A Cloudy Day for BizTalk (…but what a sunny forecast!)

June 11, 2013 Leave a comment

Recently, Microsoft announced the release of a plethora of new features in Windows Azure, not the least of which was the preview version of BizTalk Services. A re-vamped version of the former Azure Service Bus EAI/EDI Labs which was released last year and taken down earlier this year, Windows Azure BizTalk Services boasts Business-to-Business (B2B) and Enterprise Application Integration (EAI) capabilities for cloud and hybrid integration solutions, including:

  • Built-in support for managing EDI relationships between partners
  • EAI bridges with on-premises assets (including built-in support for integration with SAP, SQL Server, Oracle and Siebel)
  • Optional integration between Windows Azure BizTalk Services and on-premises BizTalk Server deployments
    Like most Azure offerings, BizTalk Services runs on a secure, dedicated per tenant environment that can be provisioned on demand within minutes.  It does not require any upfront license, and supports a pay only for what you use billing model.

Learn more about how to setup and start using the Windows Azure BizTalk Services preview.

Filed under Azure, BizTalk Tagged with , , , , ,

BizTalk360 Presentation to Brisbane User Group

May 29, 2013 1 Comment

Tonight I set out to present a 45-minute discussion and demonstration of BizTalk360 to the Brisbane BizTalk User Group. An hour and a half later, I was still answering questions and displaying in-depth features of the product! We’re a pretty small & intimate group, so there was plenty of opportunity for discussion and catering for specific requests (“Can I see how … works?”), which for me as a presenter is awesome. I love interaction because you know you are really reaching your audience (small or large) and addressing their interests & concerns.

BTS360The truth is, they were truly impressed with the power and flexibility of the product, despite the limited scenarios that I was able to present to them. Saravana and his team have really hit the mark with this release, addressing a critical void in the BizTalk operational support area. Looking forward to Version 7.0!

Only downside was that I barely had time left to present my second session for the night, new features of BizTalk 2013! Oh well, I don’t think Microsoft needs too much help in selling that product anyway! Winking smile

Filed under BizTalk, Events Tagged with , , ,

Next BrizTalk Meeting: BizTalk 2013 & BizTalk360 Demos!

May 23, 2013 Leave a comment

I’m really looking forward to presenting a double-header at our next Brisbane BizTalk User Group meeting on Wednesday:

What’s New in BizTalk Server 2013

Finally released to manufacturing, this long awaited edition hosts a variety of new features that make integrating your on-premises system with the cloud so much easier. The new REST and Azure Service Bus adapters provide quick & simple connectivity for building powerful, flexible and highly scalable hybrid solutions with BizTalk & Azure.

We’ll see an example of both in action during this part of the presentation.

Monitoring with BizTalk360

Now in Version 6.0, Saravana Kumar and his team have released the best-ever edition of BizTalk360, an easy to install web-based application that helps manage the complexity of supporting your BizTalk environments. In addition to the standard features of monitoring, alerting, administrating and auditing, the new capabilities of this release include:

  • Search & Action on Artefacts (Receive locations, send ports, applications etc.)
  • ESB Exception Management Portal
  • Custom SQL Query Complete Rewrite
  • Database Query Monitoring
  • SQL Agent Job Outcome Monitoring
  • Threshold Monitoring Window
  • Scheduled Monitoring Downtime
  • Support for SSL

I’ll present a demo of an active installation so you can witness first-hand the simplicity with which this awesome tool provides value!

If you’re in the Brisbane area, drop by Microsoft at 400 George St, Lvl 28 at 5:30pm on Wednesday, 29th May for some pizza and a great session! All i ask is that you register first so that I know how many pizzas to order!

Filed under Azure, BizTalk, Events Tagged with , , , , , ,

Coming Soon to a Region Near You – Windows Azure (Australia)!

May 21, 2013 Leave a comment

Microsoft announced today that they will create a new Windows Azure major deployment region in Australia, consisting of two sub-regions in Sydney & Melbourne! This is outstanding news and a welcome development for numerous organisations that would otherwise embrace the scalability, flexibility, affordability and rapid implementation capabilities afforded by cloud-based and hybrid solutions, were it not for concerns regarding data sovereignty and latency.

Moreover, the geo-redundancy offered by two distinct locations separated by over 700 kilometres (440 miles) means that clients can be assured of business continuity even if one major city was taken out by a catastrophic disaster – all while still maintaining their data within national borders.

Here are two excellent blog posts by my colleagues Dean Robertson and Paul Bouwer explaining these principles in much greater detail:

This means that at least one of my current clients in the financial industry can reconsider using Azure Service Bus to enable a scalable & robust asynchronous integration scenario between on-premise systems and external customers. Looking forward to seeing more of our Australian clients willing to embrace the cloud now! Smile

Filed under Azure Tagged with ,

Richard Seroter in Australia!!

May 7, 2013 Leave a comment

Richard SeroterMexia Consulting is hosting workshops in Brisbane and Melbourne led by world-renowned cloud architect and blogger Richard Seroter!

