Yesterday I drove down from Sioux Falls to Omaha so that I could catch a talk being given by Sudhir Gajre to the Omaha SQL Server/BI Interest Group. I first got to know Sudhir when he, I and Luke Schollmeyer were restarting a SQL Server Users Group in Omaha. Sudhir is a stud at SQL Server performance tuning and helped write one of the best papers on it (see Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Tuning Tips for PeopleSoft8.x.
I am the next scheduled speaker for that group, so I took a couple of minutes last night to ask them what they would like me to talk about. Response was a little slow, so I suggest that I could give my Spatial Computing with SQL Server talk. Almost no reaction.
Somebody in the group suggest talking about the new MERGE statement. I liked that said, "What if I wrapped that into a talk about "What is new in Integration Services 2008." The room came back to life.
So here's an initial outline of what that talk will probably cover:
- The changes in the SSIS pipeline architecture for back-pressure and thread scheduling The scripting environment changes
- Working with the Cache transformation
- Using T-SQL MERGE with SSIS
- Using Change Data Capture with SSIS
- (time permitting) Using the Data Profiler task
We clustered about for a while following Sudhir's talk discussing just how much BI is taking off for Microsoft and how useful a talk like this would be. I have to chuckle every time I get into a conversation like this: I my opinion, SSIS isn't a BI tool that developers just happen to be interested in, it's a Developer's tool that just happens to very helpful to the BI specialist. Really understanding and applying many of the changes for SSIS 2008 is made easier, I think, if you have a Developer mindset about it.
I am going to submit the "Whats new in SSIS 2008" for the Heartland Developer's Conferences to be held later in the year in Omaha and Minneapolis too.
If you are a user group leader and would be interested in having me come visit and give a talk, please feel free to contact me through this site.