If BizTalk were a super hero, it would be Superman for sure. It can do it all. From A2A to B2B with great support for all common standards like EDI, HIPAA, Rosettanet, RFID, and so on. BizTalk can spice up any dull integration environment quickly. When needed, BizTalk can fly in, locate the issue, destroy it with laser eyes, then bring everything back to normal by circling the planet a few times.
10. Built-In Bread Crumbs
Everything you do in BizTalk is tracked. While this is not particularly good for a cheating BizTalk Server, it is actually incredibly good for everyone else. Tracking is easily configured in BizTalk and can often be completed with a simple point and click.
You can set up tracking to meet your needs. You may not want or need to see each and every message going through the system, which could seem a little paranoid and not necessarily a good thing. On the other hand, you do not want to have potentially critical or risky transactions pass through without notice.
9. Big Iron integration is built-in
Some people may not appreciate this functionality; however, I love it. BizTalk has built-in integration capability for large mainframes and mid-range computers. This gives it a unique edge in the integration market space because it can provide full connectivity from the physical protocol to network protocol, and up to true application integration capabilities for bridging the gap to legacy systems such as CICS, VSAM, VTAM, and so on.
8. Minecraft Adapter(?)
No, not really. There is no BizTalk Server adapter for the video game, Minecraft, (at least none that I am aware of) but that would be pretty cool, and if one integration engine were to come out with it, it would definitely be BizTalk.
7. Glitzy
Compared to its competitors, BizTalk Server is the Lady Gaga of integration. Other integration engines rely heavily on command prompt commands or intense coding. With BizTalk, you can SEE the data flowing, watch the workflows growing, and even hear the fields transforming. The movie “Minority Reports” has nothing on BizTalk Server. Click here, click there. Drag here, drag there. It’s a rock concert of integration.
I have BizTalk Posters in my room right next to my U2 and Imagine Dragons posters. It’s visual, colorful, and pleasing to the eye.
It has a catchy name, Biz-Talk. BizTalk is also a great wardrobe enhancer for those who attend its conferences. I have BizTalk Server shirts, jackets, backpacks, belts, shoes, under…just a lot of BizTalk stuff.
6. Kumbaya my BizTalk, Kumbaya
When it comes to the BizTalk community, we’re all like a great big 60s commune coexisting in an endless, spiritual dance of schemas, maps, and orchestrations. Did you solve a problem? You post the answer. We created some cool BizTalk adapter? We share it. At TwoConnect we are proud to have shared our knowledge and our creations over the last 15 years with the BizTalk community and will always do so.
We have made multiple BizTalk adapters, accelerators, and other solution facilitators available to the community. They have been downloaded thousands of times throughout the world at no charge. Not to say there is not a fiercely competitive environment out there; however, except for the occasional competitive duel to the death, we all just really get along. And this collaboration benefits all BizTalk users. You can almost always find an answer to your question because others have had similar issues and found answers.
5. It’s a great host
Like Tina Fey or Amy Poehler, BizTalk is one heck of an MC. I am referring to BizTalk’s host/host instance infrastructure that allows BizTalk processes to be completed inside of logical containers called Hosts which can be individually configured, managed, and secured. These logical hosts are then associated to host instances which are the individual BizTalk services running on separate BizTalk Servers thereby facilitating fault tolerance and load balancing.
It’s just a beautiful thing. And the winner is……BizTalk!!
4. Blue Angel
Like the famous US Navy Blue Angels, BizTalk Server is soaring into the clouds, well specifically into THE cloud. Using BizTalk Services in the cloud, you can easily develop B2B integrations, hybrid integrations, EDI processing, queue/topic-based services, and more, all in the cloud with servers provisioned in minutes without worrying about a single piece of hardware, ever! I could go on and on about this one. It’s just awesome.
3. Diversity
BizTalk is for everyone. Going through the list of BizTalk customers is like walking through Times Square in New York City, people from everywhere, large and small, rich and poor, dressed up like Mickey Mouse or not. BizTalk does this by offering different flavors of BizTalk Server such as the affordable but still powerful BizTalk Server Standard to the Lamborghini BizTalk Server Enterprise.
Small mom and pop shops can use the same code base that large enterprises use. And if your mom-and-pop shop grows up to be Walmart, the same BizTalk Server code could have been used the entire time.
In other words, BizTalk Server covers every type of business, anywhere and anytime.
2. Homegrown
If you walk into any Whole Foods store and turn left at the produce section you will find a full assortment of fresh, organically grown BizTalk Servers. No, not true, but still it is important to note that Microsoft has been building BizTalk Server internally since its inception. All functionality is carefully designed to mesh with existing functionality.
We BizTalk developers are never hot in the face when something comes out of nowhere. Not so for BizTalk competitors who can only compete with features by buying more and more companies. Companies such as Oracle have bought so many integration companies that it is not surprising that its integration platform is known as Fusion – given that it closely resembles the aftermath of a nuclear explosion.
AND THE NUMBER 1 REASON WE LOVE BIZTALK IS… Drumroll PLEASE….
1. BizTalk makes us shine!
At TwoConnect, we architect, develop, and implement the best integrations on the planet. We have been doing integration for over 20 years. For 15 of those years we have been relying on Microsoft BizTalk Server as the platform on which we run the show. Without BizTalk we’re lost. We love you BizTalk Server, we really love you. You had me at ORCHESTRATION. Somebody hand me a hanky please.
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