About the Authors

Richard Seroter is the VP of Product for the CenturyLink platform, and a Microsoft MVP for application integration. He is also an instructor for the developer-centric training company Pluralsight, the lead InfoQ editor for cloud computing, and the author of multiple books on application integration strategies. As the VP of Product for CenturyLink, he is responsible for product strategy, sprint planning, and community contribution. He also leads an expert team of product owners and analysts there. He maintains a blog (https://seroter.wordpress.com/) that he updates regularly on the topics of architecture and solution design and can be found on Twitter at @rseroter.

Mark Brimble is a solution integration architect with over 17 years of experience in the field of designing, building, implementing, and supporting integration solutions. He has experience in integrating Windows, Unix, and AS/400 platforms, SQL Server, SAP, Oracle, Microsoft CRM, and other web service technologies. He also has experience of eGate (Java CAPS), SSIS, BizTalk Server, MuleSoft, Boomi, and Flow integration products. His main interest at the moment is to help people choose the best architecture patterns. He has been active in the integration community for many years and posts regularly on his blog at https://connectedpawns.wordpress.com/. He also contributes to BizTalk Map Documenter (http://biztalkmapdoc.codeplex.com/) and is the coordinator for BizTalk 2013 Documenter (https://biztalk2013documenter.codeplex.com/). He can be found on Twitter at @BrimbleMark.

I would like to thank my coauthors, Mahindra, Johann, and Colin, who have travelled with me on this very interesting journey over the last 6 months. I would also like to acknowledge the members of the BizTalk community who, over the years, have helped me understand the integration patterns better. If this vibrant community did not exist, I would have missed being part of something very special.

Finally, I would like to thank my lovely wife, Margaret, and my big girl, Rebecca, for being so patient with me and understanding me while I wrote my chapters for this book.

Johann Cooper is an integration specialist who currently holds the role of a principal integration consultant at Datacom, New Zealand, and focuses on Microsoft Stack. He is well-versed with the usage of BizTalk Server, WCF, and RESTful services. He recently delved into the cloud space and successfully delivered projects that leverage the Microsoft Azure platform. He is a keen advocate of following and defining best practices, and is a big believer in automated testing.

He is the creator and curator of the BizTalk BRE Pipeline Framework CodePlex project, the author of the blog Adventures inside the Message Box, and is the author of the whitepaper The A-Y of running BizTalk Server in Microsoft Azure. He is also part of the Microsoft P-TSP program that is tasked with the goal of promoting the usage of BizTalk Server and the Microsoft Azure platform in New Zealand.

I would like to acknowledge Richard Seroter for writing the original edition of this book, which gave us a fantastic base to start working from. I'd also like to acknowledge my fellow coauthors who all worked hard to put this book together; it has truly been a labor of love.

A big thank you goes out to my parents who introduced me to the world of personal computing at the early age of 5 and sparked a lifelong passion in me.

Most of all, I would like to thank my lovely wife, Jeska, and my little girl, Isla, for being so patient with me and understanding me while I burrowed away with my laptop working on this book. I don't think my grammar would have been anywhere near the quality that it is without Jeska's help, so we can all thank her for that.

Finally, thank you dear readers for reading this book. It makes all the effort worthwhile.

Colin Dijkgraaf started dabbling in programming as a teenager in the days when the Internet was still called FidoNet and the modem speed was around 2400 baud. After getting a bachelor's of commerce degree in information systems, he did various different IT-related jobs, including image banking and digital imaging. He finally started full-time development for Datacom in 2000. In 2004, he first came across BizTalk while developing the frontend for an interchange to process invoices and purchase orders for a large New Zealand company and also worked on some maps. He has become a full-time developer of BizTalk since then and also a codeveloper of BizTalk Server 2013 Documenter.

I would like to thank my coauthors, Mahindra, Johann, and Mark, for all the hard work they did on their chapters, as well as for helping me out with the reviewing process of my chapters.

Finally, I would like to thank my lovely wife, May, for being so patient with me and understanding me while I edited my chapters for this book.

Mahindra Morar has been working in the IT sector since 1997, developing Windows and website enterprise applications. In the last 8 years, he has focused primarily on integrating systems as a principal integration consultant.

Having come from an electronics engineering background, he is able to use this knowledge to design solutions that integrate wetware, software, and hardware. He has worked in many industries, including manufacturing, financial institutions, insurance, retail/wholesale, and power utilities.

His areas of interest include exploring new technologies and deciding how to use them in the world of integration.

You can view his blog at https://connectedcircuits.wordpress.com.

The last 6 months have been a great learning experience in writing this book. I now truly appreciate the hard work and dedication authors endure to complete a book. I take my hat off to you all.

I would like to thank the three precious people in my life, Vanita, my lovely wife and my two joyful boys, Ameesh and Jayan, who gave me the time to coauthor this book.