Chapter 14. What's New and What's Next?

	The Times They Are A-Changin'.
	--Bob Dylan

The world of the Microsoft integration specialist is currently in flux. The last decade and a half has been spent building robust frameworks and mature practices to deliver comprehensive integration solutions on-premises, with a large focus on understanding and implementing SOA applications. However, the last few years has seen a monumental shift in focus from the traditional way of doing things in the integration space towards rapid time to market, reduced capital expenditure, and the proliferation of lightweight solutions. This creates new demands of integration specialists as well as untold opportunities.

There are many factors that have resulted in these changes. Some of them are listed as follows:

• The rise of smartphones, tablet devices and mobile apps demanding levels of scalability well beyond what was previously thought possible
• The creation of the API economy...