Microsoft Integration Options

Too Many Integration Options
As Microsoft puts out more and more integration products the decision to use what, when and where become more muddled. But fear not because I am here to be your bridge over troubled waters (Wife dragged me to a piano bar last night, so I had to sneak that in).

So lets start by looking at what we have today and what we will have in the near future.

Technology	Purpose	Future Technology
ASMX – Web Services	Direct integration between applications. Usually in a synchronous fashion.
.Net Remoting
Enterprise Services
Microsoft Message Queuing (MSMQ)	Asynchronous communication, using queues.
Host Integration Services (HIS)	Integrating Windows applications with IBM systems.
BizTalk (BTS)	Integrating applications using a broker or hub.
SQL Server Replication	Integrating data in a real time manner.
	Queuing for SQL Server. Available with all SQL 2005 versions.	SQL Service Broker (SSB)
	Integrating data from multiple data sources.	SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS)
	A foundation for service oriented applications.	Indigo – Windows Communication Foundation (WCF)
	A foundation for building workflow based applications	Windows Workflow Foundation (WF)

Each option has its role to play in the integration problem space, yet all of them have a common workspace (VS .Net), which makes solving complex integration scenarios fairly straightforward.

Now that we know what is out there and what is on its way, we can take a more in-depth look at some of these. I will attempt to do a series of blog posts highlighting each of these options, and when it would be the best choice