Microsoft bolsters just-unveiled services platform

InfoWorld | at | by Mike

Microsoft is adding on Wednesday connectivity testing and publish-and-subscribe capabilities to its BizTalk Services platform for integrating services within and outside a firewall.

Announced just last week as an early-release Community Technology Preview for developers, BizTalk Services features Internet-hosted services for running composite applications. An Internet service bus capability that links applications across networks is highlighted.

Connectivity testing, called Direct Connect, ensures that a message gets to where it is supposed to go. "The connectivity service will allow now offer a Direct Connect feature, which will allow a developer to build an application to test the connectivity between two endpoints," prior to sending a message, said Steve Martin, director of product management in the Microsoft Connected Systems Division.