If you’re watching BizTalk developments you probably know that a new version of BizTalk Server is coming. This version used to be called BizTalk Server 2009 R2, but to keep in line with the 2010 releases it was renamed to BizTalk Server 2010.
At the moment it is quiet, at least I couldn’t find much about this new version. Today I found some preliminary documentation that triggered me to look further. On the Microsoft Connect site, the beta and TAP site, I found a reference to BizTalk Server. You need to logon, but you can find it here. It states that the TAP program started some time ago, in December 2009. The full announcement of what is in BizTalk Server 2010 can be found here (you also need to logon for this one).
For those who don’t know yet, here a copy from that announcement.
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What's planned for the next BizTalk release?
- VS 2010 Support
- Use of Visual Studio 2010 to develop application for BizTalk Server 2010
- Projects developed in VS 2008 can be seamlessly migrated to Visual Studio 2010
- Intelligent Mapper
- Enhanced user interface for better visualization of maps and to support complex mappings
- Background noise reduction using highlight propagation, auto scrolling and sibling coalescing
- Support for search
- Reusable parts for improved user productivity
- Enhancements to the current functoids
- Enhanced Trading Partner Management (TPM)
- BizTalk Administration Console - Performance Enhancements
- This feature aims to improve BizTalk Administration Console performance across the board by more than 60%. Key Scenarios like refresh, addition, deletion of port, enlistment of an orchestration will be optimized. Post Enhancements, the BizTalk Administration Console would be more responsive and address one of the key customer pain-points of Console performance in BizTalk 2009.
- BizTalk Settings Dashboard
- The BizTalk Settings Dashboard will serve as a one-stop shop for BizTalk Engine settings visualization and modification. This feature will enable BizTalk Administrators to centrally manage BizTalk Settings as admins will be able to export and import settings from one environment to another (for e.g. staging to production). The BizTalk Settings Dashboard is a step forward in consolidating all BizTalk Settings and will incorporate design extensibility to accommodate future addition of settings.
- Improved Management Pack
- The Improved System Center Management Pack will address key customer pain-points (e.g. high-CPU usage, duplication of discovered artifacts etc.) in the existing Management Pack. The new and improved design will also incorporate enhancement like better visualization of BizTalk Application and Platform Artifacts, Improved monitoring and diagnostics of artifacts like Orchestrations, Grouping of Alerts etc.
- RFID OOB Event Filtering and Delivery
- The scope for this feature covers providing a set of OOB components for Duplicate Elimination filter, EPC based filter, DWELL filter, posting events from BizTalk RFID to BizTalk Server, Posting events from BizTalk RFID to an EPCIS service and an Event Delivery framework for applications to subscribe and receive asynchronous events. These Out Of Box components address common RFID scenarios and will enable partners to focus solely on business logic hence helping accelerate BizTalk RFID solutions.
- FTP/FTPS Adapter
- The FTP Adapter in BizTalk is one of the most popular transport adapter in BizTalk server, used in different scenarios. In BizTalk Server 2009 R2, we provide additional features in the FTP adapter that includes the following:
- Support for FTPS, FTP over SSL - Enables to connect to FTPS servers for transferring files securely. Both Implicit and Explicit FTPS are supported.
- Support for read-only FTP servers - Enables configuration to pick up files from a partner FTP server which may provide only read-only permission. The adapter will ensure that each file is submitted only once to BizTalk Server.
- Support for atomic file writing - Can be used to ensure that files are read only after they are transmitted fully to the FTP server.
- Enhanced performance - Re-designed to increase the performance, both while sending files to as well as receiving files from FTP servers. The adapter will be more resilient to server going down.
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I also found some kind of schedule regarding the TAP program:
December 2009 – January 2010: Nominations and Selections
February 2010: Release of CTP product build for testing
April 2010: Beta 1 release
Q3 2010: RTM
According to this timetable, the TAP customers already saw a Beta 1. For the RTM we need to wait till Q3 of this year.
This is an exiting time for the BizTalk community. I also saw some other interesting preliminary documentation to which I'll dedicate my next post.