Service Bus for Windows Server provides Windows Azure Service Bus messaging capabilities on Windows Server.

It enables you to build, test, and run loosely-coupled, message-driven applications in self-managed environments and on developer computers.

Service Bus queues offer reliable message storage and retrieval with a choice of protocols and APIs. Building on the same foundation as queues, Service Bus topics provide publish/subscribe capabilities that allow multiple, concurrent subscribers to independently retrieve filtered or unfiltered views of the published message stream.

Advanced messaging features include detection of duplicate messages, scheduled message delivery, performance optimization (using asynchronous calls, batching and prefetching of messages) and more.

Todd Holmquist-Sutherland, Principal Group Program Manager, comments: "There were two primary goals with this product release that we believe we’ve accomplished. The first was to deliver an enterprise class messaging service to our customers to support the creation of the modern applications that power their businesses. The second was to make sure the service delivered parity with the Windows Azure based messaging service already in the market."