Tools and Technologies

To implement a supplier solution using the Microsoft technology described in this chapter, the following .NET Enterprise Server products are required:

• Microsoft BizTalk Accelerator for Suppliers (AFS)
• Microsoft BizTalk Server
• Microsoft Commerce Server
• Microsoft SQL Server

Note the lack of version/year numbers in the previous list. As this book is going to press, new versions of several of these products are being released. When AFS was first released in the fall of 2001, it supported BizTalk Server 2000 with Service Pack 1a, Commerce Server 2000 with Service Pack 1, and SQL Server 2000. Since then, BizTalk Server 2002 has been released and Commerce Server 2002 is due to be released in the spring of 2002. An update to AFS will follow shortly after that. Interested suppliers should refer directly to the Microsoft Web site (www.microsoft.com) for more precise information about software requirements and version compatibility.

In addition, developers working on an implementation of AFS might want Microsoft Visual Studio to make developing solutions easier. As with Commerce Server and BizTalk Server, a new version of Visual Studio is due to be released soon. Suppliers who choose to implement their solution using the latest versions of the .NET Enterprise Servers might want to use the new version of Visual Studio and the .NET Framework so that they can use the .NET-enabled features in these products.

Finally, depending on the deployment scenario and the firewall requirements of the supplier, Microsoft Internet Security and Acceleration Server (ISA) might be another product to consider.

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