According to Wikipedia, Microsoft Active Directory Federation Services (ADFS) is: … a software component developed by Microsoft that can be installed on Windows Server operating systems to provide users with single sign-on access to systems and applications located across organizational boundaries. It uses a claims-based access control authorization model to maintain application security and implement federated identity. ADFS can provide Single sign as an identity provider to users, but what if a developer needs the same sign on outside of “browser land”?

Everyone loves automated processes. With BizTalk 2013 if you want to provide a repeatable install; you need automation. PowerShell is where it’s at. Lucky for me, other very skilled people already have written PowerShell scripts providing the capability to create hosts and host instances. Sandro Pereira has written and published a PowerShell script to create your BizTalk host instances based upon the best practice of host separation. However, it’s only written for BizTalk 2010.

I’ve started down the path of Darkness 🙂 In December 2011, I went on BizTalk training with @BizTalkBill and I’m now four weeks into the next stage of my career which is being an Microsoft “Integration Specialist”. You won’t find any open source in this realm, no ruby, nothing involving indie developers cracking out code until late at night. What this change means is getting to know Visual Studio, BizTalk, SQL Server and all things Microsoft.