New Microsoft alliance seeks to leverage BPEL 2.0, BizTalk Server around process-based solutions
By Staff -- Manufacturing Business Technology, 4/1/2007 12:00:00 AM
Seeking to bring business process management (BPM) to the masses, Microsoft is putting forth a new alliance to coalesce third-party BPM vendors around BizTalk Server, Office 2007, and the recently unveiled Windows Workflow Foundation (WF).
Initial members of the BPM alliance are as follows:
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BPM vendors Ascentn Corp., IDS Scheer, Global360, and Metastorm;
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Rules engine providers Fair Isaac, InRule, and RuleBurst;
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Workflow vendors PNMsoft and SourceCode Technology Holdings; and
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Service-oriented architecture (SOA) run-time governance provider AmberPoint.
Many of these vendors already were working with Microsoft.
Specifically, AmberPoint had an existing agreement with the Visual Studio side of Microsoft's business, where a “light version” of its SOA management tool was embedded. This relationship enables AmberPoint's SOA management suite to gain greater visibility into the workings of BizTalk.
For IDS Scheer, the alliance formalizes work that IDS and Microsoft performed for a German electrical equipment manufacturer several years ago. In that case, the IDS ARIS UML Designer tool was used to generate executable processes as Web services for BizTalk.
With the alliance, Microsoft is creating two paths for third parties to integrate. For automated processes that are orchestrated, Microsoft BizTalk Server will become the focal point. When those processes must generate human workflows, they will rely on Windows Workflow Foundation, a part of the .NET 3.0 Framework, for providing the syntax for specifying human steps.
