1. Sessions from Microsoft
Integration Monday 64 10 44
570+
Weeks / Sessions
Sessions from Microsoft
Product Group
Speakers
Locations
11000+
41500+
1850+
6300+
Online Registrations
Offline Video Views
Presentation Views
Unique Registrations

2. Where our attendees came from
IntegrationUserGroup.com

3. Michael Stephenson Integration in a World of Digital Transformation
Integration MVP
Integration in a World of Digital Transformation

4. Michael Stephenson Coaching & Consultancy
Azure Trainer
Integration Architect
Loads of real world Azure projects
#IntegrationMonday
Blog -
Twitter

5. Agenda Agenda Outcomes Positioning Digital Positioning Integration
Steps to success
Outcomes
Thoughts on how to succeed in a digital business
Challenge the way you think about Integration with Microsoft

6. Why should I care about Digital Transformation?
Opportunity
Threat
87% of companies think digital transformation will provide competitive advantage
>50% of senior execs believe its Critical to implement digital transformation in next 12 months
Integration is seen as a key element to successful Digital Transformation
Current IT is viewed as the biggest obstacle to Digital
Many companies aren’t happy about how they do integration
There is an opportunity to be leaders in Digital Transformation rather than be seen as blockers
To achieve this we need to rethink our approaches and ways of working

7. Industry Position of Integration
iPaaS
Integration
Digital Transformation
API Economy
Azure
BizTalk Server
API Management is now a commodity
Digital Transformation is what nearly every business is doing or wanting to do
Realization that integration is the key to Digital Transformation
SOA + ESB
Hype Cycle Model from Gartner

8. Am I being left behind?

9. Do you recognize any of these?
We don’t have very good test environments
We don’t do automated testing
Integration is an after thought
We aren’t using the cloud yet
We have one massive BizTalk solution with everything in it
We struggle to deploy our BizTalk apps
We don’t really know what system talks to what
Dave is the guy who knows about integration, he is off today
Heres a check list of some of the common problems in many BizTalk customers
If your looking at this and see many of them in your organization then yes your being left behind

10. Steps to success
The key to success is realizing its not just about technology but technology is still an important part of it

11. Step 1 – The Culture

12. Perception of the Integration Team
Key note is to recognize that digital reinforces the perception that the business and even IT views TRADITIONAL integration as a necessary evil

13. Perception of Integration
2 Speed IT is accelerated by good integration
I need to deliver Digital Transformation
I need good integration
Integration is key to Digital Transformation
Digital Transformation is a great thing for Integration. Now that everyone has gotten over the API Economy and realized that integration is the electricity to power API and Digital its starting to get a lot of love right now
The key is how to get that message out in your organization and how to leverage it
We can solve all of your integration problems with our product

14. Manage Expectations Accept there are different kinds of integration
Sometimes integration
Is just difficult
It should be the requirements not the tools that makes it difficult

15. Tips It’s a great time for integration
Reputation/PR/Marketing of your integration is important
Its not magically going to get easy, manage expectations

16. Step 2 – The Team(s)

17. Central Integration Delivery Team
Advantages
Single view of integration
Disadvantages
Doesn’t scale well
Everyone depends on the integration team
Expensive
Integration Team
Team A
Integration
Specialist
Integration
Specialist
Team B
Team C

18. “Cross Functional” Teams
Advantages
Team has all skills it needs
Disadvantages
Skills often non transferrable within team
Doesn’t scale well
Expensive
Lots of potential blockers
Eg. Someone takes holiday
Short lived teams leads to nomadic solutions
Difficult to be consistent across teams
The Team
Integration Specialist
Mobile Specialist
Database Specialist
SAP Specialist
Analyst
Web Developer
Web Developer
Scrum Master

19. Integrators Everywhere
Integration Coordinators
Project Team
Project Team
Integration Specialist
Project Team
Project Team
Integration Specialist
Mobile Specialist
+ Ad-hoc Integrator
Integration Coordinators:
Coaching
Supporting
Escalation
Governing
Database Specialist
SAP Specialist
Analyst + Citizen Integrator
Web Developer
+ Ad-hoc Integrator
Web Developer
+ Ad-hoc Integrator
Scrum Master

