This is the second part of our “Top 10 Problems of Not Migrating to Azure from BizTalk.” We covered the first five in the last video, so we won’t recap that. We’ll go straight into number six, which is integration challenges. Since BizTalk was effectively designed as an on-premises technology, a few cloud features have been added over time, but it’s not built for a multi-cloud environment. If all your other systems are already in the cloud and you don’t want to incur data egress charges, you need seamless connections to various SaaS platforms with ready-built connectors. You won’t get this modern integration support from what is effectively a legacy platform. Many of the challenges you encounter will already be solved if you move to Azure.
Next, reduced agility. When you create a BizTalk group, you build servers and install software onto them. You can script much of this, but if you need to set up a whole new infrastructure, you don’t have the same level of infrastructure-as-code support that a modern cloud platform offers. Additionally, you don’t have the capability to do cloud-native operations. If you spin up new cloud-native infrastructure, you lack the management tools to support it operationally. While you can create virtual machines and put BizTalk on them, integrating that into your operational framework is tough and creates barriers, reducing your agility.
Compliance issues are another concern. A modern cloud platform allows you to centralize all your audit information and set policies to prevent mistakes. Many compliance tasks that are automated in a modern cloud platform have to be done manually in BizTalk. Manual processes are prone to errors.
Talent shortage is also a significant issue. Most experts in this product have moved on to other things. No one wants to work on a 25-year-old legacy product, so the top talent has left. Who’s left? Not the rock stars. You need to ensure your technology keeps pace with current skills, or you’ll struggle to find support.
Finally, innovation stagnation. Imagine plugging into all the modern AI technologies, using the latest copilot tools, and integrating machine learning models. You can’t do this easily with BizTalk. You’re missing out on big data analytics and other advanced capabilities that can do amazing things for your business. To take advantage of what modern cloud platforms offer, you need to migrate. The best place to migrate is to Azure.
If you haven’t started yet, talk to me about whether you’re eligible for innovation funding. There’s help available, and you might even get the migration costs covered. Talk to me, and I’ll let you know if you’re eligible. Let’s get started on this journey for a better future.
