BizTalk

Microsoft BizTalk Server is an enterprise integration and business process management platform from Microsoft. It is designed to connect diverse applications, data formats, and communication protocols by exchanging XML-based messages and coordinating workflows across organizations. BizTalk supports application-to-application integration, business-to-business collaboration, and electronic data interchange (EDI) through various adapters and protocols, helping automate and monitor complex processes.

Key concepts in BizTalk include the MessageBox database, which stores messages and coordinates routing, and the runtime components that run on one or more servers. Messages are received, decoded, and validated through receive pipelines, transformed and enriched with BizTalk Mapper, and then routed or persisted for processing. Orchestrations provide long-running business processes using a dedicated workflow language, while pipelines and adapters enable connectivity to systems such as ERP, CRM, databases, files, web services, and messaging systems. BizTalk also supports Business Activity Monitoring (BAM) for tracking process performance and outcomes.

Adapters and connectivity are central to BizTalk, offering interfaces to SQL Server, Oracle, SAP, IBM MQ, FTP, HTTP, file systems, WCF services, and EDI/AS2 exchanges. The ESB Toolkit is a commonly used extension that implements enterprise service bus patterns to facilitate service orchestration and routing at scale. Development is typically done in Visual Studio, with deployment onto Windows Server environments.

Today, BizTalk Server remains in use for on-premises integration and hybrid scenarios, particularly where complex, long-running processes and strong governance are needed. Microsoft continues to position cloud-based alternatives for new projects, while many organizations maintain BizTalk for existing integrations.