All internal testing has now completed – and we can gladly state that BizTalk Server 2009 works with Commerce Server, without issues or any special black magic required. This applies to both Commerce Server 2007 SP2 and Commerce Server 2009.

Hope this helps!

A question got asked to me today about how to migrate data from Commerce Server 2002. It was obvious from reading it, that at least one person doesn’t know that there is a data migration tool.

It will take data from all versions prior, specifically:

• Commerce Server 2000
• Commerce Server 2002
• Commerce Server 2002 FP1
• Commerce Server 2007

and migrate it to Commerce Server 2009. What’s the catch? Some of the old catalog entities that got dropped in lieu of Catalog Sets and Virtual Catalogs in CS2002 (when migrating from CS2000) will be flattened. Other than that, everything will migrate with full integrity – ASSUMING that there were no unsupported changes made to Commerce Server’s schemas (e.g. – you did not edit SQL Server directly and went through the provided schema editing tools).

THe best practices are, of course:

• Backup your source data
• Don’t run the migration on the live source – do it on a copy

But with that – you should be good to go! Hope this helps…

Recently, we have launched the Technology Adoption Program (TAP) for Commerce Server 2009 Code Name “R2” – which is the next version of Commerce Server. This is highlighted in the team blog at http://blogs.msdn.com/commerce/archive/2009/06/22/the-next-version-of-commerce-server-codename-r2-is-on-its-way.aspx – where you can get the full details.

If you sign up, you will get:

• One-on-One briefing
• Early access to next-generation bits
• Direct interaction with the product group

The obvious question is what’s in it for me? If I sign-up to be on the bleeding edge – surely I’ll have a bumpier road than if I went with a released version. Although that is true, you will also get at least 1-2, possibly more years less lifespan out of the solution.

Investments required in an eCommerce deployment, like Point-of-Sale (POS), are typically large and complex. The goal is to get as long of a runway as possible out of an investment. For POS, it is typically 7+ years, with 10 being idea. For eCommerce, it  should be at least 5 years, with more being ideal. TAP helps you achieve just that. By deploying early, you will be live in production before the start of the 5-year standard support lifecycle clock starts. Deploying on a previous version can mean that you will get less than 5 years, some cases considerably so. Above the 5-year standard support lifecycle, Microsoft products enter what is known as extended support – see http://support.microsoft.com/gp/lifepolicy. At that point, support options become considerably more limited – and potentially costly. So, a little up front bleeding edge roughness…can save a whole lot downstream if you want to use your deployment for a long time!

Something to consider! Hope this helps!