I am looking into architectural patterns, Enterprise Services Bus (ESB) precisely. Upon reading this article Enterprise Integration, and with little to no experience I am wondering if BizTalk has is a ESB or is it just a EAI (Hub/Spokes or Bus)?
I found this NServiceBus and Biztalk, describing BizTalk as a central message broker.
Taking other ESB frameworks into account (NServiceBus and Rhino Service Bus). These frameworks have no central point to process messages.
Is Biztalk a EAI rather than an ESB?
Many thanks
Best Answer
BizTalk is punted by Microsoft as having ESB capabilities - see the BTS ESB toolkit
However, the term 'ESB' covers a very broad field, and there is a lot of subjectivity about an exact definition of an ESB. IMHO there are weak points in BizTalk's claim to be comprehensive as an ESB (in a > 2010 definition of the term).
FWIW we have found BTS a good fit for:
Update, with some further comparative experiences