What do you experience when talking about software upgrade projects with your team? Fear, anxiety, doubts? Whenever you evaluate upgrading to BizTalk 2013 R2, fear not! We often encounter IT departments in doubt towards BizTalk upgrade projects, yet have helped so many to succeed. We are here to help you in any or all stages of the migration process. The sooner the better, and the smoother will run your project. Discover these 6 steps that make the upgrade to BizTalk 2013 R2 a bright spot in your software upgrade history.

1. Stepping Up
to Microsoft BizTalk 2013 R2
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2. Nothing strikes
fear
in the hearts of
IT managers
more than a major
software upgrade

3. But if you follow a few simple steps,
the upgrade to BizTalk 2013 R2 can be
a bright spot
in your software upgrade history

4. Step
1
Strongly Consider Working with
an outside partner

5. Step
1
Regardless of the depth of your
internal BizTalk talent, an upgrade
of this importance should almost
certainly make you consider the
help of an outside partner. If your
BizTalk team is like most, they are
already maxed out on regular
BizTalk work.
Equally important is the neutral
outsider’s view that a partner can
bring to the upgrade. Outside
consultants are governed by their
ability to successfully complete
projects; and the opportunity to
help you complete your BizTalk
upgrade will bring out the best in
the best.
Furthermore, the right partner can provide extensive
migration experience and reduce the risk of typical
unforeseen pitfalls you may encounter.

6. Step
2
Build
a roadmap
and a timeline

7. Step
2
Some organizations have
seasonal spikes in the business
processes handled through their
BizTalk environment. Others do
not. Regardless of your
company’s operations, you’ll
want to carefully develop a
timeline for your BizTalk upgrade.
This is a process where your
partner can be invaluable
because they have already
handled other upgrades and can
ensure that your timeline and
roadmap are realistic.
Your partner can walk you
through a questionnaire and
provide the best approach on
migrating the platform,
upgrading solutions, testing
deployments, and stabilizing
production. Additionally, the
partner can provide a tailored
plan and timeline that can get
you up and running in BizTalk 2013
R2 seamlessly with little or no
downtime.

8. Step
3
Build
a history

9. Step
3
First, build a completely accurate map
of how your BizTalk works and how your
BizTalk behaves over time through your
company´s business cycles. Evaluate
your flows and processes, learn what is
good and what is yet to be improved.
What is key?
• Point out problem areas prior to the
upgrade. It allows you to solve small
issues that can become much bigger
after the upgrade.
• Visualize your entire BizTalk
environment and each individual
business process. It gives you a
reference for all of the pieces that
will be affected by the upgrade.
You can do all that with AIMS for BizTalk,
the pure BizTalk monitoring tool. It is
essential for ensuring a smooth 2013 R2
upgrade.
Second, it is essential to evaluate the
operational management of your BizTalk
environment.
• Who takes care?
• Are you satisfied of how things go?
• Do you feel confident?
Your upgrade partner guides you
through the entire process. Experts help
you build and evaluate your history,
determine where you want to go, and
how. A partner like Codit has the tools
and the experience you need to do just
that. On the operational level, their
Managed Services team is ready to
take over the full operational
responsibility of your BizTalk environment.
Over 30 customers worldwide rely on
Codit Managed Services. Are you ready
to feel this safe?

10. Step
4
Build an ALM* ecosystem and
an upgrade
environment
*Application Lifecycle Management

11. Step
4
If you don’t feel like turning the tide when it gets tough,
take your precautions. Application Lifecycle Management
will be important through the 2013 R2 upgrade process.
ALM eliminates manual interactions: think off automated
build, automated testing, automated deployment…
and allows you to ensure that on each environment within
your company, the same version of your applications is
being released.

12. Step
5
Begin the actual Business Process
migration

13. Step
5
Once you and your partner have agreed that your current BizTalk
environment is at a healthy state, you have a good ALM ecosystem in
place and the operational management of your BizTalk environment is in
safe hands, it will be time to begin actual production migration of your
business processes.
As each process is migrated, it is
key to always know what
happens.
AIMS for BizTalk will again begin
gathering data. Imagine the
power of comparing the
performance of your upgraded
BizTalk environment to your pre-upgrade
statistics, at the system,
business process or port level
level.
Or you can hire a partner like
Codit who keeps an eye on your
operations 24/7 for you. They
monitor your system and take
actions even before issues arise,
are always at your fingertips
when you need them, and have
a team of integration specialists
within reach to help you deal with
your next major BizTalk challenge.

14. Step
+
As an optional step, have your partner develop an
assessment and
remediation plan
as a best practice solution

15. Step
+
Your 2013 R2 upgrade may be
the perfect opportunity to have
your partner assess integration
patterns and screen your
solutions.
As your partner migrates
solutions, it’s a great time to
implement and tweak your
solutions, to optimize your
business processes and to ensure
your BizTalk environment is
perfectly manageable.
Just remember that your internal
teams can never built up the
same experience your partner
offers. Use their experience
gained in so many customer
implementation and upgrade
projects. Hire their profound
expertise in the integration field.
Trust upon their deep
technological knowledge of
BizTalk.
Codit will help you to maximize the investments in your integration environment and
hence, your entire technology landscape. All while you can focus on your core
business.

16. Step
6
Once operational,
continue
monitoring

17. Step
6
Once the celebration for a job
well-done is over, BizTalk will
continue to tirelessly operate.
Make sure that you have a good
operational team in place to
ensure the continuity of your
business operations in BizTalk. It
may be your team, a
collaboration with a specialist
BizTalk Managed Services team or
a full handover of the
responsibility to the latter.
If your internal BizTalk staff is
overwhelmed or still developing,
please talk with your partner
about their Managed Services
offering. This way you free time to
have your teams focus on added
value tasks. Codit Managed
Services is your partner who will
monitor your environment 24/7
and quickly help you diagnose
and fix any issues that may arise
over time. Codit will also schedule
regular reviews where all
performance metrics can be
easily digested by any and all of
your stakeholders.

18. As your partners, we’re ready.
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