We're SSIS for flat file data ingestion. Our data sources are Excel files, but if the data sources are SQL servers, I use store procedures instead of SSIS packages.
It's easy to use but setting up a large number of tables and columns can get cumbersome
Pros and Cons
- "SSIS is easy to use."
- "SSIS is cumbersome despite its drag-and-drop functionality. For example, let's say I have 50 tables with 30 columns. You need to set a data type for each column and table. That's around 1,500 objects. It gets unwieldy adding validation for every column. Previously, SSIS automatically detected the data type, but I think they removed this feature. It would automatically detect if it's an integer, primary key, or foreign key column. You had fewer problems building the model."
What is our primary use case?
What is most valuable?
SSIS is easy to use.
What needs improvement?
SSIS is cumbersome despite its drag-and-drop functionality. For example, let's say I have 50 tables with 30 columns. You need to set a data type for each column and table. That's around 1,500 objects. It gets unwieldy adding validation for every column. Previously, SSIS automatically detected the data type, but I think they removed this feature. It would automatically detect if it's an integer, primary key, or foreign key column. You had fewer problems building the model.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have used SSIS for three or four months.
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What do I think about the stability of the solution?
SSIS is a stable product, but the problem is with the UI you use to build things. If you have it deployed on a virtual machine, everything crashes sometimes. That's one of the significant problems we face with Microsoft products.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
We have problems with the ports for the analysis services. If everything is deployed, you need to redeploy. It's hard to scale out. If you plan to scale up, you need to prepare everything correctly from the start. Everything needs to be properly configured and deployed.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We decided to use SSIS because most developers know SQL Server. If they need to hire data engineers, they can just use generic languages like SQL Portal. You don't need to know Talend or other data warehouses and database engines. They prefer SQL Server because that's the most common product.
How was the initial setup?
Setting up SSIS is difficult. I rate it seven out of 10 for ease of setup. It takes around a week to setup a simple data warehouse with three tables.
What other advice do I have?
I rate SSIS six out of 10. SSIS can get the job done for bigger datasets. However, SQL Server lags if you're working with more than a terabyte or petabyte of data. I recommend exploring the tool because most of the video tutorials on the internet are outdated, and the official Microsoft documentation is geared toward advanced users. Beginners will have a hard time. You need a senior engineer to teach you, or you must explore the tool on your own.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Technical Service Team Manager at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Excellent reporting services
Pros and Cons
- "SSIS' most valuable feature is its reporting services."
- "SSIS sometimes hangs, and there are some problems with servers going down after they've been patched."
What is most valuable?
SSIS' most valuable feature is its reporting services.
What needs improvement?
SSIS sometimes hangs, and there are some problems with servers going down after they've been patched.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using SSIS for over eight years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
SSIS' stability is fairly good, but there's room for improvement.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup was pretty simple.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
SSIS is fairly well-priced - I would rate it at four out of five.
What other advice do I have?
SSIS is best suited for small and medium companies. I would rate SSIS eight out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Amazon Web Services (AWS)
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
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SSIS
November 2024
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General Manager IT at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
Good SFTP connectivity but technical support could be better
Pros and Cons
- "SSIS' best feature is SFTP connectivity."
- "Microsoft's technical support has decreased in quality over the last few years, becoming less responsive and tending to pass problems on instead of solving them."
What is our primary use case?
SSIS is mainly used for data migration transfer.
What is most valuable?
SSIS' best feature is SFTP connectivity.
What needs improvement?
In the next release, SSIS should include automated JSON file management.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
SSIS is stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
SSIS is scalable.
How are customer service and support?
Microsoft's technical support has decreased in quality over the last few years, becoming less responsive and tending to pass problems on instead of solving them.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is straightforward.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
SSIS' licensing is a little high, but it gives good value for money.
What other advice do I have?
I'd give SSIS a rating of seven out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Hybrid Cloud
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
Admin at IEC (Electoral Commission of South Africa)
It's easy to use, so you can spend less time and get more done
Pros and Cons
- "The main value of any Microsoft product is the ease of use. You can achieve more with less time. That's what's beneficial for me. With many competitors, you might need to spend more time coming up with a solution because you have to focus on taking care of the product."
