edition can install and use the copy of VS.NET on more than one machine.

BizTalk 2004 also comes with a single desktop license for InfoPath 2003, a forms-based XML authoring and data entry application. This could encourage developers to build workflows using BizTalk’s new Human Workflow Services (HWS) features, which incorporate both manual and automated steps. For example, an HWS-based travel expense workflow might e-mail an InfoPath-based approval form to a manager and continue when the form is returned.

Most Prices Unchanged

BizTalk 2004 runs on Windows 2000 Server and Windows Server 2003; it can also run on Windows XP Professional for development and testing. The Standard Edition and Enterprise Edition each require SQL Server 2000 (which would most commonly be licensed in per-processor mode). BizTalk 2004 Partner Edition can be used with the free Microsoft SQL Desktop Engine (MSDE) or SQL Server 2000.

Unlike previous versions, which supported only four languages, BizTalk 2004 will be available in English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Simplified Chinese, Spanish, and Traditional Chinese.

Pricing for BizTalk 2004 starts at US$25,000 per processor for the Enterprise Edition, US$7,000 per processor for the Standard Edition, and US$1,000 per processor for the Partner Edition—the same as BizTalk 2002. The Developer Edition price has increased to US$750 per user compared with US$500 for BizTalk 2002. Current BizTalk customers with Software Assurance will receive BizTalk Server 2004 free.

Originally expected by the end of 2003, the release date for BizTalk 2004 has slipped. Although Microsoft has not specified a new release date, the product will likely be generally available in the first quarter of 2004.

For background on BizTalk 2004 features, see "'Jupiter' Roadmap Solidifies" on page 16 of the Aug. 2003 Update.

General information for BizTalk is at www.microsoft.com/biztalk/.