ESB Guidance with a broker - how does that work?
The current Microsoft foray into the space of the Enterprise Service Bus currently depends squarely on BizTalk Server and the ESB Guidance Tools that have been kicking around for some time now. So how does that help all the humble developers who work for Tier 2 companies but have a genuine need for a Bus framework to support their SOA initiative. Answer is NOT MUCH I’m afraid. Frequently, BizTalk will represent too high a barrier to entry for those business’.
Apart from the business reasons that the ESB Guidance Package probably wont get a look it, there is always the lingering question of why use a “Broker” as a Bus? Sounds odd don’t you think, they are after all different architectural patterns.
Don’t get me wrong here, I actually think BizTalk is a brilliant product and contains some incredible features, and when consulting I would love to have the flexibility to use it more often, but wearing my architect / developer hat, it doesn’t feel kosher to use it for my Service Bus (Enterprise or otherwise). My Bus needs to be where my messaging app’s are located, publishers, subscribers etc and I cant do (afford) that with BizTalk.
Recently I called for an ‘Express’ type product offering of BizTalk and I can conceive of an Architecture where ‘BizTalk Express’ is deployed throughout my organisation. I might utilise BizTalk to facilitate ‘store and forward‘ of messages and as a host for service endpoints, but alas until I have such a product this is a pipe dream (pardon the BTS pun).
My team and I are currently working on implementing something with SQL Express and SSB and we will also use NServiceBus (a great framework from Udi) on projects where appropriate. It would be great to have the flexibility to employ a solution with BizTalk Express if it existed.
I am sure that somewhere the ESB Guidance is being used, but I doubt it’s in the mid-smaller more agile businesses. Let’s tell Redmond that the smaller guys need this product!
Wait, Oslo I hear you cry? That’s a story for another day.
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