BizTalk Server 2013 R2 - Generally Available Now!

We are excited to announce the general availability of BizTalk Server 2013 R2.

• BizTalk Server 2013 R2 is available for download on MSDN and TechNet.  BizTalk Server 2013 R2 on MSDN and BizTalk Server 2013 R2 on TechNet
• MPN Partners who have Application Integration Competency can now download BizTalk Server Enterprise 2013 R2 (includes Host Integration Server 2013) English version on Partner Digital Download Portal. (Microsoft Account associated with admin privilege is required to access MPN)
• BizTalk Server 2013 R2 downloads are also available for authorized customers on the Volume Licensing Service Center:  https://www.microsoft.com/Licensing/servicecenter/default.aspx
• Evaluation Edition starting today is available here:  https://www.microsoft.com/en-US/download/details.aspx?id=43381
• Microsoft Azure subscribers will see BizTalk Server 2013 R2 images in the Azure VM Gallery this week - https://azure.microsoft.com/  

As part of this release we have made improvements in the following areas:

• Platform support for:

  • Windows Server 2012 R2, Windows Server 2012, Windows 8.1, Windows 7 SP1
  • SQL Server 2014 or SQL Server 2012 SP1
  • Visual Studio 2013
  • .NET Framework 4.5 and .NET Framework 4.5.1
  • Microsoft Office Excel 2013 and 2010
  • SharePoint 2013 SP1

• Updates to Service Bus (SB) messaging adapters

  • SB Messaging adapter is enhanced to support SAS (Shared Access signature) based authentication, in addition to ACS.  With this new improvement, BizTalk Server can now also interact with the on premise edition of Service

• Updates to the SFTP adapter

  • SFTP adapter now supports two-factor authentication and provides an option to specify a temporary folder while uploading/downloading large files. You can also select the Encryption cipher value specific to your target server

• Updates to the WCF-WebHttp adapter

  • WCF-WebHttp adapter now supports sending and receiving JSON messages. BizTalk Server also provides two new pipelines for processing JSON messages. An Encoder and Decoder component is also available for use in custom pipelines

• Updates to HL7 Accelerator

  • Provides capability to include free-text data as part of the message that can be processed by the HL7 pipelines
  • 64-bit support for hosting HL7 adapter

Key links:

• What’s new in BizTalk Server 2013 R2 and Documentation
• Integration @ Microsoft

BizTalk Server runs your on-premises integration solutions better and faster than ever before, and makes it easier to build hybrid solutions that span on-premises and the cloud.

This release is yet another step in the on-going investments we are making in integration and BizTalk. We are excited about this release and our future plans for BizTalk (on premise, IaaS & PaaS).

Thank You,

The BizTalk Team