BizTalk Server 2006 Ready To Roll

The software, which connects Microsoft's world to third-party wares, now incorporates mainframe and AS/400 legacy system adapters that used to be part of the company's Host Integration Server as well as 12 adapters licensed from iWay, said Steve Martin, director of product management. Adapters for SAP, Siebel, Oracle database and JD Edwards ship with standard and Enterprise edition.

Interestingly, not much mention was made of connectors to Micrsosoft's own ERP products.

"They've improved the adapters and put them in the box, so we can go right into accounts and start tying into Siebel, SAP, Oracle, systems," noted Bob Shear, president of Greystone Solutions, a Boston-based solution provider.

The inclusion of very capable connections to outside systems shows at least that Microsoft is aware that the world is not Microsoft-only, he added.

A new management console and expanded Business Activity Monitoring (BAM) are also featured, Microsoft said.

This release builds on the current workflow and orchestration technology while the next will move to Microsoft's new Windows Workflow Foundation, once known as Windows Orchestration Engine (and then as Windows Workflow Services) that will be part of the upcoming Vista client, Office 2007, and WinFX, Martin noted.

BizTalk is Microsoft's response to enterprise application integration (EAI) vendors like Tibco and SeeBeyond and the company has been talking up this release since November, announcing it in concert with Visual Studio and SQL Server 2005.

Pricing has been tweaked. BizTalk 2004, available since March of that year, cost $25,000 per CPU for two to 100 processors, but most adapters cost extra. With 2006, the price has risen to $30,000 per processor but includes the 12 iWay and other adapters.