There is a new version of BizTalk out. This time it is called BizTalk 2020 and it has some really nice new features. I was surprised that the release contains new and interesting features, not only a platform alignment.

This time it was released without any marketing whatsoever, which is called a quiet release. I can only speculate why this is, but my guess is that this is the last version and Microsoft does not feel they want to onboard new customers.

So, what do you get? Here is the complete list, but let me list the ones that are most interesting, and do not forget that some previously key features has actually been removed.

My top 5 new features

1 – Operational Data Monitoring and Analytics

You can send trackingdata to Azure and get a PowerBI dashboard out of the box(!). Without any additional monitoring software. You also get access to the storage capabilities available in Azure, and store years of data rather than days.

2 – API Management

People know of my love for API management, and being able to publish BizTalk orchestrations as APIs directly, and also use the APIm policies to alter the messages before sending them to BizTalk, is very powerful

3 – Auditing

Finally! The age-old question of “who stopped the receive port” can be answered by simply looking into logs. As it should always have been.

4 – XSLT 3.0

Building powerful maps using custom XSLT will be easier and better than ever.

5 – Support for always encrypted

Built on SQL Server of course but the support will make sure that BizTalk is an on-prem force and a integration tool for those very, very secret things.

My top 3 good riddance

There are also some things that have been remove from BizTalk and these are my top three, good riddance. Some are marked as Deprecated, so “in the release, but don’t use them”.

1 – SOAP Adapter

If you built something new with it, shame on you. 32 bit old school, with functionality covered by the WCF-BasicAdapter

2 – BAM Portal

I was once forced to present the BAM portal as the viable option to a client. I still cringe.

3- Samples

Have you heard of “The Internet”? You do not need to download static versions of it anymore.

Happy 2020 and Happy 2020 version.