NY/NJ Development Community

Is Kent's blog dead?

Kent Brown — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 15:48:17 GMT

I've been busy, but obviously not blogging. My last blog entry was May 2006! Since then I've:

Continued to lead the Enterprise Integration Practice at twentysix New York (http://www.26ny.com/index.html) - we've built up a team of BizTalk talent that is second to none. We have 7 certified BizTalk consultants: Jeff Bolton and Joe Tsai were from the farm team; Seong-moh Yang, Alex Star, Shashi Raina, and Juan Suero were brought in as free agents. And I am the player/coach. Seriously, it's great working with such a bunch of motivated guys. BizTalk developers tend to be very passionate about middle-tier server-oriented programming and it's a blast to work with these guys.
Continued to lead the NYC Connected Systems User Group (www.nyccsug.org) - Thanks to Ian Murphy for being my Microsoft sponsor, and to several guys on my BizTalk team listed above who offer lots of logistics support. We've got around 250 registered members. We average 30-40 attendees, have had upwards of 60 at some meetings. If you are interested in connected systems programming and live in NYC area you should be part of this group.
Been part of the Microsoft BizTalk Virtual Technical Specialist (VTS) Team - This is an elite group of Microsoft consulting partners who are committed to sustaining a strong practice in BizTalk Server. The VTS role is to support Microsoft field sales team in presenting BizTalk Server to customers and performing POCs to show its value. Then we have the expertise to help customers implement BizTalk solutions successfully. I am the VTS in our organization and it's been a real pleasure to be part of this group. Marty Wasznicky makes sure the program is not just talk - he ensures we get the best training available, the best access to the BizTalk product team, and helps us work closely with the local Microsoft sales team.
Recently named Connected Systems Developer MVP! - This is a huge honor. I am grateful to the people who nominated me and to those who somehow saw fit to choose me. I also feel compelled to explain what it really means as I think there is somewhat of a misunderstanding out there. While it would be flattering to allow the impression that it means "super-smart BizTalk guy" to persist, it actually has to do with community involvement such as user groups, blogs, conferences, etc. I've been running user groups for years, which does take a lot of work and is somewhat "thankless", so this recognition from Microsoft is very rewarding. In a practical sense it gets me more connected to the Microsoft product teams and gives me input into the upcoming releases (such as "Oslo") and access to the most recent information available on beta releases. I look forward to leveraging this connection to benefit the developer community.
Continued to work on my golf game. I know golf isn't considered cool by developers. That is something that dumb, lazy "sales guys" get to do. Actually, I don't have much choice in the matter because I've been pretty much addicted to it since I started about 5 years ago. And, while I am a developer at heart, I do also sometimes play a "sales guy" on TV, so it's only fair that I get to golf every now and then in exchange for selling out to "the man". Anyway, I've struggled for 2 years to break 90, always coming close but falling short. Then boom, a couple of weeks ago I shot a 79! Unless you golf there is no way to explain what a quantum leap that is. I haven't played since. I am sort of savoring it and hoping somehow it wasn't a fluke. If you know golf, you know that the next time out I'll probably stink it up miserably, lose tons of balls, throw clubs, and swear off golf for life. And that'll last about a week.

Winning developers over to the BizTalk way

Kent Brown — Wed, 15 Mar 2006 09:58:00 GMT

A few of us who evangelize BizTalk have noticed that it is sometimes tough to get developers excited about BizTalk. In general, the BizTalk class at a developer conference or event, e.g. VSLive, will not be the biggest draw. I think there are several reasons why this is:

General lack of knowledge and understanding of exactly what BizTalk does.
The name probably doesn't convey what it does very well. Microsoft Enterprise Integration Server might have been a better name (but its too close to Host Integration Server I guess).
The earlier versions of BizTalk were tough to work with.
A lot of developers simply aren't doing integration type work - BizTalk won't help you build web pages or Windows apps.
If people are trying to do SOA, ASP.NET makes web services so easy that a lot of people don't see the need to look further.
Developers like code. They may be threatened by the “drag and drop“ impression that you get from BizTalk at first. Where's the code?
Related to #6, a lot of people take pride in the gory multi-threaded, low level plumbing code they write and aren't eager to hand that over to BizTalk.
If you do try to get into BizTalk it can be overwhelming at first how much you have to learn.
The impression is that there aren't that many BizTalk projects out there so the career opportunities aren't so great.
Somehow the impression is that BizTalk is not as “cool“ as say Indigo or something like that.

