Microsoft Biztalk Server
Executive summary:
The BizTalk Server is Microsoft’s inter-organizational middleware system, which allows systems to communicate. It was initially released in 2000 and saw its latest release in February 2020. it is used to share information or events, map out the input and output of data, and connect its existing applications. It is built on the “publish and subscribe” architectural design pattern, consisting of three main components:
- publishers,
- subscribers, and
- events.
It uses adapters to receive and send messages between systems. The feature which businesses involved in many communication processes use the most.
When BizTalk is used as a business process management solution, it serves as a process manager, breaking the entire business process into numerous stages and coordinating internal communication. Consequently, better communication is generated and thus a better final result.
You can use BizTalk to seamlessly integrate your business processes within your organization, improve communication between teams, and connect better with business partners. All the people want to have better results, what about you?
What is BizTalk server?
BizTalk is Microsoft’s inter-organizational middleware system, which allows systems to communicate. It is used to share information or events, efficiently mapping out the input and output of data and connecting the company’s existing applications. It was initially released in 2000 and saw its latest release in February 2020. In the era of automation, the BizTalk server is the next step towards fully connected business ecosystems, where data flows freely between different systems to seamlessly integrate business processes within the organization. In short, the BizTalk server acts as a middleware, which streamlines communication between systems, applications, and businesses, in order to maximize the productivity of business processes in the company.
How does BizTalk Server work in practice? It is built on the “publish and subscribe” architectural design pattern, which consists of three main components – publishers, subscribers, and events – and uses adapters to receive and send messages between systems. The use of adapters makes BizTalk highly flexible since it allows for communication through SOAP, SQL Server, and MSMQ, among others. BizTalk Server implements any business processes through orchestration. Orchestrations mostly work with XML documents, and they turn your visual drawings of processes, or designed flow and interpreted data, into easily executable business processes.
What is BizTalk used for within a company?
New 2020 BizTalk server allows for operational data monitoring and analytics to maximize the efficiency of Azure, Microsoft’s cloud computing platform, easy APIs management, full adaptation with Office 365, ensured compliance with FIPS security policy, and advanced scheduling in adapters, which enables smooth communication between systems. In general, companies often use BizTalk for process automation, for example, integrating ordering processes to save time and improve efficiency. In the 21st century, data is the new oil, so it has to be effectively and quickly managed in order to generate profits for the company.
There are two main scenarios for two explanatory applications of BizTalk.
It can be used either as a service-oriented solution or a business process management solution. As a service-oriented solution focuses on maximizing the efficiency of services, it is loosely coupled, which means its components do not rely on each other directly, and thus, the failure of one element does not create a domino effect. How is it used in practice? Credit bank reporting services often use service-oriented solutions to quickly and securely respond to customer requests, using data from different systems, for example, combining legacy applications with modern web services. When BizTalk is used as a business process management solution, it serves a process manager, which breaks the entire business process into numerous stages and coordinates internal communication. In some companies, the solution helps to manage and streamline the flow of orders, for example, batching order processing and processing long-running orders. BizTalk is such a versatile tool that it can be used for multiple purposes within any company.
All things considered, BizTalk is one of the most known inter-organizational middleware systems on the market, and it can be used to seamlessly integrate business processes within the company to improve communication, boost productivity, and connect better with business partners.