“The BizTalk application is a feature of BizTalk Server that makes it quicker and easier to deploy, manage, and troubleshoot BizTalk Server business solutions. A BizTalk application is a logical grouping of the items, called "artifacts," used in a BizTalk Server business solution”
I don't think that this definition tells us about the fact what we really are realizing, that is, processes, services, systems functionality and further. We need to answer several questions:
- What function/purpose should the biztalk platform make in our enterprise?
- Should it serve as a Service Bus or an integration platform?
The answers gives us the initial requirements for establishing an initial design and architecture for the biztalk infrastructure.
Initial requirements for the picture below:
- ESB solution
- medium or big biztalk solution
- a lot artefacts to manage(orchestrations, schemas, maps, pipelines, ports)
- support for complex long-running processes
- support for messaging/CBR(content based router)
- different clients demanding similar functionality
Goals:
- reusable services/orchestrations
- easy to manage, deploy and redeploy artifacts
- few, or no dependencies between applications
- loosely coupled services/orchestrations using MsgBox direct binding
- versioning of assemblies supporting different versions, for example a long-running process
- organic growth of artefacts, create applications when needed
Other discussions on the same topic.