20. Modern Integration Roles
Integration Specialist
Ad-Hoc Integrator
Citizen Integrator
Coaching
Supporting
Escalation
Governing
Defining Approaches
Defining Standards
Implementation on hard projects
Pair programming
Doing bulk of implementation
Working within Integration Constraints
Working on other non integration features
Integration Analysis
Light weight integration
Low risk integration
At Northumbria Uni current skill split
20% Integration Specialist
80% Ad-hoc Integrator
Starting to have business analysts looking at Citizen Integrator opportunities

21. Tips Anyone can be an integrator
Coach rather than fight change, promote collaboration
Sometimes its hard, then let the specialists do it

22. Step 3 – The Platform

23. Best of Breed (aka bits we don’t have)
A Familiar Story?
Best of Breed (aka bits we don’t have)
Competitor Offering
API
iPaaS
Analysis + Reporting
Database
Custom Code
IoT
Message Queue
Monitoring
SaaS Integration
Hybrid
Hello Mr. Marketing Director, We can solve all of your integration problems with our product

24. Microsoft – The Bigger Picture
Integration.Evolved
Integration.Expanded
Microsoft produced an excellent paper about how the core Microsoft integration products are evolving to an iPaaS offering and to support the next generation of integration
There is however a part of the integration story that for many organizations integration is wider than the core integration products. To describe the full integration picture you also need to bring in products from the wider Azure platform in a similar way to how Cortana Analytics Suite has.
Microsoft
Core Integration
Microsoft Azure

25. Microsoft Tech Stack Integration Security Application Platform
Application Performance Management
App Service
Azure Active Directory
Container Service
Redis Cache
Function App
Batch
Application Insights
SQL Database
Azure AD – B2C / B2B
Web Apps
Storage
Document DB
Operations Insights
Service Fabric
Management & Governance
Integration
Development
Using Azure and Microsoft, the big strength is the relationships between the features on Azure and the ability to use them to support your integration
For other vendors every time you want to do something custom or use something in the expanded platform it requires a vendor selection process
Security Centre
Cortana Analytics Suite
Dev Test Labs
Stream Analytics
Automation
Visual Studio Team
Services
Backup Vaults
Cognitive Services
Data Lake Storage
Data Lake Analytics
Dev Machine
Templates
Resource Groups
Data Catalog
Machine Learning
Power BI

26. “Cortana Microsoft Integration Suite”
EAI/ETL
Messaging
Orchestration
IoT
Azure BizTalk
BizTalk Server
BizTalk Server
Service Bus
Messaging
Logic Apps
BizTalk Server
Event Hubs
IoT Hubs
Data Factory
SSIS
Event Hubs
API
Hybrid Connectivity
BAM/Analytics
Citizen Integrator
If we follow a model
Azure BizTalk
Service Bus
Relay
API Apps
API Management
Power BI
Stream Analytics
Power Apps
Flows
VPN
Express Route
Event Hubs

27. Tips There are more technologies than ever
Choose the right ones for your organization, match to skills
Don’t have a “free for all”
Invest in your people to learn new stuff

28. Step 4 – The Architecture

29. Challenge - Colouring outside the lines
Even with a great architecture and design there are two key challenges:
Do the developers know where the lines are?
Are the developers cross the lines anyway to get the job done?
Empowering the ad-hoc integrator to be able to do more stuff comes with the trade off that they need to understand the responsibility to communicate with the integration specialist if they start to colour outside of the lines
Architect
Developers

30. The Evolving Architecture Paradox
Start of Project
End of Project
The challenge for architecture in an agile environment is managing change
Agile teams are driven by features and delivery of stories. They look to just get the job done.
This is made worse when the cloud empowers them to provision new stuff with out the checks and balances to manage it
As an architect the challenge is how do I govern the architecture without being seen to be a blocker for the project
The key thing is the identification of “Architecturally significant changes”

