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Oslo initiative to add new features to BizTalk

Nov. 22, 2007

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Earlier this month, Microsoft unveiled a new initiative that will focus on taking model-driven design mainstream, facilitating the process of developing composite applications within SOA (service-oriented architecture).

Microsoft's new project, code-named Oslo, calls for Microsoft to increase its investment four-fold in updating its BizTalk Server solution, and to add new features to BizTalk, Visual Studio, its .Net Framework and System Center.

The development tools that come out of the Oslo initiative can help companies build applications to run both "on-premise" in a data center or "off-premise" in a SaaS (software-as-a-service) model, said Steven Martin, director of product management at Microsoft's Connected Systems division.

Current modeling techniques only give a limited view of the models at different points in the life cycle, Martin said. "It only describes what the application might have looked like at one point in time, but it is never up to date, not holistic. Models need to not just replicate the application, they need to be the application," said Martin.

"Overall, our Oslo initiative is an effort to build a set of technologies to unify pieces of the application platform and take model-driven development mainstream," added Martin.

For 2008, Microsoft plans to upgrade metadata repositories in the next versions of System Center, Visual Studio and BizTalk so they can be used for managing, versioning and deploying models.

Martin gave the example of a car rental company and an airline needing a practical and simple method to link different information systems when they work together on marketing campaigns to award frequent flyer miles for renting a car.

Microsoft says modeling is the first step needed when multiple companies want to collaborate to build an application that crosses firewalls and mixes Web services and various pieces of software.

In addition to the metadata repository, Microsoft said the Oslo initiative will:

Enhance BizTalk Server by allowing it to develop and manage applications.

Add a commercially supported release of Web-based services to BizTalk Services.

Add advanced messaging, identity and workflow capabilities to BizTalk Server.

Will further enable model-driven development within the .Net Framework.

Add new tools for model-driven design of distributed applications.

However, Martin warned that Microsoft is still twelve to twenty-four months from delivering any technologies born from the Oslo project, which he noted is "more a vision than a concrete deliverable" at this point.

Additionally, Martin said that Microsoft has yet to outline backward compatibility for the next versions of products like BizTalk, Visual Studio and System Center incorporating the features developed as part of Oslo and the current versions of these products.

Martin added "for now, the big question IS what's the migration path for current BizTalk users? It's not really clear how much of Oslo is backward compatible with Microsoft's current .Net technology."

"This is a cultural trait of our company. We don't always pay attention to backward compatibility," said Martin.

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Source: Computer World