Stepping Up

to Microsoft BizTalk 2013 R2

Brought to you by:

fearin the hearts of

IT managers more than a major

software upgrade

Nothing strikes

a bright spotin your software upgrade history

But if you follow a few simple steps,

the upgrade to BizTalk 2013 R2 can be

an outside partner

Strongly Consider Working with

Step

1

Step

1

Regardless of the depth of your

internal BizTalk talent, an upgrade

of this importance should almost

certainly make you consider the

help of an outside partner. If your

BizTalk team is like most, they are

already maxed out on regular

BizTalk work.

Equally important is the neutral

outsider’s view that a partner can

bring to the upgrade. Outside

consultants are governed by their

ability to successfully complete

projects and the opportunity to

help you complete your BizTalk

upgrade will bring out the best in

the best.

Furthermore, the right partner can provide extensive

migration experience and reduce the risk of typical

unforeseen pitfalls you may encounter.

Step

2

a roadmap

Build

and a timeline

Step

2

Some organizations have

seasonal spikes in the business

processes handled through their

BizTalk environment. Others do

not. Regardless of your

company’s operations, you’ll

want to carefully develop a

timeline for your BizTalk upgrade.

This is a process where your

partner can be invaluable

because they have already

handled other upgrades and can

ensure that your timeline and

roadmap are realistic.

Your partner can walk you

through a questionnaire and

provide the best approach on

migrating the platform,

upgrading solutions, testing

deployments, and stabilizing

production. Additionally, the

partner can provide a tailored

plan and timeline that can get

you up and running in BizTalk 2013

R2 seamlessly with little or no

downtime.

Step

3

a history

Build

Only AIMS for

BizTalk will archive

your process

speeds and

message loads in

real time, so it can

point directly at

any problem areas

prior to the

upgrade, allowing

you to solve small

issues that can

become much

bigger after the

upgrade.

Step

3

There is only one tool that can simply and quickly build a completely

accurate graphical map of how your BizTalk works and how your BizTalk

behaves over time through your company´s business cycles. AIMS for

BizTalk, the only pure BizTalk monitoring tool, is essential for ensuring a

smooth 2013 R2 upgrade. Because:

AIMS for BizTalk is

the only solution

that builds a

topology map for

your entire BizTalk

environment as

well as each

individual business

process. This

visualization gives

you another

reference for all of

the pieces that will

be affected by the

upgrade.

Once AIMS for

BizTalk is installed, it

rapidly begins

learning your BizTalkenvironment, and it

will also alert and

report any problems within your

environment,

allowing for

changes that will

improve current

operations.

AIMS for BizTalk is

the upgrade

insurance that

reputable

partners are

reaching for and

installing (as an

on-premise

solution or as a

SaaS) on behalf

of customers

preparing for a

BizTalk upgrade.

Step

4

an upgrade environment

Build a QA / UAT ecosystem and

Step

4

Whether or not you have internal

BizTalk resources, you’ll already

be familiar with the importance of

a QA / UAT environment. This will

be especially important through

the 2013 R2 upgrade process.

Building a QA / UAT ecosystem

will allow you to watch for

problems as individual processes

are ported to your upgraded

BizTalk environment.

Step

5

migration

Begin the actual Business Process

Step

5

Once you and your partner have

agreed that your current BizTalk

environment is at a healthy state

and you have completed the QA

/ UAT of each business process, it

will be time to begin actual

production migration of your

business processes.

As each process is migrated,

AIMS for BizTalk will again begin

gathering data. Imagine the

power of comparing the

performance of your upgraded

BizTalk environment to your pre-

upgrade statistics, at the system,

business process or port level

level.

Any deviation in performance will be easy to see and the

topology mapping feature will allow you to make adjustments

as appropriate because you can visualize and monitor each

component that affects each process.

Step

+

assessment and remediation plan

As an optional step, have your partner develop an

as a best practice solution

Step

+

Your 2013 R2 upgrade may be

the perfect opportunity to have

your partner assess integration

patterns and vet your solutions.

As your partner migrates solutions,

it’s a great time to implement and

tweak your solutions to squeeze

out extra available performance

or remove a lingering issue in your

applications.

Step

6

monitoring

Continue

Step

6

Once the celebration for a job

well-done is over, BizTalk will

continue to tirelessly operate and

so will AIMS for BizTalk. Because

of the patent-pending machine

learning feature, AIMS for BizTalk

will continue to learn your

environment, adjusting to the

addition of new processes and

providing early warning alerts.

Your staff or partners will avoid

the false alerts caused by all

other BizTalk monitoring tools,

largely due to their static

thresholds.

If your internal BizTalk staff is

overwhelmed or still developing,

please talk with your partner

about their AIMS for BizTalk

Managed Services offering. With

this service, your partner can

monitor your environment 24/7

and quickly help you diagnose

and fix any issues that may arise

over time. Your partner will also

schedule regular reviews where

all performance metrics can be

easily digested by any and all of

your stakeholders.

As your partner, we’re ready.

www.aimsinnovation.com