- "It would be nice if you could run SSIS on other environments besides Windows."
What is our primary use case?
SSIS is helpful when you have tasks in a particular workflow that need to be completed on different schedules. You can start a specific task, and SSIS goes through the workflow to check a few things before it decides whether the task needs to proceed. Right now, maybe a quarter of the company is using it, but we plan to expand use in the future.
What is most valuable?
The main value of any Microsoft product is the ease of use. You can achieve more with less time. That's what's beneficial for me. With many competitors, you might need to spend more time coming up with a solution because you have to focus on taking care of the product.
What needs improvement?
It would be nice if you could run SSIS on other environments besides Windows.
For how long have I used the solution?
We use SSIS ad hoc when a problem arises that requires it. We've used it a few times over the last year.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
SSIS is stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
SSIS is scalable.
How are customer service and support?
Microsoft support isn't helpful most of the time. We get most of our answers from forums.
How was the initial setup?
Installing SSIS is straightforward and takes an hour or two.
What about the implementation team?
We deployed SSIS in-house.
What was our ROI?
We've seen a return on using SSIS.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
An SQL Server license includes licenses for the database engine, reporting services, SSIS, and analysis services. That's the nice thing about this package. When you buy it, you get all of these different add-ons.
What other advice do I have?
I rate SSIS eight out of 10. I would recommend it.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Integrates well with SQL servers, but technical support needs improvement
Pros and Cons
- "SSIS integrates well with SQL servers and Microsoft products."
- "I would like to see more features in terms of the integration with Azure Data Factory."
What is most valuable?
SSIS integrates well with SQL servers and Microsoft products.
From a cost perspective, it's a cheaper option than other ETL tools.
Also, it has a lot of in-built transformation, and it's easy to learn.
What needs improvement?
I would like to see more features in terms of the integration with Azure Data Factory.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've worked with this solution for about four years, on both the on-premises and cloud solutions. We had around 3000 plus users.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It's a stable solution.
How are customer service and support?
Technical support is not efficient, and I've had to search on the web to solve the problems.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I worked on PowerCenter.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is straightforward and is not complex. It took about a day to install.
You would need two to three technical staff for the deployment and maintenance of the solution.
What about the implementation team?
We used an integrator for the deployment process.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
SSIS is a cheaper option compared to the cost of other ETL tools.
What other advice do I have?
SSIS is a cheaper solution, and I would recommend it.
On a scale from one to ten, I would rate it at seven.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Senior Manager Software Development at Techlogix
While you can build your own components, that is not straightforward
Pros and Cons
- "The debugging capabilities are great, particularly during data flow execution. You can look into the data and see what's going on in the pipeline."
- "It should have other programming languages supported as well from a scripting perspective. Currently, only C# and VB.NET are supported, which limits it to .NET. It should have Java support as well."
What is our primary use case?
We have used SSIS in many ways. Primarily, it has been used for building ETLs for populating data warehouse and staging areas. We have developed a number of data marts that were populated. We build data migration packages, which have been reused a number of times with minimal configurations. Additionally, we build complex data integrations solutions and data hand-offs between different applications. We have even used it for creating and parsing SWIFT messages for data integration purposes. We also used it for email triggers.
Now SSIS has introduced Big Data and cloud components. Though we haven't used any of these yet but it's really a very good addition to enhance SSIS capabilities.
How has it helped my organization?
SSIS is a tool which anybody can learn in no time. When we started the project, the whole team learnt it in one week's time and then were ready to start on project tasks. It gives you control. Recently, we used SSIS for a compliance project where we performed data cleansing and extensive data transformations to prepare data files for use of compliance (Trade Based AML solutions) application.
What is most valuable?
Script task and Script component for custom tasks: It gives you power to build your own logic if your requirements are not being fulfilled with existing available components. While the big thing is you can build your own components, that is not so straightforward.
It's visual design interface is good and you can easily understand the flow.
The debugging capabilities are great, particularly during data flow execution. You can look into the data and see what's going on in the pipeline. It has good logging capabilities as well.
What needs improvement?
It should have other programming languages supported as well from a scripting perspective. Currently, only C# and VB.NET are supported, which limits it to .NET. It should have Java support as well.
