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Migrate from BizTalk · Art2link ESB

The cloud-native BizTalk successor. Built by the original architects.

Art2link ESB carries your BizTalk message flows, maps, and routing patterns forward into Azure-native runtime — without rewriting them. The Windows fleet, Visual Studio toolchain, and per-message licensing don’t come with you.

  • Built by original BizTalk Server architects
  • Microsoft Solutions Partner · Azure-native ESB
BizTalk Server 2020 is the final version. Mainstream support ends April 2028. Extended support ends April 2030. Microsoft has confirmed no further releases. Logic Apps was offered as the cloud path forward, but it was never designed to absorb the governance, transaction tracking, and operational rigor that ESB workloads demand. Art2link ESB was — built by the team that wrote BizTalk in the first place, and engineered to run the same workloads on Azure-native foundations.
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Today
May 2026 · planning window
Apr 2028
Mainstream support ends
Apr 2030
Extended support ends — end of life
The shift

Where your team operates today — and where they operate after.

Hover any row on the left to see its paired equivalent on the right. The five shifts below are not theoretical — they show up in every BizTalk-to-Art2link migration we run.

BizTalk today

Where your integration team operates now

  • BizTalk Server 2020 — the final version, no successor planned
  • Dedicated Windows fleet to patch, scale, and audit
  • Visual Studio + compiled releases for any change
  • HAT and BAM for tracking, plus custom dashboards on top
  • Scarce, expensive talent pool that’s actively retiring
After migration · Art2link ESB

Where your team operates after

  • Configuration-driven integrations, hot-swapped at runtime — no version lock
  • Serverless on Azure App Service — no Windows to patch
  • Web console only — no Visual Studio, no compiled releases
  • End-to-end transaction tracking out of the box
  • Azure-native talent pool, broad and supplied by the market
What carries forward

A migration, not a rewrite.

Two decades of BizTalk work does not need to be thrown away. The intent and the patterns translate. What changes is the runtime they execute on.

Maps and transformation intent

BizTalk maps translate to Art2link XSLT 3.0 transforms. Functoid logic is preserved; complex maps run through a guided conversion path. Test data exercised against both engines during pilot.

Orchestration patterns

Receive-validate-transform-route-deliver pipelines map directly to Art2link itineraries. Send port groups, exception flows, retry policies, and dead-letter handling all have first-class equivalents.

Trading partners and adapters

EDI partner agreements, AS2 trading relationships, and adapter configurations transfer through a structured import path. SAP, Oracle, mainframe, and HL7 adapters all have Art2link equivalents.

The approach

Four phases. Parallel run from week one. Cutover when you decide.

The migration follows a wave model. BizTalk keeps running production traffic until each integration has been validated on Art2link, parallel-run for a defined window, and signed off by your team. No big-bang cutover. No outage windows. No betting the company.

Phase 01
Discover
1–2 weeks
  • BizTalk artifact inventory: orchestrations, pipelines, schemas, maps
  • Custom component and .NET adapter audit
  • Trading-partner and integration-topology mapping
  • Risk & complexity scoring per integration
Phase 02
Map
2–4 weeks
  • Translate BizTalk artifacts to Art2link itineraries and XSLT 3.0 maps
  • Custom-component re-implementation plan
  • Test-data sets for each integration pattern
  • Migration wave plan with priority order
Phase 03
Pilot
4–6 weeks
  • Implement 2–3 representative integrations on Art2link
  • Parallel run alongside BizTalk — both receive production traffic
  • Operational handover dry-run with your team
  • Audit & compliance verification before wider rollout
Phase 04
Cutover
Wave-based, 4–8 weeks
  • Migrate remaining integrations in waves — you set the order
  • BizTalk retirement on a wave-by-wave basis
  • Knowledge transfer and production-support handover
  • Post-migration optimization & cost review

Total elapsed time on a typical mid-complexity environment lands in the 3–5 month range. Faster for narrow scope, longer for heavily customized BizTalk estates. The Discover phase produces the exact estimate before the rest of the work begins.

Migration patterns

What our migrations look like in practice.

