Future BizTalk Could Change Workflow, Messaging

BizTalk Server could be significantly rewritten in a “V6” release that will follow BizTalk Server 2006 R2, the minor version due in 2007. New messaging and workflow technologies could streamline the product, Microsoft’s primary offering for application integration and business process management, and could also help it benefit from improvements in the .NET Framework developer platform. However, the changes also would affect solutions built on the existing BizTalk Server engine. Developers can use BizTalk Server 2006 R2 and companion technologies to get ready for the changes and assess the impact on their own plans.

This article projects BizTalk Server’s roadmap beyond BizTalk Server 2006 R2 based on our analysis of public Microsoft presentations and documents. Microsoft declined to confirm or deny statements about BizTalk Server releases beyond 2006 R2.

Rebuilding on the .NET Framework 3.0

BizTalk Server is a platform for solutions that integrate multiple applications and execute business processes that run across the applications. For example, a BizTalk order-processing solution might connect an organization’s enterprise resource planning (ERP), customer relationship management (CRM), and customer-facing Web systems and manage orders across all those systems.