In-Depth

BizTalk Server: Getting Better All the Time

Users say Microsoft BizTalk Server 2004 -- and the 2006 version -- significantly ease enterprise application integration.

• By Joanne Cummings
• 03/01/2006

In some cases, BizTalk can also be easier and less expensive to implement than Web services. Erickson Retirement Communities in Baltimore, Md., used BizTalk Server 2004 to build a system that integrates 10 separate applications to create a resident demographic management system (DMS). David Clausen, systems architect at the company, and his colleagues ultimately determined that they wouldn't have been able to create a Web service for all their systems on time and within budget. BizTalk was equipped with the level of integration functionality they needed to get up and running quickly. For example, it could already communicate with flat files, FTP and HL7 (Health Level 7 -- a health care networking protocol).

Others still consider Web services the easier option for both development and management, but that's not always the case. Most users can build something relatively quickly, but they often haven't thought through the problems of maintaining a Web service to ensure its continued resiliency and performance.

That's frequently the case with Jonathan Summers' clients, who often express an initial preference for Web services. "For them, it's a speed to market issue," says Summers, enterprise architect at Software Architects, a consulting firm in Dallas. After thinking about building that level of core functionality into a Web service with limited management capabilities, they often opt for BizTalk. "After some consideration," he says, "the conversation will shift to BizTalk."

Vertically Challenged
Microsoft has a variety of BizTalk vertical accelerators ready to support numerous industries, like retail, financial services and healthcare. These accelerators are intended to ease integration with applications that adhere to industry-specific protocols.

BizTalk's HL7 support sold Clausen and his colleagues at Erickson Retirement Communities. "That was really the key for us," Clausen says, adding that his company spent $70,000 in software and hardware on its BizTalk implementation. He says it was money well spent.

Before deploying BizTalk, says Clausen, integrating with an HL7 application meant writing code from scratch and parsing out complex protocols. The HL7 accelerator treats the entire protocol as XML schemas, and lets Clausen use the BizTalk map to convert outgoing data to HL7. Then he configures the map and accelerators to convert incoming data to whichever format he requires for his internal structure and database. "It really streamlined the whole process," he says.

Using BizTalk and the vertical accelerators as integration points also helps tie in key business processes, Clausen says. For example, Erickson's DMS, based on BizTalk Server 2004, now includes an "eventing" system whereby any constituent system can post an "event" and make that information available in real time to any other integrated system.

When DMS receives a new resident, for example, it publishes an event. That becomes a message in the BizTalk Message Engine, explains Joe Schneebaum, senior software engineer at Erickson. There are about four other applications that subscribe to that event, he says, because new residents need immediate access to certain services when they move in. "The residents need to be able to get fed in our dining halls, request a shuttle to the mall and so on," he says.

Before Erickson started using BizTalk, it took a day or so for the IT staff to ensure that each system had access to the proper data when a resident arrived. The real-time "eventing" system helps them ensure that an incoming new resident's data is populated throughout its systems almost immediately. "Within one minute of becoming a resident," Schneebaum says, "you can eat your first meal here." Power at a Price

While BizTalk scores high on the application and process integration scale, that comes at a price. BizTalk's installation, configuration and deployment mechanisms can be cumbersome, time-consuming and unforgiving, say Clausen and other BizTalk users.

Software Architects' Summers points to the need to properly configure accounts and accurately establish database permissions -- and to get it right the first time. "If you get anything wrong, the whole thing gets rolled back," he says. "The product doesn't make many allowances for errors."

Others have had a similar experience during deployment. "BizTalk is a nightmare to deploy," says Yitzhak Khabinsky, software architect at Odimo Inc., an online retailer based in Sunrise, Fla. He uses BizTalk 2004 to integrate with applications from Odimo's trading partners, such as MSN, Amazon, Yahoo! and Google. He says BizTalk requires a multi-step manual deployment process.

Configuration and deployment does go faster with practice, others say. The BizTalk 2004 configuration and setup guide is a very specific three-page document. "You have to follow it exactly," says Erickson's Schneebaum. He eventually had to supplement the process with his own steps customized for his organization. In his three-tiered infrastructure that includes development, test and production environments, he claims he can wipe it out and rebuild it within an hour.

For a product with such a convoluted configuration and deployment process, users say, the documentation is fairly sparse. Fortunately, there are numerous online resources to fill that void.

Summers agrees with that assessment. He called the documentation "bare," and says the one book about BizTalk Server 2004 he knows of didn't come out until the summer of last year. He found what he needed online. "There was a grassroots effort put together by one of the BizTalk MVPs, who compiled help files from blog entries, called the Bloggers Guide to BizTalk," he says. "That was one of the key sources of information."

Still Under Construction
BizTalk 2004 is missing some key features, such as a strong administrative toolset and robust encryption capabilities. For example, Erickson needed to build its own encryption into its BizTalk implementation for communicating with two of its external trading partners. "BizTalk only supports S-MIME, which really didn't suit our purposes," Clausen says. "It would be nice if they offered better encryption."

While BizTalk 2004 is well integrated with Microsoft SQL Server, the overall level of integration could be tighter, says Clausen. Fortunately for him, his SQL Server administrator at Erickson was able to take on BizTalk administrative duties as well. Clausen also feels the administrative tools could be improved, especially for server health monitoring.

One reason users appreciate a tool like BizTalk is that enterprise application integration can be one of the more boring tasks facing an IT professional, says Erickson's Schneebaum. "One thing Microsoft did really well with BizTalk was make the rote, mundane tasks of data interchange more appealing to a developer by giving them rich tools for development and good, fast schema editors. You might still not want to do it at seven in the morning, but it's less painful."