What is BizTalk and why should you care (Part 1 of n)
So what is BizTalk?
Depending on who you ask you can receive a myriad of different answers ... from "It's the greatest thing released by Microsoft since Windows itself" right down to "It's the biggest load of rubbish released by Microsoft since Windows 95".
It's a product that has been around since 2000 odd and like many Microsoft products has come through a number of significant releases, improving in leaps and bounds each time; yet even now with it being on it's 4th release (or 5th if you count 2006 R2 as a full release) there are still so many that do not know what it is and do not know how it can help them.
I've been using the product now extensively for the past 5 years and almost exclusively for the past 3 and all too often I come across people, organizations, Microsoft partners, and solutions implemented with BizTalk that have quite frankly lost the plot (and the stock on it).
All too often BizTalk is blamed when an implementation goes bad .... Could this be a case of "poor workman blaming his tools"?
So this series is my attempt to explain the product in common everyday language to common everyday enterprise application developers, enterprise architects, business owners and anybody else who cares and happens to stumble upon this blog, all in the hope of shedding some light on this often misunderstood product that is all to easily perceived as the blacksheep of the Microsoft stable.
Enough with the waffle ... What is it already?
Before I can really answer this question let's take a step back and see where we're at today and the things that solution architects of today need to consider when designing, developing and implementing solutions ....
"No man is an island"
Consider that most organizations today already have their core LOB (Line of business) systems in place, whether shelf bought or custom developed - when was the last time you did a complete green-fields development of a product from the ground up and did not have to touch another system?
Not only do most core systems already exist but organizations often have a myriad of individual systems doing their own specific little thing; doing them well but doing them in isolation.
I think it is clear to see that no system is an island.
If we look at the companies we build software for; how many of those operate in isolation? Hardly any ... most companies have suppliers of some form and all have customers (else they wouldn't really exist) .
Therefore it is also plain to see that no organization is an island either.
If I look at the majority of work I am doing today it is either tying various systems together or linking various trading partners together, or a combination of both.
This has become the norm, whether I like it or not.
We've all heard the latest buzzword in ICT speak of late ... the dreaded SOA, Service orientated architecture. As organizations move toward a service-oriented world creating effective business processes that span separate systems and organizations SOA has become a very real requirement.
At the recent international SOA and BPM conference Microsoft announced "Oslo" ... no, not the city, but their strategy to hopefully bring them to the forefront of the SOA maturity space.
The Road to the Oslo technologies
Robert Wahbe, Corporate Vice President, Microsoft Server & Tools, outlined how customers can begin preparing for Oslo technologies by further leveraging technologies available now including BizTalk Server 2006 R2, BizTalk Services, .NET Framework 3.0 and Visual Studio 2005. On February 28th, Microsoft will continue the wave of innovation and launch Windows Server 2008, Visual Studio 2008, .NET Framework 3.5 and SQL Server 2008 with which customers can achieve a dynamic, scalable and reliable enterprise platform. These innovations will provide-the foundation for the next generation of SOA and Web-based applications spanning "on premise" software and ‘in the cloud' services, an approach Microsoft calls Software + Services.
taken from Microsoft SOA & Business Process
Enter stage left .... Microsoft BizTalk Server
SOA has not just become the latest buzzword for nothing; neither has ESB (Enterprise Service Bus). No, these (IMHO) have arisen from the business challenge of operating outside of your island.
BizTalk Server 2006 supports this goal and is in fact key to the Oslo strategy.
BizTalk Server allows the connecting systems across a diversity of platforms and technologies, it allows a developer to graphically create and modify process logic. The product also lets information workers monitor running processes, interact with trading partners, and perform other business-oriented tasks.
I think we can all plainly see the value BizTalk will bring to your life when you're building integrated solutions but it can be so much more too. Often when you think BizTalk you think integration and that's it .... that's where the bus stops.
Or does it? No sir ... For now I'll leave you with this post from Robert MacClean ( SA developer extrodonaire ) where he recently talks about BizTalk being a collection of tools OUTSIDE of integration....
What a novel concept; this has eluded even me up until now.
Shows you ... no product, not even BizTalk, is an island. 
Until next time where I will start diving into BizTalk in more detail ...