31. Delivery ‘vs’ Architecture
Need to Deliver Business Value
BUT
Technology changes so rapidly
Projects change so rapidly
Flexibility is king
The best way to solve a problem today might be different tomorrow SO
Think of architecture as a journey rather than a destination
Go into detail on transitional architectures
Use common blueprints/patterns
Just in time architecture
Architecture
Delivery
Make the customer happy
Hit deadlines
Deliver the project
Effective Architecture
Technical Debt
“It is not the strongest of the species that survive,
nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change” - Darwin

32. Integration Blueprints
Blueprint Library
Blueprint Details
Library of approved patterns for common tasks
Owned by Integration Specialists
Most implementations should refer to a blueprint
Guidance on how to implement
RAG status for how much Integration Specialist needs to be aware of your implementation

33. Dependency Maps
Application Insights
BizTalk 360

34. Dependency Maps
Logic Apps
Power Apps

35. Tips
The biggest challenge is stealth IT within IT (spinning up new Azure stuff without telling anyone)
Create blueprints + constraints to identify when the architect wants to know and when the developers are Green Light to Go
Think about dependencies to govern architecture
Get involved with teams. Architecture is collaborative

36. Step 5 – Assembly Lines

37. Where does your organization fit?
Where Digital Transformation
Needs us to be!
Too many organizations:
Rubbish development environments
No build servers
No/Poor testing
Cant deploy stuff
Provisioning issues block development
Graphic from:

38. Component Type “Assembly Lines”
How you do stuff is VERY important:
Repeatable
Consistent
Quality
Not overly complex
Simple BizTalk Application
Complex BizTalk Application
Azure Logic App
The Integration Specialist sets up the Assembly Line
The Adhoc Integrator will build components using the assembly line
This reinforces the adherences to practices and governance we put in place
Microservice
Azure Web Job
API Gateway

39. Simple BizTalk Apps “Assembly Line”
Work Management:
Visual Studio Team Services
Development Environment:
Azure Dev Test Labs
Analysis:
Confluence
Guidance:
Confluence
Source Control: Visual Studio Team Services
Templated Code base structure
Testing:
Specflow Behaviour Driven Development
Deployment:
Octopus Deploy
Looking inside an assembly line you can see the typical components and practices that make up the way we build a specific component
The sweet spot is to make your different assembly lines reuse as many components as possible so you have skills transfer between types of component and solution
Automated Build: Visual Studio Team Services
Configuration Management
Testing:
MsTest
Logging:
Application Insights
+ Log4net

40. Visual Studio Team Services
Microsoft Azure
Active Directory
Work Item
Management
Source Control
Automated Build
BizTalk Developer
Workstations
.net Integration
Workstations
Microsoft Azure
BizTalk Build
Server
.net Integration
Build Servers
Azure Dev Test Lab
Application Insights
Azure Active Directory
Azure IaaS
Azure Marketplace
Operational Insights

41. Tips
Digital Transformation will fail if you can not effectively build/deploy/manage software
There is no longer an excuse for not developing “properly”
Azure can remove your infrastructure blockers for development
Assembly Line / Predictable Pipeline approaches are key to being effective

42. Step 6 – Insights

43. Challenge – What’s happening in the box?
Product Owner
Business Analyst
Integration Ninja
Integration Platform
IT Pro/Support

44. Process Insights
From BizTalk BAM
To Power BI - BAM & Analytics

45. Engage with Business Users
From To
Have we processed the month end orders yet?
Logic Apps
BizTalk Server

46. Cost Insights Power BI Enterprise Agreement Custom Reports
Content Pack

47. Security Insights
Azure – IT Deep Dive
Power BI - Management Summary

48. Application Insights Azure - Deep Dive for Developers
Power BI – Product Owner Summary

49. IT Operations Insights
Operations Manager Suite
Power BI – Azure Audit Logs

50. Development Insights Team Foundation Services
Power BI – Management Summary

51. Tips Insights are the secret sauce to culture change
Insights make people feel aware and involved
There are available insights for every stakeholder in your integration solutions
The insights options are one of Microsoft’s biggest strengths

52. Summary

53. Summary
Digital Transformation is the best non-technical thing to happen to integration in years
Azure is a great platform to empower “digital” through integration
Integration Teams should be leaders in Digital businesses

54. Questions