Feature Updates to BizTalk Server 2016 provided early production ready access to BizTalk Server 2020 features. All those features are rolled up and now available with BizTalk Server 2020 release. We believe that Feature Updates to 2016 have served its purpose by providing early access to capabilities under work for 2020. 2020 release has further enhanced those features due to the freedom to make larger code changes in new release. BizTalk Server 2020 release has been available since the beginning of year and we released CU1 recently.
Feature Updates were available for select BizTalk Server customers strictly on an opt-in basis with an understanding that these customers will move to 2020 release soon after its availability. BizTalk Server Enterprise customers with Enterprise Agreement are eligible for free upgrade to BizTalk Server 2020. BizTalk Server 2020 supports in-place and seamless upgrade from BizTalk Server 2016.
We are in the planning process for CU8 release of BizTalk Server 2016 and were hoping, keeping above in mind, to continue releasing the CUs for the base 2016 (aka RTM) versions that caters to all SKUs and customers uniformly. Those who were on accelerated cadence by opting into Feature Packs, will move to BizTalk Server 2020 for their support requirements.
We want to gather community response before finalizing our decision. Let us please use the discussion space under this post with constructive comments to help us arrive at a decision that helps us optimize engineering resources without compromising the customer needs.
