BizTalk Server 2009 is the widely used version in BizTalk. BizTalk Server 2009’s mainstream support from Microsoft is ending on 08-July-2014 (today). After mainstream support, customer will get extended support until 09-July-2019.

The following table lists the BizTalk Server 2009 Lifecycle information:

Products Released	Lifecycle Start Date	Mainstream Support End Date	Extended Support End Date
Microsoft BizTalk Server 2009 Branch	21-Jun-2009	08-Jul-2014	09-Jul-2019
Microsoft BizTalk Server 2009 Developer	21-Jun-2009	08-Jul-2014	09-Jul-2019
Microsoft BizTalk Server 2009 Enterprise	21-Jun-2009	08-Jul-2014	09-Jul-2019
Microsoft BizTalk Server 2009 Standard	21-Jun-2009	08-Jul-2014	09-Jul-2019

Source:  Microsoft Product Lifecycle Search – Microsoft BizTalk Server 2009

Microsoft Product Lifecycle support Phases:

• Mainstream Support is the first phase of the product support lifecycle and provides all of the standard support services that Microsoft offers.
• Extended Support: At the end of the Mainstream Support phase, support for Consumer products comes to an end. Business and Developer products are provided a minimum of another 5 years of support in the Extended Support phase.

What’s Next:

So what can we do now? We have two options:

• Extended support
• Plan / migrate to the latest version of BizTalk (which is BizTalk Server 2013 R2)

Extended support phase:

As today (at the time of writing this blog) being the last day of the mainstream support for BizTalk Server 2009 and if you’re still using BizTalk Server 2009, you may not be able to migrate all your integration applications to the latest version of BizTalk Server in a day. So it is important to understand about what you can get and what you’re going to miss from Microsoft support for BizTalk Server 2009.

It’s a huge risk to run your mission critical integrations in an extended support phase. During this phase, security hotfixes are available free of charge; non-security hotfixes are available through Extended Hotfix Support (EHS) program. However warranty support, Software Assurance problem resolution support, and the ability to request design changes are not available.

Following tables lists the difference between Mainstream Support and Extended Support phases:

Support provided	Mainstream Support phase	Extended Support phase
Paid support (per-incident, per hour, and others)
Security update support
Non-security hotfix support		Requires extended hotfix support program, purchased within 90 days of mainstream support ending.
No-charge incident support
Warranty claims
Design changes and feature requests
Product-specific information that is available by using the online Microsoft Knowledge Base
Product-specific information that is available by using the Support site at Microsoft Help and Support to find answers to technical questions

Source: Microsoft Support Lifecycle Policy FAQ:  Difference between Mainstream Support and Extended Support phases

Extended Hotfix Support Program:

As listed in the above table, to receive hotfix support, an Extended Hotfix Support (EHS) contract must be purchased “within the first 90 days following the end of the Mainstream Support phase”. So act fast to purchase Extended Hotfix Support (EHS) contract for BizTalk Server 2009 (or ensure you have Software Assurance). The clock is ticking.

FYI, all non-security hotfixes have a per-fix fee.

Requirements:

The EHS program is available exclusively to customers with Premier Support. You have to enrol into the program on an annual basis. Pricing for Extended Hotfix Support consists of an annual program fee, plus an additional fee for each non-security hotfix that customers receive.

To obtain an EHS contract for hotfixes, contact your local Microsoft sales office or Microsoft support.

Microsoft sales office: Visit the Microsoft Worldwide web site and locate your country

Software Assurance benefits:

If you have Software Assurance, EHS is included as part of the Software Assurance benefits. This means customers who need to enrol in EHS under Software Assurance benefits only need to pay the hotfix fee, starting with the first hotfix delivered. Additionally, customers will only need to pay for the years they are enrolled in the Extended Hotfix Support program.

Reference: http://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/licensing/software-assurance/extended-hotfix-support.aspx

Plan to migrate to the latest version of BizTalk:

For anyone who is using BizTalk Server 2009, it’s strongly recommended to start planning and migrate to the latest version of BizTalk. With the migration, apart from using the latest offering/features of the newer version of the product, BizTalk server 2009 is closely dependent on its underlying platforms like Windows Server 2008 (or Window server 2003/Windows XP-SP3/Windows Visa SP1), SQL Server 2008 (or SQL Server 2005 SP2) and Visual Studio 2008.

Operating System	Mainstream Support End date	Extended Support End Date
Window Server 2003	13-July-2010	14-July-2015
Window Server 2008	13-January-2015	14-January-2020

Database Server	Mainstream Support End date	Extended Support End Date
SQL Server 2005 SP2	12-April-2011	12-April-2016
SQL Server 2008	08-July-2014	09-July-2019

Visual Studio	Mainstream Support End date	Extended Support End Date
Microsoft Visual Studio 2008	09-April-2013	10-April-2018

Life-cycle of these underlying platforms is already expired or due to expire soon. So it’s vital to consider the life-cycle of BizTalk’s underlying platforms.