Professional BizTalk Server 2006

It took a long time for decent BizTalk Server books to start appearing, and those of us who have been committed to the product for some time know the pain (and fun) of having to work out, for ourselves, how this product works, how best to apply it to real-life scenarios and how to exploit its rich functionality. I was really impressed with this book. It has two characteristics which I think are particularly noteworthy. The first is that it offers a huge breadth of coverage, but also manages to combine this with reasonable depth. This is hard to achieve when writing about BizTalk Server because it is such a rich an extensive product. The second characteristic is that it reads like a book written by practitioners - people with real-life experience of using the product, and the scars to prove it. Indeed, that it very much the case, and it means that the book provides far more than just rehashed information. It provides guidance, advice and best practice which is rooted in reality. I like to think I know a thing or two about BizTalk Server (though it still manages to spring surprises on me quite regularly). I am not greatly addicted to computer books, because so many fail to be of any very practical use. However, I can report that this is the first BizTalk book (and one of very few books, generally) that I've carried with me into engagements to use as a reference. Warmly commended and highly recommended, especially for those who have done enough with BizTalk Server to realise the extent of the mountain they must climb.

I've been on a couple of BizTalk projects, all of them for Fortune 50 clients. We did a lot of things wrong, hence a lot of lessons learned. This book is good...REALLY good. How good? Well, let's just say that I never, repeat NEVER write book reviews, even if a book was the greatest thing since the bread slicer. (I guess because I'm too busy building Orchestrations and Custom Pipeline Components.) That alone should convince you that this book is a must-have for anyone wanting to know anything about BizTalk. DISCLAIMER: Allow me to contradict that last statement... This isn't for everyone, however. It is really in-depth and explains more than the minimum required. The book also targets those of use that continue to ask the question "Why?" and it quenches our curious thirst. If I were to pick this book up when I was first learning BizTalk, I would throw it down and stomp on it. But now that I've been around the block a few times and I know the difference between a best practice and a "you're on your own" practice, I am able to get a lot from reading this material. With BizTalk, there's so many ways to skin the proverbial cat. This books explains all of them (from what I've read), but then it points out the preferred approaches that one should take when implementing an integration solution via BizTalk Server...lots of Notes & Caveats sections, things that I crave. This book will give you very objective insights into BizTalk. And you don't need to worry about reading it with your rose-colored glasses, either. It's neither half-empty nor half-full, it just is, you know?

This book has information in it that you simply will not find anywhere else. Its written by people who have worked with the product on some of the largest and most important projects where BizTalk has been the platform of choice, and the knowledge that thay pass on is exceptional.

So you've gone through the turorials and done the labs, maybe even read a book or two, but if you really want to take your biztalk skills to the next level you simply must have this book. It may not be the best way to start with Biztalk as it clearly aims at the more experienced developers, but if you already have a couple of implementations under your belt, the extra knowledge you will gain from this book is invaluable. The book provides a lot of insight into the inner working of BizTalk, coupled with many great tricks-of-the-trade from some of the top BizTalk guys around, all clearly explained in detail and all stuff that you simply wouldn't find anywhere else.

The first thing I want to point out (as it's not published yet) is that I've actually read this book - and in its entirety - and I wasn't paid for it. So basically, I have no reason to misrepresent it ;-) In my opinion, there are very few people on the planet in the position of being able to produce a book such as this. The authors are, fortunately, in this practically unique position having either worked in the product group or MCS for Microsoft over many years. Essentially if these guys don't know, or their friends (see the acknowledgements for a veritable who's who of the BizTalk Product Group) don't know - then I'm not sure anyone does. Where this book succeeds (and others have failed) is two-fold: it starts where the documentation tails off and is written by a very small number of authors who a) have actually met and b) really are very good. so what you get is something that genuinely *is* written by the right people who know their subject areas inside-out rather than a bunch of guys who had (just) enough spare time (and knowledge) to bash out a chapter each. Now, for the content. This book starts with a lot of assumptions about knowledge of BizTalk and its dependent technologies (xml, .net, c#, xsd etc, etc) - although Chapter 1 serves as a primer, it's not for newbies. It does however provide enough background to enable intermediates to still be able to read it without constantly referencing other sources. This of course, is a balance of reiteration and convenience. I think it strikes this perfectly as even where documented information is covered, it is explained and exposited further to delve deeper into the hows and whys. For example, dedicated chapters on low latency, testing and scalability set it apart from other books. Make no mistake, this is real world guidance and parts of it will make uncomfortable reading for some - and it's all the better for it. BizTalk is a complex product, this book acknowledges and reflects that and if you want a BizTalk book that goes beyond the basics and into hitherto unchartered territory, jump in. Highly recommended.