Microsoft has just released Biztalk Server 2006 Beta2!

I think this release should be strong in quality since it’s the last release prior to RTM.

You can download it from Microsoft BetaPlace. Also you can find other downloads such as ODBA (Orchestration Designer for Business Analysts) Beta2 and Microsoft BizTalk Adapters for Enterprise Applications Beta2.

Doing some research about integrating applications I’ve found a great article in MSDN: “Understanding Microsoft Integration Technologies – A Guide to choosing a solution” . This article provides different scenarios and an explanation for each Microsoft integration solution.

As I’m primarily interested in Biztalk Server 2006, I’m going to make a comment on the style of solution this product offers: Biztalk Server is basically aimed for integrating applications through a broker. A broker is software that sits between the applications being integrated, interacting with all of them. This is exactly what Biztalk Server does!

Here is a summary of the Microsoft Integration Technologies explained in the article:

You can find more details on these solutions in the article in MSDN.