Microsoft BizTalk End of Life Announcement: What's Next?

Microsoft has announced the mainstream end of life for BizTalk in 2028, with its extended end of life scheduled for two years later in 2030. Post this period, Microsoft plans to withdraw technical support for BizTalk, and as of now, no new versions have been announced.

While 2028 might seem distant, it's crucial for forward-looking organizations to understand the implications. Delaying platform migration can hinder growth aspirations and digital transformation efforts, potentially causing your organization to lag behind competitors.

For those considering the extended upgrade option for BizTalk, it's essential to note that this only provides specific security updates and ongoing support until 2030.

Considering Alternatives? Meet Frends

For organizations keen on staying within the Microsoft ecosystem, Frends is the alternative one-UI solution for all integration needs including APIs, API Management and enteprise process automation.

Unified Platform: Frends allows you to develop, manage, and secure all API integrations and process automation within a single powerful platform.

Intuitive Interface: With a single browser-based view, monitor all APIs, process automation, and API management. Recognized in the 2023 Gartner® Magic Quadrant, Frends is lean, low-code, and user-friendly.

Global Standards: Frends leverages the globally recognized BPMN 2.0 standard for visual design, using open-source .Net Tasks.

Benefits for Microsoft Stack Companies

• Seamless Azure migration without additional coding
• Save 30% on implementation costs through out-of-the-box tasks and reusability
• DIY - Changes and parametrization can be done with built-in tools from the UI
• Same platform, UI, and development tools for processes and services
• Built-in version control and DevOps processes
• Transparent and predictable pricing
• Fast implementation and easy administration
• Extend Frends task library with custom .Net Tasks
• Reuse existing BizTalk XSLT mappings. Even with code-blocks
• Execute APIs and processes both on-premises and in Azure
• One-click deployment and version management

Why Choose Frends iPaaS?

• Certified & Reliable: Frends is secure, compliant with international standards, and highly ranked by industry peers.

• Cost-Effective: No hidden costs, scalable pricing, and a low Total Cost of Ownership.

• Efficient Development: With a low-code approach, Frends is over 10x more efficient than traditional methods.

• Distributed Architecture: Frends supports both public cloud and on-premises setups, addressing technical and regulatory challenges.

Things get better with Frends

• Better visibility to processes and easier tracking of messages
• Out-of-the-box monitoring from the same user interface
• All of the environments and HA setups can be managed from the same UI
• Every user can configure their dashboard so that they can control the environments and processes they are responsible for effectively

Frends enables business to specify integrations using BPMN 2.0 in the same interface that is used by developers. This leads to better understanding, fewer iterations, and an easier review process.

Frends enables you to combine current data integration interfaces that are related to the same business process and control the process as a whole instead of the traditional point-to-point integrations which act as separate entities.

More performance

• Scale Frends (processing) both vertically and horizontally in the cloud and on-premises. You decide. Frends is a REAL hybrid-integration-platform
• Typical processing time for Frends is in milliseconds, default for BizTalk is 500ms+
• Scaling with Frends can be done adding agents, with BizTalk the database setup will be the limiting factor
• Hybrid, scalable integration architecture for modern integration needs
• Frends executes all integration flows as pre-built in-memory executions enabling close to real-time integrations to systems like Dynamics AX or CRM that often create performance problems with BizTalk
• API Management and API Gateway from the same platform and user interface

Better control

Better control, visibility, and user access

Frends allows users to easily see the processes that have been run, transferred data, and possible error messages from a single user interface

Users can be assigned different user rights based on their role in the organization. This saves costs from consult work and resources from IT

Frends provides easy version control that allows the administrators to track and change versions in each environment and between environments

