BizTalk Server Product Lifecycle

Introduction

Like software a Microsoft Server product has a lifecycle. It starts when product I released and ends when extend support ends. As soon as supports end no more support will be provided for the product or a service pack for it will be released. So basically when support ends for a product it is end of life. For BizTalk Server the following versions can be considered end of life: 2000, 2002 and 2004. With this article you will get a general view of the support phase the BizTalk versions beyond 2004 are in.

BizTalk Versions with Support

The following versions of BizTalk Server are still supported and have not yet reached the end of life:

Product	Lifecycle Start Date	Mainstream Support End Date	Extended Support End Date	Service Pack Support End Date
BizTalk Server 2013	06/12/2013	07/10/2018	07/11/2023
BizTalk Server 2010	11/14/2010	01/12/2016	01/12/2021
BizTalk Server 2009	06/21/2009	07/8/2014	07/09/2019
BizTalk Server 2006 R2 SP1	04/27/2010	See notes	See notes	See notes
BizTalk Server 2006 R2	06/23/2006	07/12/2011	07/12/2016	4/12/2011
BizTalk Server 2006	06/23/2006	07/12/2011	07/12/2016
BizTalk Server 2004 SP2	10/25/2006	See notes	See notes	See notes
BizTalk Server 2004	5/20/2004	7/14/2009	7/8/2014	4/11/2006

Notes:

BizTalk Server 2006 R2 SP1: Support ends 12 months after the next service pack releases or at the end of the product's support lifecycle, whichever comes first. For more information, please see the service pack policy at http://support.microsoft.com/lifecycle/#ServicePackSupport.

BizTalk Server 2004 SP2: Support ends 12 months after the next service pack releases or at the end of the product's support lifecycle, whichever comes first. For more information, please see the service pack policy at http://support.microsoft.com/lifecycle/#ServicePackSupport.

Mainstream Support Phase

This is the most extensive support phase, where customers can get paid support (per-incident, per hour, and others), security update support, non-security hotfix support, no-charge incident support, warranty claims, design changes and feature requests, product-specific information that is available by using the online Microsoft Knowledge Base, and Product-specific information that is available by using the Support site at Microsoft Help and Support to find answers to technical questions.

Extended Support Phase

This phase has less support options compared to mainstream phase. Customers can get paid support (per-incident, per hour, and others), security update support, product-specific information that is available by using the online Microsoft Knowledge Base, and Product-specific information that is available by using the Support site at Microsoft Help and Support to find answers to technical questions.

Upgrade to new version

In case your BizTalk version reaches end of life it may be advisable to upgrade to a new version and migrate the current BizTalk applications to the new version. Yet end of life of BizTalk Server does not perse have to be the driver for an upgrade. There can be other reasons for an upgrade like complete upgrade of the Microsoft platform or parts of it. For instance an enterprise may want to upgrade to an SQL Server version that does is not supported by BizTalk Server. This will lead to an upgrade of BizTalk and possible other server products.