So besides helping customers understand the value of BizTalk, one of my missions it to help developers get it. I've recently given talks at the NYC Code Camp, and at a local NJ user group, that I think went over very well. My angle is to help developers see that BizTalk a) is very much .NET, b) adds value in SOA implementations, c) is currently in very high demand.

Here are some of my reasons why you should look at BizTalk as a technology to get into if you are a developer:

BizTalk forces you to think in “Contract First“ terms, something most Web Services developers are only recently coming around to.
BizTalk is probably the most “SOA“ technology that Microsoft ships. Even after WCF ships, it still might be a dead heat.
While BizTalk is highly “SOA“, meaning it supports the latest XML and Web Service standards, it is also very pragmatic in that it hooks in nicely with legacy technologies that aren't yet up to the latest standards.
BizTalk 2004, and now BizTalk 2006 are vastly improved over the 2000/2002 versions.
BizTalk 2004/2006 development is done right in Visual Studio. There is actually quite a bit of .NET code in the typical BizTalk project.
Letting BizTalk's well-tested code handle the gory plumbing frees you up to focus on design and architecture and ship faster.
Interest from customers to do BizTalk projects is actually rising dramatically in the last few months. Right now there is more work than qualified people. The career opportunities are excellent.
It takes a fairly senior .NET developer to make a good BizTalk developer. I personally see it as a bar that the junior/intermediate developer should strive for to demonstrate they are ready to be called “senior“, “architect“, etc.
Because BizTalk is tough to learn at first, there is a high barrier to entry - it's one of the ways to differentiate yourself at a time when development skills are being commoditized by off-shoring.
The suite of individual features BizTalk provides (scalability, fault tolerance, Orchestration, Rules Engine, Business Activity Monitoring, Enterprise Single Sign-on, etc.) combine to make an overwhelming whole that is very compelling for using BizTalk to host true “Services“.

Looks like we got ourselves a convoy

Kent Brown — Fri, 24 Feb 2006 19:29:00 GMT

That's right a BizTalk convoy. I don't mean like a bunch of messages being handled by a single orchestration. I mean like a bunch of people who realize they are going in the same direction and are a force to be dealt with. The inaugural meeting of the NYC Connected Systems User Group (www.nyccsug.org) was a roaring success. Only in NYC can you get 50 people out to the first meeting of a user group with only a month of publicizing. It was exciting to see the clear interest in Enterprise Integration and BizTalk Server. We've got a ton of cool topics to cover, some great people helping organize it, and clearly a ton of support from the developer community. This is going to be a fun group. If you didn't make it to the first meeting, plan to come on out on April 17. Marty Wasznicky, http://blogs.msdn.com/martywaz/, will be presenting. You don't want to miss it.

NYC Code Camp

Kent Brown — Thu, 23 Feb 2006 08:36:00 GMT

I am presenting at my first Code Camp this Saturday in NYC. The matrix of sessions is here: http://nyc.codecamp.us/Matrix.htm

The registration is full, but you can register for the wait list here: http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032289984&Culture=en-US

My talk is on Orchestrating Web Services with BizTalk Server 2006. I've found from my .NET user group in NJ and other venues that its often tough to get the average developer enthused about BizTalk. I'm not sure why it is. Some may be overwhelmed by the fact that it is so different. Some may feel threatened that it de-emphasizes custom code. I personally see it as the culmination of a lot of architectural principles I've come to hold over the years. My angle at Code Camp is to leverage developers' interest in Web Services and SOA by showing the value BizTalk adds in “choreographing” web services and how that helps realize the SOA dream.