We are a large retailer with stores all over the US. Currently we utilize FT
P
to send POS price changes, SKU information and T-logs from Stores to HQ and
from HQ to Stores.  I am looking at implementing Biztalk to replace the
traditional FTP.

Question :

To send from HQ to stores information initiates on a Mid Range AS400 system
and it is delivered to the stores destined for one of 3 different systems.
Windows, Linux SuSe and/or 4690. On the return path store systems will each
send data back to the AS400.

Are there Biztalk connectors for the 4 systems I need to integrate (AS400,
Windows, Linux, 4690)?

What is the advantage of using MSMQ over MQseries at the transport layer? I
see lots of IBM published results (in all of them MQseries is much better
then MSMQ as expected from IBM published documents) but I don't see any
Microsoft benchmarks or documenation on the subject.

---
Thanks

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Hey,

Yes, there are ways to couple BizTalk with all the systems you are using.

You could potentially use HIS (host integration server) to connect the mainf
rame
systems.  As far as I know the new version (after 2004) will come with a
number of BizTalk adapters.  HIS is nice because it allows you to exchange
security credentials.

http://www.microsoft.com/hiserver/default.mspx

Other options are custom adapters from Attunity http://www.attunity.com/biztalk/[/<...om/info/biztalk

You could also leverage BizTalk's FTP adapter but it sounds like you want
to get away from FTP.  Another option would be to impliment web services.

As far as MSMQ vs MQseries, its sort of comparing apples and oranges.  Yes,
both are queue based, but MQseries is an entire suite of tools designed for
building a messaging system.  MSMQ is just a message queuing service, but
coupled with BizTalk you then have a fair comparison to MQseries but I dont
have a performance benchmark for you.

BA
http://biztalkia.blogspot.com

> We are a large retailer with stores all over the US. Currently we
> utilize FTP to send POS price changes, SKU information and T-logs from
> Stores to HQ and from HQ to Stores.  I am looking at implementing
> Biztalk to replace the traditional FTP.
>
> Question :
>
> To send from HQ to stores information initiates on a Mid Range AS400
> system and it is delivered to the stores destined for one of 3
> different systems.   Windows, Linux SuSe and/or 4690. On the return
> path store systems will each send data back to the AS400.
>
> Are there Biztalk connectors for the 4 systems I need to integrate
> (AS400, Windows, Linux, 4690)?
>
> What is the advantage of using MSMQ over MQseries at the transport
> layer? I see lots of IBM published results (in all of them MQseries is
> much better then MSMQ as expected from IBM published documents) but I
> don't see any Microsoft benchmarks or documenation on the subject.
>
> --- Thanks
>

[ Post a follow-up to this message ]