It all started about a year ago and BizTalk Services was soon to go for preview in a few months. We were all excited to break new ground in the era of cloud middleware. We must tell you one of the benefits of being in the product group (or being an MVP) is that you get early access to bits long before they hit the market. Working on those bits, we thought to ourselves, "Wouldn't it be nice for our customers to have a guide to build effective solutions with this service?" This book on BizTalk Services was envisioned not necessarily to spoil the fun by adding every little detail, but to cover enough to understand the architecture, the key components, and help you explore.

This book is written for beginners, and knowledge of BizTalk Server is neither assumed nor expected. It is also the first book on the topic, and we'll cover all the important features including EAI, B2B, and hybrid deployments in detail—all with code samples and walkthroughs. If you are an EAI user, you can start with Chapter 1, Hello BizTalk Services and then continue with Chapter 2, Messages and Transforms, Chapter 3, Bridges, and Chapter 4, Enterprise Application Integration. On the other hand, a B2B developer or architect can follow Chapter 1, Hello BizTalk Services, Chapter 2, Messages and Transforms, and Chapter 5, Business-to-business Integration. If you're interested in the APIs underpinning the services, troubleshooting your solutions, or how to move to BizTalk Services, then Chapter 6, API, Chapter 7, Tracking and Troubleshooting, and Chapter 8, Moving to BizTalk Services will guide you.