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Windows Azure and Windows Workflow Foundation

BizTalk Server 2010 introduces new features which enable organizations to use BizTalk Server capabilities from both Windows Azure and Windows Workflow Foundation applications.

In Windows Workflow Foundation, the focus is to enable developers to leverage the power of the BizTalk Server Line-Of Business (LOB) Adapters and the BizTalk Server Mapper from Windows Workflow applications.

For Windows Azure, the "connection" is to use the power of the Windows Azure Service Bus to expose on-premises BizTalk Server artifacts service endpoints in the cloud for enabling easy interactions to external parties you need to integrate with, without needing complex firewall and security infrastructure.

Scenarios

Microsoft’s solution for on-premises systems integration is BizTalk Server. To connect to these “Black Box” systems, a key capability in BizTalk is a set of ADAPTERS that create a Web Service layer around Line of Business (LOB) applications. BizTalk also provides the WCF LOB Adapter SDK for partners/customers to create their own adapters in addition to providing many key LOB adapters out of box. BizTalk can use these adapters directly or the WCF LOB Adapter Wizard can be used to publish the related web services. These web services can then be called from anywhere INSIDE your organization, but maybe there are scenarios where you simply need to query for some data, require a low latency direct path or need to push some data to your LOB systems. You don’t need all the powerful capabilities of BizTalk and you don’t want the additional BizTalk infrastructure in your applications.

On-premises integration with BizTalk Server

Figure 1. Using BizTalk Server for on-premises LOB integration


For Windows Workflow Foundation

BizTalk Server 2010 allows you to create workflow activities that represent these interactions with your LOB systems using the BizTalk LOB Adapter Wizard directly inside workflow applications. These capabilities also enable you to use the BizTalk Server Mapper inside Windows Workflow Foundation applications, which allows these applications to perform standard tasks, such as schema transformation, when interacting with LOB systems.

On-premises integration with Windows Workflow Foundation

Figure 2. Using Windows Workflow Foundation for low-latency on-premises LOB integration


For Windows Azure

Connecting customers to partners systems and automating processes across these boundaries may also be necessary. How can an information worker securely, reliably and easily accomplish this?

In many organizations, data transparency requires complex placement of infrastructure in isolated network boundaries (DMZ’s) and complex security configurations and credential management.

Customer and partner integration with BizTalk Server

Figure 3. Using BizTalk Server to integrate with customers and partners


BizTalk Server 2010 allows you to EXTEND the REACH of your LOB Services to Windows Azure. The services RUN on-premises, but can be accessed securely and easily through Windows Azure. The capabilities of the Windows Azure Service Bus and Access Control are utilized to publish and secure access to an endpoint definition of your service, the actual calls to the real service are passed to the service that is running on-premises. This can then be provisioned as a service endpoint in the Service Bus - plug this into the BizTalk Adapter Wizard at the appropriate place and that’s it. With BizTalk Server it’s easy to extend internal integration processes to customers and partners as web services that “seem” to live in the cloud, but still maintain control using your on-premises infrastructure.

Customer and partner integration with BizTalk Server and Windows Azure Service Bus

Figure 4. Using BizTalk Server with Windows Azure Service Bus to integrate with customers and partners


The capabilities in BizTalk Server 2010 open up powerful, and useful, integration scenarios for all .NET developers and demonstrate how easy it is to connect to the Microsoft’s application platform.