All About Enterprise Application Integration and Microsoft Biztalk Server as a powerful tool

The evolution of integration technologies is undergoing a major transformation with the introduction of new technology solutions as well as new methods, standards, and practices. The emergence of the Application Server Platform Suite and Web Services are poised to take the solutions focused on EAI one step closer to the dream of a complete enterprise integration model. By employing these new platforms and approaches while adhering to a set of guiding principles critical to any integration effort, the modern enterprise has its best tool set yet developed to reach its business and application integration goals.

Enterprise Application Integration (EAI), aka “middleware,” provides the infrastructure to connect information sources, acting as a go-between for applications and their business processes. In implementing EAI solutions, organizations have been able to realize various benefits, including:

  • Reduced development and maintenance costs
  • Enhanced performance and reliability
  • Implementation of a centralized information bus
  • Extension of the legacy system lifecycle
  • Reduced time to market

Microsoft BizTalk Server unites enterprise application integration (EAI) and business-to-business (B2B) integration.

BizTalk Server provides a powerful Web-based development and execution environment that integrates loosely coupled, long-running business processes, both within and between businesses. It handles transactions that run as long as weeks or months, not just minutes or hours. Features include the ability to design and use XLANG schedules, integrate existing applications, define document specifications and specification transformations, and monitor and log run-time activity.

BizTalk Server provides a standard gateway for sending and receiving documents across the Internet, as well as providing a range of services that ensure data integrity, delivery, security, and support for the BizTalk Framework and other key document formats.

Server provides:

  • Multiple adapters provide support for most industry standard transports (FTP, HTTP, File, SOAP, WCF, SQL, etc.)
  • Multiple accelerators are available that support for industry standard document formats (HIPAA, EDI, SWIFT)
  • RFID Platform
  • High availability
  • Fault tolerance
  • Scalability
  • End to end message tracking (including message body tracking if needed.
  • Messaging subsystem accommodates transactional messaging, i.e. BizTalk can send to/receive from trading partners within the context of a distributed transaction as long as the adapter supports transactions.
  • XLANGs workflow engine
  • Business Activity Monitoring
  • Business Rule Engine (BRE)
  • Management functionality via Management console
  • Integration with MOM
  • Integration with Enterprise Single Sign-On

These features are available in BizTalk Server, which allows you to quickly integrate your business processes with other internal business processes and with external trading partners.