What did we find?

We learned through the process of writing this book that some of our preconceived notions about what products can (or cannot) do was out of date. BizTalk is not the only solution for message routing and processing, but at the same time, BizTalk Server still represents the leading choice for doing enterprise-class reliable messaging on the Microsoft stack. We learned that the SQL Server stack of products is really maturing and tools like Service Broker and StreamInsight warrant our architectural attention. We found that Windows Server AppFabric made hosting WCF and WF services in IIS a viable enterprise solution with enough management and durability to satisfy many organizational requirements. The Microsoft cloud services, while admittedly in a "version 1" state, do not just duplicate on-premise capabilities but also offer inventive ways to solve old problems. The biggest thing that we learned is that even though there is a clear overlap amongst the application platform...