Candidate architectures

We have two viable choices when looking to implement a Message Bus integration pattern across a supply chain. One of them is Windows Server AppFabric and the other is the BizTalk integration bus with the ESB Toolkit 2.1.

Candidate architecture #1 BizTalk (with ESB Toolkit)

BizTalk is Microsoft's Enterprise Integration tool with a robust messaging and workflow (Orchestration) engine. The assumption for this analysis is that SMC has a small installation of BizTalk Server, but does not have a common Message Bus platform or make use of the ESB Toolkit.

The ESB Toolkit 2.1 will be released with BizTalk Server 2010. At the time of writing, they are both in Beta release. The Toolkit provides a set of services, which build on the BizTalk platform and are useful for customers implementing a common Message Bus architecture. The term ESB stands for Enterprise Service Bus, which within the industry is seen as an evolution and mature view of the Message Bus concept. Two previous...