Ranges below reflect the shape of mid-complexity BizTalk estates we have moved to Art2link — not a single engagement. The Discover phase produces specific numbers for your environment.

Regulated environments typically retire 10–20 BizTalk Server hosts and 50–100 orchestrations over a 6–9 month migration window — with zero production outages and a 2–4 week parallel-run validation before each wave cuts over.

Healthcare · Pharma · Financial services · Audited workloads

Trading-partner-heavy estates typically replace 4–8 BizTalk hosts with a single multi-region Art2link deployment — infrastructure spend drops 50–70% in year one while EDI throughput headroom roughly doubles.

Logistics · Manufacturing · Retail · 24×7 EDI workloads
Migration sizing

Estimate your migration timeline and year-one savings.

Move the sliders to match your BizTalk estate. The model uses the same coefficients we apply during a real Discover phase. The result is directional — the written assessment replaces it with engineered numbers.

60
5400+
8
140+
25
0300+

Directional model. Coefficients drawn from our migration practice; your written assessment produces engineered values for cost, time, and risk.

Estimated migration timeline
22 weeks elapsed
18–26 weeks across Discover, Map, Pilot, and wave-based Cutover.
Year-one infrastructure savings
$186K USD
Versus current Windows-fleet hosting, Visual Studio toolchain, and operational overhead. Conservative midpoint.
58%
Hosting cost reduction
34 wks
FTE-time recovered / year
42%
Lower compute footprint
Validate these numbers with a real assessment
Free migration assessment

Tell us about your BizTalk environment. We will return a written assessment within one week.

What you get

A written modernization roadmap, tailored to your environment.

An Art2link senior architect reviews your BizTalk inventory and returns a written assessment: complexity score per integration, recommended migration wave order, indicative timeline, and infrastructure-cost comparison. No sales call required to receive the document.

  • Written assessment within 5 business days of intake
  • Reviewed by an original BizTalk-era architect — not a generalist
  • No cost. No purchase obligation. NDA on file before any inventory review.
  • Result is yours to keep — share it with internal stakeholders freely
We reply within one business day to confirm intake.
Frequently asked

What integration teams ask before signing.

Microsoft says Logic Apps is the BizTalk successor. Why not just migrate there?

Logic Apps is excellent for new cloud-first workflows, but it was not designed to absorb the governance, transaction tracking, exception-routing, and operational rigor that ESB workloads need. Art2link ESB was. It runs on the same Azure foundation as Logic Apps, so neither path is “outside Microsoft” — the difference is whether the platform you adopt matches the discipline of the workload you’re moving.

What about our custom .NET adapters and pipeline components?

Custom adapters and pipeline components are inventoried during the Discover phase. Most translate to Art2link custom function packages (deployable as .NET assemblies). A small minority require re-implementation. The Map phase produces an exact list of which components fall into which category before any work starts.

Can we run BizTalk and Art2link in parallel during the migration?

Yes — parallel run is built into the methodology. From Phase 03 onward, Art2link receives production traffic alongside BizTalk for a defined window per integration (typically 2–4 weeks). Both produce output, both are observed, and cutover happens only after your team signs off. BizTalk continues running until its last integration moves.

How long does a typical migration take?

Most mid-complexity environments complete in 3–5 months elapsed. Narrow scope can finish in 8–10 weeks; heavily customized estates with hundreds of orchestrations take 6–9 months. The Discover phase produces a concrete estimate before the rest of the work is committed to.

What does the assessment cost?

Nothing. The Migration Assessment is free, no obligation, and the written deliverable is yours to keep regardless of whether you proceed with Art2link. We have found that the assessment itself often surfaces value the integration team can act on independently — gaps in trading-partner agreements, redundant orchestrations, audit-coverage holes.

Who owns the data and IP during and after migration?

You do. Art2link ESB runs in your Azure subscription — we deploy and configure, but the resources, the storage, and the message data never leave your tenant. No data crosses into Cerebrum City’s environment. Standard NDAs cover any artifact we review during the assessment.

Not ready for an assessment?

Try the Starter Plan in your Azure subscription, free.

Install the free Starter Plan from Azure Marketplace and run a non-production integration through it before scoping the real migration. No sales call required.