SSIS Reviews

We use SSIS to copy production data to Reporting Repositories. We use it for data movement from and to SQL or flat files such as CSV or fixed data.  This is primarily to build and update a data lake and data warehouse. 

More custom use cases are to do DQ validation comparing source to destination, and to extract data from bat files and SSIS files in order to build a metadata repository for documenting and mapping all the ETL packages.  We use this to find the packages responsible for any particular table or file, or vice versa.  This system, along with statistics logging, also gives us summary reporting capability.

SSIS does a very good job of distributing work to many threads. It is robust and does a good job of handling overload conditions. It is simple for basic jobs, yet able to do very complex tasks. When all else fails, code can be written to make your own solution.

I believe SSIS is not given the credit it deserves.  SSIS does what most other new vendors tout as great features.  But it is a very mature and stable product, unlike those others. It is supported by a larger company than many of those other products.

The error messages are pretty clear and point you to the problem well.

I am disappointed that Azure did not stay closer to SSIS for its Data Factory.

Data Flows are the main component we use. These can range from a simple source to sink ETL, to many source to many sink dataflows.

For flexibility and to make reading the logs in case of errors, I prefer not to put multiple copy operations in the same dataflow, although that is possible.  I try to keep in mind how to make production operations as easy as possible in case of failures.  I want to give the night crew the best opportunity for success when an error does occur.

We have about 1 error per 400 processes.  about 3/4 of these were transitory issues with issues like slow connections and temporary outages.  By making the code rerunnable, we can auto-restart on any error, and resolve the 3/4 without human Root Cause Analysis (RCA).  This leaves any failure after 2 retries the only issues that the night crew has to RCA and resolve.

We purchase an add-on called task factory primarily to allow bulk delete, update and upsert capability.  I'd like to see this be part of the standard package.

I believe there are ways to build a model and set variables so that it can be a generic process.

In my next system, I would like to have a generic process that would handle all the logging and processing in a model that can be modified and enhanced as the need for a better process, or different statistics to be logged is discovered.  I'd want this in a way that the model can be changed and all the processes, with their unique parameters, could all be changed with the model upgraded.

15 years

Very mature and stable, and already has great performance features.

It can be very scalable both by adding memory or cores, and by running the SSIS on a farm of servers.

I did not really need much.  SSIS has a lot of excellent help available for a web search.

Positive

Prior solutions used SQL triggers

We have more control over the ETL with SSIS.

Installation is quite easy.  There are some drivers and setting you may need to make, based on the sources or sinks you need.  I am hoping these are more embedded in the install process, as I have not set up a server since 2015.

In house.  

good

SSIS is part of SQL server, in itself a very solid product.

You can run SSIS on the same SQL server instance where your data warehouse is, using the compute power at night to update, and during the day for reporting and data analysis.

I did not evaluate other options.  SSIS was available, and it worked well.

I later changed jobs to another company that used SSIS, and worked to improve and grow their data warehouse solution.

After using SSIS, we have tried talend, informatica, and spark solutions.  I would go back to SSIS, even for a non Microsoft shop, if I were allowed to.

It was used for a couple of purposes, for example, we used it in our data warehouse when we wanted to create a dashboard that would give us an idea about, for example, the data itself. We had a client that would ask about a couple of requirements, like the past data from the last month or last year for a particular region for a particular client, and so on. I was using SSIS to store data incrementally and show the data using SSIS. 

For example, if we have created a couple of tasks or schedules, we would create a couple of packages and schedule them overnight. Every night it could fetch the data incrementally from the data warehouse. Every week, there was a requirement from the client that I need to add particular data to be changed and shared over email weekly. That particular data could be fetched from the data warehouse, and it will be shared with the client every week. 

Many features are very good in SSIS. 

I can create a particular package, and I don't need to repeat it again and again. For example, I can create a package that will fetch all the data from the given data. If my client gives me some data, I can clean some data, perform some transformations, and then store the data in any place. That's quite helpful for me as well. I don't have to do it again and again manually. I just have to create a package, schedule it, and it could be run, and it could be stored in any target I have. It can run for me, again and again, without me having to re-make it manually again and again.

It is easy to set up the product.

There are a couple of areas that could be improved. For example, if I created a package and the package would work on specific data, it could work on the performance or speed of the action. If you are working on a very large amount of data, then creating this package and performing some transformations might take some time. Everything just needs to be faster.

I haven't used SSIS for the last year, so I'm not sure about its new releases as of now.

In terms of its performance, it could be better. That could be something that would be easy and welcomed as an upgrade.

I'd like to see more dashboarding to be able to see the data through a graph. It would be great if I could also share the visualization with my clients.

I did use it in my previous organization for almost one year.