Feature comparison

Product Package	BizTalk	Frends
4 production cores On-Premises	Server software	Control Panel as a SaaS Solution. Processing units (agents) can be provided as PaaS or hosted on-premises
Production core Cloud and Hybrid	Hybrid N/A, Cloud with separate products	Native support for Cloud and Hybrid deployments, processing can be chose between public, private and sovereign clouds or on-premises freely
Process visualization	Access to processes only through developers tools	Easy access from web interface, BPMN Support
Monitoring	Using separate tools and approaches	All process instances and messages are persisted and visible through Frends Web Interface
Scaling	High-Availability from on-premises	HA from on-premises, Hybrid and cloud with the same pricing
API Management, API Gateway	Separate tools needed	Included in Frends
Performance and continuity	Database dependent, All messages are processed through database multiple times during executions	All integration processes are run as pre-built in-memory executions dealing close to real-time integration. No database dependency in processing
Process orchestration	Yes, Access to processes only using Visual Studio or HAT with server access	Yes, Easy access from Frends web interface with full BPMN Support
XSLT support for message transformations	1.0 (Saxon 2.0 on later versions)	1.0 & 2.0
Low latency services	Require specific setup, is limited due to Db load	Low Latency as default
Automated version control and deployment	Deployment is done using deployment packages and separate bindings with service break needed. Version control is not included, deployment management with external tools	Deployment done with a single click without a service break, automated version control, roll-back easy to do, always up-to-date control on used versions on every environment
Monitoring	Limited capabilities, require separate tools	Yes, from the same Frends UI
Possibility to add custom tasks	Yes, but are separate libraries externally, not integrated part of the setup	Yes, can be created with free Visual Studio Code, will be used exactly like platform provided tasks and functionalities.
Processing of large files	Pass through is possible but without processing and monitoring; processing large files requires working around the limitations	Processing large files is effective and fast
Parametrization	Only in ports natively. Using in processes requires external parametrization stores and approaches	All variables can be parametrized and changed without service breaks. Automatic control for different environments
Connectivity	Set of packaged adapters, mostly around WCF stack, limited LoB adapters	Robust standard adapters and ever growing library of connectivity tasks (200+)
Development tools	Paid license for Visual Studio needed, version locked with BizTalk version	Most of the development is done in Frends UI, Task development can be done with free Visual Studio Code
Deployment process	Using external version control tools, separate tools for deployment control, needs custom work in development	Built-in version control and deployment, environment configurations are a built-in feature. Up-to-date control on which version is used on which environment
Testing	Unit testing with external tools, End to end testing, no testing during development	Connections and processing can be tested for each of the steps during development, also against a connection or test environment of choice
Performance	Typical processing with default settings takes 1s+. High throughput requires specific parameters and optimization	Typically simple processes are done in milliseconds with default settings. Single light weight agent can process 200+ integration instances/second
Open-Source	Example processes available, no access to provided adapters or pipelines	Frends tasks are open-source, and available through github for review or to be used in custom development
Developer path	Requires specific training, to understand the logic and platform components	Uses vanilla .Net, SQL, Rest/Json and C# knowledge can be used right away. Free and paid training available on-line and on-premises
User roles	Limited set of user roles, typically people need to have administrative rights to the server be able to work effectively.	Configurable user rights. Typically user access control can be done with Frends user roles, no need to have access to the underlying platform or server
Software versions	Every BizTalk version requires certain version of the OS, MS SQL Server and Visual Studio	Frends Agent can be run on Windows Server 2019 or later, Windows 10 or Linux (e.g. Ubuntu LTS). Kubernetes setup is possible
Updating versions	Typically requires updating the server software and updating the development tools is a must. Quite often new version has undocumented changes that may or may not cause problems	When updating versions the breaking changes are rare and well documented (for example connected to deprecation of Mstechnology). Several .Net versions are supported side-by-side to adopt the latest possibilities and provide support for older processes.
.Net version control	May need separate server administration to be compatible	Frends integration processes can be run without changes on-premises, on cloud, on windows and on linux platforms
Mapping	Graphical mapping, that usually reverts to xslt for easier version control and flow management. Inline C# and custom C# classes are possible	Multiple ways for mapping, Xslt (also from external graphical mapper), Inline C#, LINQ, JUST, Handlebars. ChatGPT can create Frends compatible maps with example files. Frends provides templates and source code to enable creating custom mapping tasks.
Troubleshooting	Using HAT, limited visibility on processing	Using Frends UI, the user has access to see the process flow, called subprocesses. It is possible to control the publication of parameters and identifiers, logging level and error handling processes. Built-in silence monitoring.

Happy Customer already migrated to from BizTalk to Frends

Customer	Customer
Destia	Are
YIT	ISS
Raisio	Keva
Nurminen Logistics Oy	Nivos
Eltel Norway	Kuntarahoitus
Eltel Networks	HSV
Helen	Vantaan Energia
Otava	Caruna
Imatran Seudun Sähkönsiirto Oy	Leppäkoski
Veho	Enerim
Tokmanni	DPG Media

Start Your BizTalk Migration with Frends

Begin your migration planning early and make the transition smoother with Frends.

Try Frends for Free | Request a Live Demo