An Introduction to SQL Server 2005 Integration Services

Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Integration Services (SSIS) :-
                                                                                                      is a platform for building high performance data integration solutions, including the extraction, transformation, and loading (ETL) of packages for data warehousing. SSIS is the new name assigned to the component formerly branded as Data Transformation Services (DTS).

ETL process and concepts :-
ETL stands for Extraction, Transformation and Loading. ETL is a process that involves the following tasks:

• Extracting :- data from source operational or archive systems which are the primary source of data for the data warehouse
• Transforming :- the data - which may involve cleaning, filtering, validating and applying business rules
• Loading :- the data into a data warehouse or any other database or application that houses data

Data Integration Requirements

In view of this diversity of data, business needs, and user requirements, the Information Technology department has specified the following set of data integration requirements:

• They must provide reliable and consistent historical and current data integrated from a variety of internal and external sources.
• To reduce lags in data acquisition, data from providers and vendors must be available via Web services or some other direct mechanism such as FTP.
• They need to cleanse and remove duplicate data and otherwise enforce data quality.
• Increasing global regulatory demands require that the company maintain clear audit trails. It is not enough to maintain reliable data; the data needs to be tracked and certified.