BizTalk is Dead? Long Live BizTalk!

By John Callaway

The BizTalk Server team blog sneaked out an announcement yesterday that you might have missed. I caught it due to an RSS feed. BizTalk Server 2010 R2 is coming. Now the question is when, and a better question will they change the name, as they should to BizTalk 2011?

We have a while to wait, no firm dates yet, but since it adds support for Windows Server 8 and SQL Server 2010 (codename Denali) which don’t have announced release dates yet either, that isn’t too much of a surprise. They are saying about six months after those products release. Support for Visual Studio 11 was also part of the announcement.

It doesn’t sound at all earth shattering, more just a bit of a jiggle. It may calm some of the fears as they are frequently bandied about from the title of the article, that BizTalk is a dying breed. Rest assured that QuickLearn will be on the forefront of training for this new product as soon as a beta is available.

In addition to support for the new platforms another point of interest is a change to licensing making it possible to provide BizTalk as a hosted service , and to transfer a license to a hosting provider. This is obviously a step in moving BizTalk into the cloud, a change that has long been planned. We’ll have to see what that means as to whether Microsoft will be a possible provider themselves (a la Office 365 and SharePoint online).

That’s about it for what’s new unless you are interested in IBM host integration there are some adapter improvements that way. For the whole article check out the BizTalk Team blog at http://blogs.msdn.com/b/biztalk_server_team_blog/archive/2011/12/08/biztalk-server-2010-r2.aspx

Until next time, see you in the funny papers.

Implementing TFS 2010 Team Solutions

By quicklearnteam

On December 12th, QuickLearn is running a 5-day Visual Studio TFS 2010 course to quickly get development teams up and running.

This class is designed for individuals or complete development teams who need to learn how to use Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate and TFS 2010 for agile software development. This course is broken up into five units: project management, agile team development, test management strategies, and TFS systems administration.

Visit our website for more details and to register.

At course completion, students will be able to:

  • Install & configure TFS 2010 and its prerequisite components
  • Create, configure and manage Team Projects
  • Create and customise Work Item Queries to find and organise work
  • Use the version control system effectively including branching
  • Install and configure a build environment including build controllers and agents
  • Create and manage test plans, test suites and test configurations
  • Create and maintain coded UI tests
  • View the built-in reports available in TFS 2010

The class is taught by ALM MVP Anthony Borton in Redmond, WA and is available remotely from your home or office. Anthony Borton is a Microsoft Visual Studio ALM MVP and is QuickLearn’s Visual Studio ALM technologist and trainer. Has has been an MCP and MCT for more than 15 years and has completed over 50 exams including MS exam 001. He is a Professional Scrum Developer Trainer and has been a Certified ScrumMaster for a number of years.

Quotes from recent Visual Studio TFS students:

“My entire training experience was wonderful and unforgettable. Thank you QuickLearn!!” – Alan H.

“Of all the in-house courses and instructors we have had, Mr. Anthony Borton is the best instructor we have had. He was very knowledgeable on the subject matter.” – David B.

“It was a great class with a large amount of information that was covered in a very effectively manner. It surpassed my expectations!” – Christopher M.

Visit our website for more details and to register.