The Top Five New Features in SSIS 2008 for Developers, Part 0

ktegels — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 17:17:00 GMT

I am going to get myself in trouble (again) by saying this but SSIS isn’t a Business Intelligence tool as much as it is a developer tool. If you are like me, you have written a lot of code does, basically, the following:

Extracts the data from some place;
Transforms that data somehow;
Loads the transformed data into database or some other store.

Sure, my toolset has changed over the years from COBOL to Perl, Expect and QuickBasic to VBScript to C#, but the basic tasks have not. That is probably why I never warmed up to SQL Server 2000 DTS. The idea of extract, load and transform never really worked for me. I wanted streams, not tables.

So when SSIS debuted with SQL Server 2005, I decided to make the effort to learn it to the best of my abilities. Yes, it is a great tool but like any tool, it does have some shortcomings:

Optimizing data flows is somewhat of a black art;
Using the linear lookup with a remote server is slow... unless you "cheated";
Transact-SQL lacks an UPSERT command (at least prior to 2008);
Calling a Web Service from a script required building an external assembly and making it available to the Script runtime;
I am back to writing scripts in BASIC. Compiled BASIC with the full range of the CLR, sure, but it is still, well BASIC.

Over the next few posts, I want to talk about the new features in SSIS 2008 that help address these shortcomings in SSIS 2005. However, if you saw my recent talk in Omaha, you already know the story. But as of this morning, you can get the bits too! Just browse to http://www.4shared.com/dir/7670149/a1b13c97/Omaha_SQLBI_User_Group.html and, when prompted for a password, enter "SQL4You" (sans quotes, of course). My presentation and bits are in the file labeled "ug_wnissis100.zip"

Sudhir Gajre’s excellent performance tuning for SQL Server 2005 deck is also available from that site.

Come learn more about SQL Server 2008 Integration Services

ktegels — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 12:55:00 GMT

On 6 August 2008, I will be giving a presentation to the Omaha SQL/BI User Group on the new features in SQL Server 2008 Integration Services. We will talk about improvements in scripting, how the redesigned pipeline improves performance and how to leverage the new Cache Transform to improve package performance. Quinn Jones from Farm Credit Services America will also be giving us a great SQL tip. The talk will start around 1800 local time. We will be meeting at the Creighton University West Campus, located at 11111 Mill Valley Road (roughly 41.267786° north, 96.086289° west).

The "3P requirements" for a successful meeting -- Pizza, Pop and Prizes --- will be available as usual.

Please leave a comment if you would like more information.

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The Top Five New Features in SSIS 2008 for Developers, Part 0

Come learn more about SQL Server 2008 Integration Services