SSIS Reviews

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.

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. 

I have used SSIS for three or four months. 

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.

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. 

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.

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. 

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 I recommend exploring the tool because most of the video tutorials on the internet are outdated, and the official Microsoft documentation is geared toward advanced users.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.

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.

I've been using SSIS for over eight years.

SSIS' stability is fairly good, but there's room for improvement.

The initial setup was pretty simple.

SSIS is fairly well-priced - I would rate it at four out of five.

SSIS is best suited for small and medium companies. I would rate SSIS eight out of ten.

SSIS is mainly used for data migration transfer.

SSIS' best feature is SFTP connectivity.

In the next release, SSIS should include automated JSON file management.

SSIS is stable.

SSIS is scalable.

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.

The initial setup is straightforward.

SSIS' licensing is a little high, but it gives good value for money.

I'd give SSIS a rating of seven out of ten.

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. 

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.

We use SSIS ad hoc when a problem arises that requires it. We've used it a few times over the last year.

SSIS is stable.

SSIS is scalable.

Microsoft support isn't helpful most of the time. We get most of our answers from forums. 

Installing SSIS is straightforward and takes an hour or two.

We deployed SSIS in-house. 

We've seen a return on using SSIS. 

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.

I rate SSIS eight out of 10. I would recommend it. 

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.

I would like to see more features in terms of the integration with Azure Data Factory.

I've worked with this solution for about four years, on both the on-premises and cloud solutions. We had around 3000 plus users.

It's a stable solution.

Technical support is not efficient, and I've had to search on the web to solve the problems.

I worked on PowerCenter.

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.

We used an integrator for the deployment process.

SSIS is a cheaper option compared to the cost of other ETL tools.

SSIS is a cheaper solution, and I would recommend it.

On a scale from one to ten, I would rate it at seven.

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.

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.

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.

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. 

5+ years.

I've been using it for last 7 years in different projects for different banks. Didn't face any stability issues yet.

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.

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.

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.

If you have SQL Server License then you can use SSIS without any additional cost.

Overall, we remained in a good position and in control while using SSIS. We didn't face any challenges.

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.

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. 

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.

The stability of the solution is impressive.

The scalability of SSIS is very good. Right now, only I am using the solution, but we plan to increase usage in the future.

I haven't required any technical support, so I'm not in a position to judge it.

The setup is straightforward. It's very easy to install.

We did the implementation ourselves.

We did not evaluate other options before choosing this solution.

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.

We primarily use the solution for data transformation.

The most valuable features for our company are the flexibility and the quick turn around time in producing simple ETL solutions. Also, the use of the configuration on Azure. Our clients are basically secret sever based, so it works well there.

In terms of improvements to the solution, I don't think I have that expertise on it to recommend product enhancements right now. I've only used a few parts of it. Based on what I've used so far, I am happy with it.

I come from a coding background and this tool is graphically based. Sometimes I think it's cumbersome to do mapping graphically. If there was a way to provide a simple script, it would be helpful and make it easier to use.

The solution is currently running in production. It's stable.

We've never had to contact technical support. We generally handle any issues ourselves.

The initial setup is straightforward. Deployment is done by another team. I download the package and deliver it to them and they deploy it onto the cloud. In terms of maintenance, we only need one person.

We are using the 2014 Public Cloud version of the solution, under Microsoft Azure.

In terms of recommending the solution, it obviously depends on the level users you have. If you mainly have a simple graphical based user then maybe you could go for SSIS. If you want to take control of the whole ETL process, you should look for another tool. I use Informatica PowerCenter as well. That's a bit more of a robust ETL solution.

I would rate the solution at six out of ten.