BizTalk Server Application Management (BSAM) and DevOps Provide Seamless Business Continuity

FTJ brought in TwoConnect to assist with resolving issues with binding. TwoConnect determined that a clean installation of BizTalk applications with DevOps was the best solution to ensure continuing business agility.

FTJ helps policy holders protect their lives, health, families, and businesses

Established in 1953, FTJ provides insurance programs to more than 80 national associations and employer groups with more than 1.5 million members. FTJ strives to meet customer needs by applying the latest technology and marketing expertise in a dynamic environment that produces the best results for members.

The challenge

As part of its BizTalk Server Application Management (BSAM) solution, TwoConnect provided strategies to improve performance in the BizTalk Server 2016 production environment and overcome issues with Binding.xml using DevOps. Opening communication among network adapter card drivers, protocols, and services for better and faster integration across the company.

FTJ received recommendations for improved Runtime Groupings and usage of BizTalk Health Monitor for instant performance feedback. They also were consulted on how to improve the overall availability, database backup strategy, environment configuration, and business activity reporting company wide. TwoConnect structured the managed services to address FTJ’s unique needs and allow greater flexibility in the workplace—all within FTJ’s budget and to the required service level agreement.

Microsoft Azure DevOps merges people, processes, and tools to increase FTJ’s business agility

It was determined to use Azure DevOps to build, test, and deploy BizTalk Applications to ensure smooth and adaptive IT processes and business agility. TwoConnect BSAM let FTJ concentrate on its core business while TwoConnect focused on DevOps by:

Identifying FTJ’s DevOps tasks required in the new model
Building the DevOps process flow
Identifying the steps and flow of the DevOps project
Determining if binding issues were resolved by building detailed DevOps tasks that became a pipeline for the MIB-DeathScrub application
Cleaning all BizTalk applications on the Dev server and starting a clean installation
Building binding scenarios to recreate and test assumed resolutions
Building a DevOps release for FTJ BizTalk apps and validating the original FTJ vision
Deploying across the company.

Summary

Providing FTJ with a resolution to binding issues through Azure DevOps and increasing performance in the new BizTalk Server 2016 production environment resulted in better outcomes from BizTalk Health Monitor. BSAM focuses exclusively on supporting, maintaining, and adapting FTJ’s integration solutions to ensure the seamless continuity of business operations. The BSAM solution utilizes:

BizTalk Server 2016 Enterprise Edition including BizTalk EDI Runtime
SQL Server 2016 Enterprise Edition
BizTalk Server 2010 Enterprise Edition including BizTalk EDI Runtime
SQL Server 2008 R2 Standard Edition.

“TwoConnect’s BizTalk Server Application Management solution and its award-winning BizTalk Managed Services team implemented guidelines for supporting, maintaining, and adapting all their integration solutions to ensure the seamless continuity of business operations going forward. BizTalk Server is the connection point among various systems. Azure DevOps extension as the framework for BizTalk that facilitates the deployment and configuration of all BizTalk apps. DevOps tools help reduce development time and costs while speeding time to customers.

TwoConnect simplifies software development through its team of Microsoft MVPs, Azure developers, development managers, trainers, and a worldwide community of integration experts. The company has led hundreds of integration implementations covering all major industry sectors.”