It is quite a stable product. There are no bugs or glitches, and it doesn't crash or freeze. It is reliable. I'd rate it a three or four out of five in terms of stability.

There are six teams using the solution in our company. 

I've never had to reach out to technical support. 

I'm not using Palantir Gotham. I just read about Palantir Gotham, and I'm not using it.

One of my clients wants us to use SSIS, and frankly speaking, if given the opportunity, I would say yes to using SSIS.

With SSIS, it is not difficult at all to set up. Many sources are there through which you can learn how to set up your SSIS. The documentation is great. With the help of documentation, it was very easy for me to set up.

Deploying a package would also not take a lot of time. It depends on what kind of package it is, however, it is pretty fast.  

I'm not aware of the exact cost of the solution. 

I was a user. 

If you want to perform some transformation or data warehouse and the product is used for data analysis purposes, it's a good option. You can perform some transformation, et cetera.

I'd rate the solution eight out of ten. It was very useful for day-to-day tasks.

Mostly we are receiving files in either XML or Excel and then we collect them in databases. Sometimes it's CSV and sometimes it is also Excel. Mostly, it is XML.

We have many regulations that we must follow, and this solution helps us manage that. There are rules that we must follow, and we get files in a uniform structure, and we need to import them into databases. Doing it with SSIS saves us a lot of time.

The performance is better than doing it in some alternative ways. We don't have to worry about so much manual work. 

Mostly it was helping us with importing XML files by checking the access and then doing some look-ups and containers to implement loops and things like that mostly. That was quite helpful in terms of saving time. 

Technical support is helpful.

No big improvements are needed at this time. 

At one point, we did have to purchase an add-on.

Since we are not using it for a whole ETL, or for a data warehouse, maybe I'm missing something.

I've been using the solution for almost eight years. 

The performance is very good. It makes it easier to do things that you would have to do differently otherwise.

I'd rate the overall stability eight out of ten. We haven't had any stability issues in many years. 

The scalability is pretty good. I'd rate the ability to expand at a seven out of ten. 

There are only three of us using the solution at this time. 

We contacted technical support maybe once. I don't remember when it was, however, once, we had to look at some dump size, and we called Microsoft to help us with that. They did help us, however, it was a very long time ago and I don't remember too many details about the problem or experience. 

While we are using it quite a lot, my understanding is that the company will go with Talend and not SSIS for a data warehouse project. I don't have any influence on that.

That said, we are not going to do any conversion from SSIS to Talend on what exists in our existing project. The data warehouse will be a totally new project, and they will go with Talend.

We did not use any other solution previously.

The initial setup is very easy. I'd rate it an eight out of ten in terms of ease of implementation.

The deployment itself only took a couple of hours. 

The installation that comes with SQL just requires some tweaking with Visual Studio or something like that. We had some problems with maybe deploying the product from the local machine, however, in the end, we solved it.

We have three people handling the initial setup. All of us are DBAs.

We handled the initial setup ourselves, in-house.

There are occasionally add-ons for SSIS that may increase the price. 

In the past, we did not evaluate any other solutions. 

We are end-users. 

The SQL version that we are using is 2019. However, I'm not sure about the exact version of SSIS we're using. We installed it with the 2019 version.

I'd rate the solution eight out of ten. 

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.

The one internally also developed some applications for some specific problems. For that use case, we are using the solution for different purposes, for example, for integration between data disks to databases, as well as for the application level side of integration. We are using the SSIS service actually. And we also have different expertise on the database level. We're also using it for different scenarios. We use it with Microsoft products. It's a part of our strategy, in the data aspect.

The performance is good.

It's easy to use. 

The visibility is great.

We have found the solution to be very straightforward to set up.

The solution is stable.

It can scale well. 

Microsoft should offer an on-premises support warranty for those using that deployment. They seem to be withdrawing from on-premises options. 

I've been using the solution for ten years or more.

The solution is stable and reliable. The performance is good. There are no bugs or glitches. It doesn't crash or freeze. For us, it's worked quite well.

The solution is scalable. It's not a problem to expand. 

Currently, we are using it in the development environment, so we have around five users.

Increasing usage depends on the structure that we have. Let's say if the organization plans to increase the structure and the developer number, we might increase usage a bit. For the time being, five is enough.

The good thing with Microsoft is you can have support online even without engaging directly with Microsoft. Things are very cloud sensitive. You can also request help from the vendor. Less than two years ago, in 2021, Microsoft stopped offering assistance to those using the on-prem solution.

However, in those cases, you can still find support and answers online, from different users' experiences. There's lots of information out there about Microsoft. It's not hard to get help and find answers. 

Positive

I'm not sure what we used ten to 12 years ago. It has been a long time since we started using this particular solution. 

