lustratus LiteBytes

As one might have expected, Microsoft tried to ignore the Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) movement for a long time, but eventually it had to do something to answer demands of its customer base looking for SOA support.

Its response was Microsoft ESB Guidance, a package of

architectural guidance, patterns, practices, and a set of BizTalk Server and .NET components to simplify the development of an Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) on the Microsoft platform

Let’s be honest. This is a typical Microsoft ‘fudge’. Microsoft ESB Guidance is not a Supported Product, but is instead a set of guidelines and one or two components. It is a Microsoft Patterns and Practices offering – in other words, you are on your own. This may be fine if you are a Microsoft development shop, but far more worrying if you are real business user with extensive Microsoft presence. It has a lot of the disadvantages of Open Source, but you still have to pay for Bizt Talk etc..

So what does the future hold? Will trying to bring the Microsoft server world into the SOA domain always be a matter of risk and going it alone? Will Microsoft productize Microsoft ESB Guidance? Are there any alternatives other than just consigning the Microsoft platform to run in isolation on the fringes of the enterprise?

Fortunately, the Microsoft model may actually be working here. I do not believe Microsoft will ever productize ESB Guidance – after all, they have had two years and are still maintaining there are no plans to do this. However, what this position does do is it encourages opportunists to jump in and develop products based around the Microsoft technology and guidance materials. An example is Neuron-ESB, from Microsoft specialists Neudesic.

So, while Lustratus strongly cautions users about the effort, cost and risk of using Microsoft’s own ESB Guidance package, the idea of utilizing a Microsoft-based supported ESB product from a specialist vendor is much more attractive. Of course, whether these new Microsoft-based ESBs are any good is yet to be seen….

Steve