We couldn't explore big data related components, and this area should be up to the mark, if not already. Certain data quality checks should also be part of it. Currently, this is the biggest area that should be looked into. Data quality is an essential part of the integration process and ETL. Currently, only the data profiling task is there.
As an update, now SSIS offers big data components as well.
For how long have I used the solution?
5+ years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I've been using it for last 7 years in different projects for different banks. Didn't face any stability issues yet.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Yes. It's very much scalable, but it all depends on how you design your solution. SSIS provides you extensive features and toolkit to handle all sort of data problems.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I also used Oracle Data Integrator as an ETL tool but it all depends on your need and customer preference. SSIS is being easy to use and things can be developed very quickly so I prefer to use SSIS for most of my data related tasks.
How was the initial setup?
Its setup is very easy. You don't need too many components to start building ETL tools. Plus, there are a lot of online learning available for this tool. It can be deployed on any Windows machine with minimal requirements.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
If you have SQL Server License then you can use SSIS without any additional cost.
What other advice do I have?
Overall, we remained in a good position and in control while using SSIS. We didn't face any challenges.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Technical Consultant at LinkDev
Works well, offers good performance, and is straightforward to set up
Pros and Cons
- "It's saved time using visualization descriptions."
- "We'd like more integration capabilities."
What is our primary use case?
The solution is a business application. It's used for integrations between different databases, migrating from one to one, and importing data from one thing to something else.
What is most valuable?
Overall, it works well.
The performance is good.
It's saved time using visualization descriptions.
The initial setup is straightforward.
The product is scalable.
It's stable.
We find the solution to be reasonable.
What needs improvement?
We have faced some problems, mostly from a different provider with different language handling.
We'd like the solution to increase the types of integrations on offer. We'd like more integration capabilities.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using the solution for 20 years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It's very stable and reliable. There aren't bugs or glitches. It doesn't crash or freeze. The performance is fine.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
We can scale the solution just fine.
It is our plan to increase usage in the future.
We have ten users on the solution right now.
How are customer service and support?
I've never used technical support. I cannot speak to how helpful or responsive they would be if we needed assistance.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We did not previously use another solution.
How was the initial setup?
The solution is straightforward to set up. It's not overly complex. It takes about half an hour to set up.
We have five people that can handle deployment or maintenance tasks.
What about the implementation team?
We can handle the initial setup on our own. We do not need outside assistance from integrators or consultants.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The solution is fairly priced. I'd rate it four out of five in terms of affordability.
What other advice do I have?
My company is a Microsoft partner, and we use multiple Micorosft products.
We're using the latest version of the solution.
I'd recommend the solution to other users and companies.
I'd rate the solution eight out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Technical Product Owner, Team Lead at ARCA
A well designed, straightforward, and easy-to-use solution
Pros and Cons
- "The setup is straightforward. It's very easy to install."
- "Video training would be a helpful addition."
How has it helped my organization?
It's too early to say how it has improved my organization, as we've just begun using the solution. First, we need to create the appropriate role before we see organizational improvements. We're just in the discovery phase of the tool.
What is most valuable?
I couldn't point out a specific feature above all others, but I can say the solution is very useful to us. It's well designed and quite straightforward. There isn't much of a learning curve involved. It's a well-documented solution.
What needs improvement?
It's at a very early stage in terms of adopting the tool, so I can't speak to if there are areas for improvement just yet.
Video training would be a helpful addition, however.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using the solution for one year.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The stability of the solution is impressive.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The scalability of SSIS is very good. Right now, only I am using the solution, but we plan to increase usage in the future.
How are customer service and technical support?
I haven't required any technical support, so I'm not in a position to judge it.
How was the initial setup?
The setup is straightforward. It's very easy to install.
What about the implementation team?
We did the implementation ourselves.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We did not evaluate other options before choosing this solution.
What other advice do I have?
We are just beginning development with this solution, so we're currently starting with the on-premises version.
So far, I haven't been disappointed by the tool. I have not explored the dashboard tuning feature yet, so I don't know if there are things we can do, like building our own matrixes or choosing deployment preferences, but I hope that will be the case.
I'd rate the solution ten out of ten.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
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