Category: Hybrid Integration

Countdown to Global Integration Bootcamp 2021

Last January, I wrote about this year edition of Global Integration Bootcamp. As you might remember, this year we locked it on 26-27 February (UTC Time) running two different event streams starting at times that can be suitable for the three main time zone areas- APAC, EMEA and Americas.

Lineup

We’ve received an awesome number of sessions and in the end, the event will count with 21 sessions and 19 speakers from APAC, EMEA and Americas, including Microsoft Cloud Advocates, Azure MVPs, Community Leaders and Industry Experts – covering a long list of topics in the from cloud and data integration to hybrid integration and API design/development. Here is this year’s lineup:

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Global Integration Bootcamp 2021 goes Virtual!!!

Hey there! Happy New Year!!!

Many of you were asking about if we would be doing another Global Integration Bootcamp this year. I know that there is been a while since we provided any news about it, but the team was trying to come up with a formula that would work for our goal of a 24 hour around the globe marathon of Microsoft Integration goodness! We knew that we wanted:

  • Stream it in a way that you could just tune in and watch whenever you were, instead of having to join a specific application.
  • Run through as many timezones as possible.
  • Open up for the community to bring their content either live or pre-recorded.

After much discussion (read HEAPS of Whats App messages going back and forth, tests on multiple streaming platforms, and trying to find a time that didn’t clash with other events), we locked it on 26-27 February (UTC Time) running three different event streams starting at times that are more suitable for the three main time zone areas- APAC, EMEA and Americas.

But for that to fly we need sessions and people ready to present right? So the Call for Papers process is now open. We are catering for both lightning talks (15 minutes) and breakout sessions (30-45 minutes) and any level (from introductory to advanced), so if you are interested in Microsoft Cloud and Hybrid Integration and would like to present in one of those time zones, please submit a session -or 3. The link for the CFP page is:

Submissions end on 5 February, so get your thinking caps on, or dust off that classic session you would like to revisit and send it our way!

Also, make sure you keep an eye on the event website (https://integrationbootcamp.com/ ) as we will be adding more information about the format and the links for the streaming pages, closer to the event.

In Summary

Azure Functions with a Static Outbound IP Address

“So to complete our configuration we just need your outbound static IP…” This is something that pops up again and again, specially if you work integrating legacy systems, like banks, government agencies or other older systems that requires a static IP Address to add to firewall inbound rules.

In the past I had to use on of the subscription tiers from Azure API Management or in some cases deploy the code within a self hosted service in a Virtual Machine. And both of them are valid options if you already have one of those components in place. But in a couple of my last projects, Not only I needed to implement a new component (in this case API Management) just to fulfil this requirement. I also had to change my design a bit, because API Management didn’t support one of the streaming requirements I had (but that is a story for another post).

But I wouldn’t be writing a post just to complain about this (not that this has never happened before) – I actually found another solution – one that I’ve tried and discarded earlier this year, but thanks to some good work from the App Services Engineering team, is finally a viable solution: Azure Functions + VNET Integration + NAT Gateways!

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Recapping Integrate 2020

Last week I’ve attended the Integrate conference once again. It was my 5th time attending the conference, and the 4th time I’ve participate as a speaker.

But Integrate 2020  was quite a different experience from the last years. Dubbed Integrate 2020 Remote, to reflect the fact that was yet another event that had to adapt to the pandemic reality that assaulted the planet since the end of last year. Kovai, the company formerly know as BizTalk 360, and the event organizer since its inception in 2012, took some time to decide that the event would go ahead, but when decided that it would be in a new format, didn’t pull any stops to get it running. With almost 1000 online attendees – which is impressive for a paid event, Integrate 2020 had 28 speakers, between Microsoft Program Managers and Microsoft MVPs and as many technical sessions distributed across three days.

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Upgrading BizTalk 2013 to BizTalk 2020

Wow, it has been a long while since I wrote a post about good old BizTalk! But we had some interesting findings this week trying to run an in-place upgrade from BizTalk Server 2013 to BizTalk Server 2020.

I know that in-place upgrade is one of the cardinal sins of BizTalk, together with not running the BizTalk database jobs or having a single host to rule them all! But before you take my BizTalk fan club membership card, just understand that we had 5 different environments and so much red tape and reconfiguration for a side by side upgrade, that it was worth taking the risk.

And here is what we found during this process. I say we because although I helped troubleshooting, one of the best consultants from my team, Peter Kenyon, had the pleasure of experience this particular kind of hell – I am pretty sure I owing lunch after all of that…

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API Management – Arc Enabled

API Management what enabled? If you haven’t keeping up with the news from MS Ignite 2019, the title might be a bit confusing. Arc (not A.R.C as I read it initially) is a new Service in Azure that allow customer to deploy and manage Azure Services anywhere – and anywhere in this case means any cloud, on-premises infrastructure and at the edge. You can find more about that service here.

During MS Ignite, the API Management team launched the public preview of a new feature, that takes advantage of the Arc technology to deploy API Management gateways anywhere. So let’s take a look of what that looks like.

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Combining API Management with Azure Relays

As you might remember, in June I was at the Integrate 2018, doing a presentation called Exposing BizTalk to the World. It was my second time presenting on what became the premier conference on Microsoft Integration and it was a fantastic experience. It wouldn’t be fair to talk about Integrate without thanking Theta for sponsoring my trip and time of work and BizTalk360 for organizing a great event.

But why am I talking about this almost four months later? Apart from the shameless plug, during that presentation suggested a couple of ways to expose BizTalk endpoints. One of the options was using API Management to expose BizTalk receive locations, and the other was using Azure Relay to bypass firewall and securely expose BizTalk endpoints.

A couple of weeks ago, I’ve actually combine both technologies to securely expose a BizTalk endpoint. On this scenario, the client needed to create an API that would be exposed to partners, but wanted to reuse a series of BizTalk processes that were already implemented. As this was a pilot that should highlight the agility and fast time to market that can be achieved with the cloud, we didn’t have time to go through the process of exposing their environment through the firewall and whitelist API Management. Continue reading “Combining API Management with Azure Relays”

BizTalk Server 2016 and SQL Server 2016 SP2

BizTalk Server 2016 Cumulative Update 5 was released last week. One of the items in the CU list was this KB – adding support in BizTalk Server 2016 for SQL Server 2016 SP2.

Why is this important? Because this service pack simplifies the deployment of SQL components when setting up BizTalk Server 2016 highly available environments. Continue reading “BizTalk Server 2016 and SQL Server 2016 SP2”

Unlocking Azure Hybrid Integration with BizTalk Server

Last June I was one of the presenters at Integrate 2017. And man, I had a blast! Can’t thank enough Theta for sponsoring me going to the event, and Biztalk360 for having me as presenter. It was an amazing experience…

Today the video of my presentation has been published. So go check it out and also check out the amazing presentations on this year’s edition.

Putting theory into Practice

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