End Near for BizTalk: Why Moving to Azure Is Inevitable

It's inevitable: BizTalk is going away.

In 2028, Microsoft will stop supporting it for good. What now? Integrating with Azure is the next step. What are the benefits of Azure?

Cost flexibility:
A major advantage of Azure over BizTalk is its cost structure. With BizTalk, you pay a fixed amount upfront for licenses, while Azure uses a model where you only pay for the resources you use. This makes Azure suitable for companies of all sizes. You can start small and scale up as your needs grow, without high upfront investments.

Less downtime and management burden:
With Azure, you will experience fewer system interruptions. The maintenance of PaaS (Platform as a Service) services, including updates and patches, is fully managed by Microsoft. This means less downtime and management burden because you do not have to take care of the maintenance and updates of your infrastructure yourself.

Scalability:
Azure significantly outperforms BizTalk when it comes to scalability. It has the flexibility to add or remove capacity. This means that as a business, you can quickly respond to changing needs, without the costs and logistical challenges of physical hardware upgrades. This scalability is extremely important for businesses that experience peak loads or that are growing rapidly.

APIs instead of web services:
Azure uses newer technologies, including restful APIs. These are faster and more efficient than the traditional web services used by BizTalk. APIs are also easier to integrate and manage within modern applications and integrations. This leads to better performance and flexibility when developing new services or integrating with third parties.

This approach involves porting existing BizTalk applications to Azure with minimal changes. The advantage of this method is that it is a fast and relatively easy way to migrate because as much code as possible is reused, for example in transformations.

This is especially useful for companies that want to move quickly without significant initial costs. This approach can lead to a less-than-optimal cloud environment because old architecture remains.