Overview
  • 05 Mar 2023
  • 3 Minutes to read
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Overview

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Article summary

In this section I will provide a 1 page overview of some of the technologies you will come across in the integration platforms organisations have developed over the years using Microsoft technologies.

Recently I have also decided to include an investor style approach to viewing the technologies in terms of buy/hold/sell which is how I would consider investing my own time and money in the technologies.

Buy

If I am grouping a technology as "Buy" this means if i were building an integration platform this is a technology I would be actively looking to use and I would be investing my own training time in learning about it.


Buy Technologies
Logic Apps Consumption
Logic Apps Standard
Power Apps / Power Automate
Data Factory
Azure Functions
Azure Web Apps
Event Hub
Event Grid
Service Bus
API Management
Container Apps
Log Analytics
Application Insights
Power Automate Desktop/RPA

Hold

If I list a technology as hold then it is likely I would not be using it to implement new solutions unless it was a technology I already used and was very comfortable with. I will be keeping myself aware of what is happening with this technology but it is unlikely I will invest a lot of my training time on this technology.

Hold TechnologiesRecommendation
Integration AccountMicrosoft arent doing a lot with this at the moment and are focusing AIS investments in other areas but it does what it says on the tin.
Even though Logic App Standard supports inline maps and there are cost benefits of inline maps if you need a centralized map or you need the EDI/EDIFACT type features then Integration Account is solid.
Id expect more investments around integration accounts once Logic App Standard is feature compatible with Integration Services Environments and BizTalk

Sell

If I were building a new solution I would not be using this technology and if I was changing an existing solution I would probably be looking to migrate away from this technology to mitigate the risk of future technical debt. I will not be investing any of my training time in these technologies. I might even group the technologies by ones I would sell fast versus ones id sell slowly.


Sell SlowRecommendation
BizTalk ServerLook to move to Azure Integration Services
Azure Web JobsAzure Functions
SQL Server Integration ServicesData Factory or Synapse Pipelines
SSIS is supported still in Data Factory but its better to have a strategy of limiting investments in SSIS and move to Data Factory or Synapse Pipelines


Sell FastRecommendation
BizTalk RFIDLook at Azure IoT solutions
Windows Workflow ManagerLook to move to Azure Integration Services
App Fabric HostingCloud hosting options eg App Service
BizTalk ESB ToolkitLook to move to Azure Integration Services
Microsoft Identity ManagerAzure Active Directory
MSMQAzure Service Bus
Windows Communication Foundation.net API technologies
API Management
Windows Workflow FoundationLogic Apps
WCF Routing ServiceAPI Management
Azure Integration Services Environment (ISE)Microsoft are deprecating the Cloud service which is the underlying hosting for ISE.
This was a dedicated compute node for Logic Apps

Move your ISE logic apps to consumption or standard.

There are potential cost savings and feature benefits from doing this too,


Ones to Watch

Ones to watch are technologies you might not have on the radar for most projects, there will be some that will look at these technologies but from a skills and learning perspective I think we need to keep an eye on these technologies as they will be in our remit sooner or later.

TechnologyRecommendation
Azure Kubernetes ServiceSome parts of the Azure Integration Services technologies already support AKS, for example Functions and API Management.
At present Logic Apps does not support AKS.

I would expect this to be on the roadmap but some way off once Logic App Standard has feature parity with BizTalk and ISE.
There would be scale to zero and networking benefits offered by Logic Apps on AKS but it is not a use case I think there is large demand for just yet.



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