Introduction

SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS) was released to the market in SQL Server 2005 and took the Extract Transform Load (ETL) market by surprise. In SQL Server 2008, SSIS has focused on maturing the product and improving the product ’ s scalability and performance by an astonishing 70% in some cases. If you ’ re new to SSIS, you ’ ve picked a fantastic field to become involved in! The one consistent skill needed in today ’ s technical job market is ETL. If a company wants to establish a partnership with another company, they ’ ll need to communicate data back and forth between the two companies. If your company wants to launch new products, they ’ ll need a way to integrate those products into their website and catalog. All of these types of tasks are going to require the skillset you are developing and will learn in this book.

Companies that had never used SQL Server before are now allowing it in their environment because SSIS is such an easy  - to - use  and  cost  - effective way to move data. SSIS competes with the largest ETL tools on the market, like Data Stage and Ab Initio, at a tiny fraction of the price. SQL Server 2008 now offers more components that you use to make your life even easier and the performance scales to a level never seen on the SQL Server platform.

The best thing about SSIS is its price tag: free with your SQL Server purchase. Many ETL vendors charge hundreds of thousands of dollars for what you will see in this book. SSIS is also a great platform for you to expand and integrate into, which many ETL vendors do not offer. Once you get past the initial learning curve, you ’ ll be amazed with the power of the tool, and it can take weeks off your time to market.