BizTalk Messages

Recently the book ‘Applied Architecture Patterns on the Microsoft Platform’ was released. The book is written by Richard Seroter, Stephen Thomas, Ewan Fairweather, Mike Sexton and Rama Ramani. Yossi Dahan is the technical reviewer. The book is published by Packt Publishing.

Shortly before the book was released, an event was held in Stockholm, Sweden. I was lucky enough to be able to attend. Three of the authors (Richard, Stephen and Ewan) did two long days of presentations. In the humorous and spirited presentations the chapters in the book were discussed accompanied by nice live demos.

I was already interested in this book because these authors are respected and known worldwide as BizTalk and Microsoft experts. After attending the event I was even more interested in reading the book.

A couple of weeks after the event I was contacted by the publisher. They asked me to read the book and write a review on my blog site. Below is my review:

During the last few years the Microsoft platform has evolved in two directions. Extension and enhancement of existing technologies and products has of course continued. A couple of new technologies and products including Windows AppFabric, Windows Azure AppFabric, and StreamInsight have been added to the stack. Architects have the important task of picking the right technology for their specific problem at hand from the broad landscape of technologies and products. Picking the right technology for a new project can be very challenging due to the number of architectural decisions that must be made. Wrong choices in this area can lead to big problems and high costs for companies.

How to pick the right technology or product from the Microsoft stack is exactly what this book is about. It must be said that the book does not try to be the ultimate reference guide with the right pointer for each possible scenario. Instead it equips the reader with the knowledge to decide which technical architecture is most appropriate.

The book can be roughly divided into three parts. The first part (chapter 1) creates an architectural decision framework. The decision framework is one of the tools used in the process of translating requirements into technical solutions.

The second part (chapters 2 through chapter 6) compromises the technology primers. The primers are an introduction to technologies and products used in the book. For each primer, typical use cases are described. There is also a sample solution included for each primer.

The third and final part (chapter 7 to chapter 19) contains the elaboration of a couple of fictitious cases. First, a company with a specific IT problem is introduced. Next, the decision framework from the first chapter is used to determine the best fitting architecture for the IT problem. Finally, the case is implemented in a downloadable sample solution.

In my view, books about architecture tend to be boring and hard to read. This book is absolutely not the case; I really enjoyed reading it. This book fills a gap in the Microsoft architecture guidance.

My favorite things about the book are:

· It provides a broad overview of the Microsoft product and technology stack. Newer technologies like Windows AppFabric and StreamInsight are included.

· The decision framework provides a useful tool for real world scenarios and helps in the design process of translating requirements into software.

· The extensive set of cases (12 chapters) is the main part of the book. It provides architectural information and reusable code that can be used as a starting point for real world scenarios.

This book is a must have for every Microsoft architect and developer.