The solution is straightforward and simple. It's not overly complex or difficult. It's actually quite easy for us to get everything up and running. We can finalize everything within a day. It doesn't take a lot of time to implement it. 

One person is enough to deploy and maintain the solution. That said, it depends on an organization's planning strategy. It might not take a lot to do that kind of activity.

Usually, we handle the setup in-house. However, we have in the past had the help of a consultant or using a supplier. 

With the cloud deployment, you can get a three or five-year license. You may not be able to get an on-premises version anymore. 

I've used the 2014, 2016, and 2019 versions of the product.

I'd recommend the solution to others.

I would recommend the solution to others.

Overall, I can rate the solution an eight out of ten. We're pretty happy with it.

We use the product sometimes to implement some ETL processes.

We have to transform some data from students so that we can help to make some decisions on what we call deterioration. We receive a lot of data from the government, and sometimes we have to split it into several parts as it is a huge amount of data. We have to put it in a standardized way. We use the solution as a product. It is one of the use cases that we do. When we have other systems, like for staff to control, we also use SSIS since it's appropriate to our system, and we need to put it in certain ways so that we can read it and manage it. 

It is the most valuable for staff processes in order to gain efficiency. It allows us to get the data normalized easily.

The solution is stable.

It can scale well.

The deployment process is very easy and quite quick.

They have good documentation. 

We'd like them to develop data exploration more. 

The support could be better.

I've been using the solution for more than five years. 

The solution is stable. We haven't had any issues with that. If we need more processing power, we can increase the resources of the machines below it. 

The scalability is good.

We do not have a lot of users. The processes we do have run at night.

It's not about how many users use the solution, it's about how many people benefit from it. There are many that benefit from the output.

I've never used technical support. Microsoft does have a very good document library, however, if you have an issue and need support, it can take a very long time to get help.

Neutral

How easy or difficult the setup is depends on the size of the process that we want to normalize. If it is a big ETL, it's not always that fast. We are considering changing to a different platform so that it's easier. For example, we are looking into SQL to have another kind of data exploration.

The first time we initially set it up, it was quite fast. The deployment of the integration services for the very first time without any process implemented took about a day.

We handled the setup internally. We did not have to worry about dealing with any consultants or integrators. 

We have yearly licensing.

We are currently looking into SQL to see if it would be easier to use. 

We already have an enterprise contract with Microsoft. We didn't want to spend money on other solutions.

We still have a few versions running. The one that we use the most is the 2017 version.

I'd recommend the solution to others. I'd rate it seven out of ten.

If you are deploying a data strategy for your company, you need more than SSIS. If you need to go fast and implement some ETL processes with no help, it's quite easy to do and learn.

SSIS orchestrates data transformation in the environment, which includes Oracle and SQL Server databases.

The most valuable aspect of this solution is that it is simple to use and it offers a flexible custom script task.

Connectivity to databases other than Microsoft. This is the Achilles' heel.

Integration with other vendors' connectivity should be available as well as being able to read and write data to databases or data storage other than with Microsoft.

There is connectivity with other databases, however, this is the most significant issue that has to be addressed.

I have been using SSIS for five years, but I first used it in 2007.

SSIS is quite stable.

SSIS is moderately scalable.

The company is fairly substantial. They have approximately 400,000 people in the company, but I am not aware of how many are using this solution. It is quite a bit.

There are a lot of developers using it.

I am not aware if they plan to increase their usage, it is not within my decision.

In terms of my immediate surroundings, we intend to use cloud tools, Azure technologies, and Microsoft. First and foremost, Microsoft ADF. Azure Data Factory is the cloud's SSIS replacement.

For this particular product, we have not used technical support.

I started with SSIS but then switched to IBM Datastage.

That was where I worked, this was already in use at another organization. 

I recently moved jobs, and this is the platform of choice for ETL once again. Informatica data center was used in various other organizations. 

I was attending Informatica workshops. I wasn't Informatica actively, but I might in the future, perhaps soon.

The initial setup is straightforward.

It only took five minutes to deploy SSIS. 

For maintenance, we rely on our platform team.

We will probably need one person for maintenance. Let's say it's only one person. But I'm not speaking on behalf of the entire company; I'm speaking on behalf of a single team of perhaps 1,000 people.

We did not use a consultant or third-party vendor, everything was done in-house.

This is difficult since it is included in the SQL server license. 

Depending on the arrangement that a certain company has with Microsoft, it may supply the permanent license that is included in the SQL server license, or it may be a time-bound license if it is a partner license or other enterprise license. 

I am not sure what our relationship with Microsoft is like or what the program is, but I believe it's some sort of enterprise license.

In the past, I worked with permanent licenses.

I would recommend SSIS to others who would be interested in using it.

I would rate SSIS an eight out of ten.