Entitled, “Designing Hybrid & Cloud Integration Solutions with Windows Azure”, this two-day event will focus on designing hybrid & cloud solution architectures with Microsoft technologies such as Windows Azure.

Specifically targeted for Solution Architects, Integration Architects and experienced Microsoft development teams, Richard (assisted by Mexia’s expert integration consultants) will cover much of the knowledge you need when designing complex integration platforms for the modern enterprise.

Particularly, this event will focus on the full range of Microsoft technologies such as Windows Azure and BizTalk Server that can be deployed as part of modern on-premises, hybrid cloud and pure cloud integration solutions. By attending this event, you will understand the capabilities and benefits of each Microsoft technology, and which technologies are most appropriate for particular purposes and design goals.

To register:

If you’re a Solution Architect, Integration Architect or senior developer with a passion for integration, this event is not to be missed!

Filed under Azure, BizTalk Tagged with ,

Mexia Named in BRW Top Starters List!

April 25, 2013 Leave a comment

Mexia Consulting has ranked 71st in BRW‘s list of Australia’s Top Starters for 2013! Congrats to my fearless leaders Mat Coleman and Dean Robertson who’ve led our team to great achievements over the past couple of years. Proud to be a member of this awesome enterprise integration team!!

Mexia Projects Director Mat Coleman and Technical Director Dean Robertson accepting the award from BRW

By the way, Mexia is hiring! Immediate positions available in Brisbane & Melbourne.  If you’ve got BizTalk or enterprise integration skills using the Microsoft stack, please contact us ASAP.

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BizTalk 2013 RTM VM Now Available in Window Azure Gallery

April 18, 2013 Leave a comment

With Scott Guthrie’s announcement the other day concerning General Availability (GA) of Windows Azure Infrastructure Services, we now have available a selection of new BizTalk Server 2013 RTM virtual machine images in the Windows Azure Gallery:

  • BizTalk Server 2013 Enterprise
  • BizTalk Server 2013 Standard
  • BizTalk Server 2013 Evaluation

The Evaluation image will help you get started with the evaluation bits of BizTalk Server 2013 and SQL Server 2012.

This IaaS availability is a key aspect of the BizTalk Server 2013 release. Now you can quickly and easily spin up pre-configured BizTalk servers in the cloud without relying on the time, expense and other overheads of on-premises acquisitions. Imagine being able to provision an entire testing environment in minutes/hours instead of days/weeks/months!  And the best part is that, like all Azure services, you only pay for what you use. 🙂

The pricing details for these VMs can be found here.  Remember that there is also a (very small) storage cost for the disk images as well.

More information can be found on the BizTalk Server Team Blog.

Filed under Azure, BizTalk Tagged with , , ,

BizTalk Saturday Event Completed

April 13, 2013 Leave a comment

Just finished our BizTalk 2013 Hands On Day event in Brisbane, presenting with Bill Chesnut to a captivated audience about the new features and abilities to integrate with Azure. This is the last event for this round… but stay tuned for future events.

Presenting at BizTalk Saturday

Many thanks to Bill for his tireless effort at organising this and giving up most weekends, traveling all over Australia & New Zealand! Also thanks to Dean Robertson for the pic.

Filed under Azure, BizTalk, Events Tagged with , , , ,

Using BizTalk xpath() Function to Retrieve Optional Nodes

April 8, 2013 2 Comments

I often suffer a bit of trepidation when trying to retrieve values for optional XML nodes using the built-in xpath() function in an orchestration, as I wonder if it will result in an exception of some kind if the node isn’t found in the message.  This concern is heightened by reading Microsoft’s own documentation of the xpath function on MSDN:

The engine is not schema-aware, so you can only read values from or write values to a node that exists in the containing message (the complete path must exist), or the engine will raise an exception. This is true even if you supply a default value.

The conclusion from this is that if the node doesn’t exist in the message instance, you’ll get a runtime error trying to read from it using xpath(), right?

Wrong! In fact, as Leonid Ganeline proved in an older blog post, you will either get an empty string or “null”, depending on whether you wrap the XPATH expression in a string() function or not:

Filed under BizTalk Tagged with , , ,

BizTalk Saturday: Hands On Day Coming to Brisbane!

April 2, 2013 Leave a comment

BizTalk Saturday is back with a new Hands On Day in Brisbane! Delegates will have a chance to get up to speed with the new features of BizTalk Server 2013 under the guidance of Microsoft MVP Bill Chesnut (“BizTalk Bill”) and myself. The format will be presentations followed by hands-on labs. Topics covered will include:

  • What’s New in BizTalk 2013
  • Creating an Azure VM for BizTalk 2013 Beta
  • REST Services in BizTalk 2013
  • Building a Cloud/On-Premises Hybrid Solution
  • Integrating with Windows Azure EAI/EDI

The Brisbane date is Saturday, 13 April 2013. Be sure to register now at the link below:

http://www.eventbrite.com.au/event/5679020102

Cost will be $100 and you will need your own laptop & Azure account. Please see the link above for further details.
This community event is brought to you by the Australian BizTalk User Groups.

Filed under Azure, BizTalk, Events Tagged with , , , , ,

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