If you would like to realize how Microsoft is differentiating its Software+Services (S+S) technique differs from Software Like a Service (SaaS), appear no further Microsoft's recently announced BizTalk Companies. BizTalk Solutions include: BizTalk Identity Companies provide authentication, access control and federated identity based on the WS-Trust specification and Windows CardSpace BizTalk Relay Services facilitate the traversal and bridging of physical networks, enabling high-fidelity interconnection between cooperating systems for cross-organizational messaging behind firewallsBizTalk ServiceBus Solutions, or ESB providers, are for creating loosely coupled applications BizTalk Workflow Services provide a hosted instance of Windows Workflow Foundation On April 24, Microsoft moved BizTalk companies out of its live.labs.com incubation lab and into the labs.biztalk.net testing world. The first release of BizTalk Solutions isn't considered a full-fledged beta; it's a Community Technology Preview (CTP) pre-beta release. In Microsoft's S+S taxonomy, there are three tiers of providers. Microsoft Connected Systems Division Director of Product Management Steve Martin explains these three tiers succinctly in this blog posting: Building Block – The raw building block capabilities to enable developers to build interesting companies (or composite apps) Attached – Services that feed into the premise software program e.g. Exchange Hosted Companies (security, anti-spam, archiving), Windows Live Update Finished – Solutions built for delivery over the internet. e.g. Dynamics CRM Live, Salesforce.com Martin puts these hosted, "in-the-cloud" BizTalk Solutions into the "building block" category. They are meant to be a complement to Microsoft's on-premise BizTalk integration server. He explains: "We see BizTalk Companies being a complement to 'traditional' BizTalk Server uses on premise. As you will need to coordinate SOA on a broader scale beyond the organization, we see the introduction of hosted services as one way to help support federation of business process, messaging, and identity across boundaries. Over time,
Microsoft Office Professional 2007, we wish to ensure that BizTalk Server customers will be able to easily use the cloud companies in conjunction with their premise technology." Expect to see Microsoft announce more "building block" providers inside the not-too-distant future. Maybe even the long-awaited Microsoft storage inside the cloud solutions will finally make their debut….