The future of BizTalk

Last couple of days the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference took place in Los Angeles. It appeared that there was some discussion on the future for Biztalk Server, but I couldn't figure out exactly what it was.

Today I found some Blogs which summarizes the presentation given by Microsoft’s Tony Meleg. It seems that BizTalk as product/brand name may go away after few years but the integration concepts are going to remain. As I understood, no new features would be released anymore, only some maintenance releases.

Presentation video: AP03 - The Future of Middleware and the BizTalk Roadmap
Presentation slides: Download Session Presentation

Summarizing blogs:

• Is BizTalk Server Going Away At Some Point? Yes. Dead? Nope. « Richard Seroter's Architecture Musings
• The Future of Middleware and the BizTalk Roadmap - Recap
• Microsoft BizTalk's future is cloudy (no pun intended)