SSIS Overview

SSIS is the #2 ranked solution in our list of top Data Integration Tools. It is most often compared to Informatica PowerCenter: SSIS vs Informatica PowerCenter

What is SSIS?
SSIS is a package is an organized collection of connections, control flow elements, data flow elements, event handlers, variables, parameters, and configurations, that you assemble using either the graphical design tools that SQL Server Integration Services provides, or build programmatically. You then save the completed package to SQL Server, the SSIS Package Store, or the file system, or you can deploy the ssISnoversion project to the SSIS server. The package is the unit of work that is retrieved, executed, and saved.

SSIS is also known as SQL Server Integration Services.

SSIS Buyer's Guide

Download the SSIS Buyer's Guide including reviews and more. Updated: May 2021

SSIS Customers
PKP Energetyka, UniCredit Bank, Mostar, waldwasser, Ashok leyland, Florida Atlantic University, Stadt Frankfurt am Main
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Pricing Advice

What users are saying about SSIS pricing:
  • "t's incredibly cost effective, easy to learn the basics quickly (although like all ETL tools requires the traditional learning curve to get good at) and has an immense user base."
  • "My advice is to look at what your configuration will be because most companies have their own deals with Microsoft."
  • "Based on my experience and understanding, Talend comes out to be a little bit expensive as compared to SSIS. The average cost of having Talend with Talend Management Console is around 72K per region, which is much higher than SSIS. SSIS works very well with Microsoft technologies, and if you have Microsoft technologies, it is not really expensive to have SSIS. If you have SQL Server, SSIS is free."

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GaryM
Data Architect at World Vision
Real User
Top 5Popular
SSIS 2016 - The good, the bad, and the ugly
Sql Server Integration Services (SSIS) 2016 Review Summary SSIS 2016 - the Good the Bad, and the Ugly SSIS is a unique ETL tool for a number of reasons. Most shops already own it but may treat it as a free utility rather than as an enterprise ETL tool.  Which is ironic given it is superior to many of the supposed enterprise-class tools in a number of areas. The lack of respect in our industry is likely due to immature beginnings in its former "DTS" days and because it comes bundled "free" with Sql Server.  But don't let that fool you into thinking it can't compete with the expensive ETL tools. I've used many ETL tools over the years and I'll take SSIS over any of them. I've now used SSIS exclusively for close to a decade and have no regrets.  SSIS is extremely flexible,…
See Entire SSIS Review (2195 Words) »
VM
Senior BI Developer at a music company with 501-1,000 employees
Real User
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Integrates well with other solutions in our on-premise data warehouse

What is our primary use case?

We use this solution for data warehousing. We are using the on-premise deployment model.

Pros and Cons

  • "It is easily scheduled and integrates well with SQL Server and SQL Server Agent jobs."
  • "Improving the login procedure would make our reporting easier on monitoring our ETL processes."

What other advice do I have?

My advice for anybody who is considering this solution is to install the trial version first. You can get the SQL development edition, which pretty much has everything the enterprise edition has. You can download it, put it somewhere and use it as a development or testing area. Then, if you like it, look to purchase it. We're looking to move more to the cloud at some point. I don't know when, but we'll be doing more research before we do. Overall, I think for what this solution does, it's pretty much all there. I don't see any way or any changes that can be made to make it work faster, or…
See Entire SSIS Review (1073 Words) »
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LD
Data Scientist at a tech vendor with 501-1,000 employees
Real User
Top 5Leaderboard
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A strong solution for batch processing with good community support

What is our primary use case?

We use this solution for ETL, which includes data summation and cleaning. This solution used in an on-premise deployment, for now.

Pros and Cons

  • "I have used most of the standard SQL features, but the ones that stand out are the Data Flows and Bulk Import."
  • "This solution needs full support for real-time processing."

What other advice do I have?

My advice to anybody implementing this solution is to look into whether to use it on a catalog in a database, versus using package deployment. There are pros and cons to both approaches in terms of deployment and security. I would say that's something that needs to be evaluated quite early. There are lots of benefits to the catalog, but also a bit more admin attached to it. Another consideration is real-time processing needs. If this is a requirement then I would recommend against using this solution, unless the next version has a new set of features specifically for real-time processing. I…
See Entire SSIS Review (681 Words) »
AhmedShaban
Database Consultant
Reseller
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Easy data retrieval and data flow with excellent reporting features

What is our primary use case?

We've used the solution to create some data flows for one of the governmental sectors here in Saudi Arabia. I have created some applications for exporting data from Oracle databases to SQL databases.

Pros and Cons

  • "The reporting on the solution is perfect. I didn't expect to see reporting features, but they are great."
  • "There was also not enough instructions from Microsoft in regards to this application or this technology, which can easily be improved upon."

What other advice do I have?

In terms of advice I would give in regard to implementing this product, I'd say to examine your business needs in relation to the solution. You need to make sure those are met before implementing it. A lot of companies use data filers and they already have existing databases. You need to make sure the solution you choose is able to deal with old databases of client records. I would rate this solution ten out of ten.
See Entire SSIS Review (621 Words) »
Alireza Nikseresht
CEO at Shiraz University
Real User
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User-friendly solution with a good dashboard

Pros and Cons

  • "It's already very user-friendly and has a good dashboard."
  • "Sometimes when we want to publish to other types of databases it's not easy to publish to those databases. For example, the Jet Database Engine. Before the SSIS supported Jet Database Engine but nowadays it doesn't support the Jet Database Engine. We connect to many databases such as Access database, SparkPros databases and the other types of databases using Jet Database Engines now and SSIS now doesn't seem to support it in our databases."

What other advice do I have?

We chose the solution because we have some data in Oracle and we wanted to extract it and load the data into SQL Server. The type of port, like SSIS, I always recommend other companies to use it and other Microsoft products because they are very easy to use. There are very handy tools. It's very user-friendly and has a good dashboard. I would rate the solution nine out of ten.
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ITCS user
Platform Lead: Global Markets Data Analytics at Rand Merchant Bank
Real User
Top 20
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A solution that offers excellent compatibility with Microsoft products and an easy interface

What is our primary use case?

Our primary use is as an ETL tool to move data across our various environments.

Pros and Cons

  • "Its compatibility with Microsoft products has been very valuable to our company. It fits well within the architecture."
  • "We're in the process of switching to Informatica, and we need to work out data lineage and data profiling and to improve the quality of our data. SSIS, however, is not that compatible with Informatica. We managed to connect it to Informatica Metadata Manager, but we don't get good lineage, so we have to redo all our ETLs using the Informatica process in order to accept the proper data lineage."

What other advice do I have?

We're using the on-premises version of the solution. My only recommendation to those considering implementation of the solution would be, if they want to check data lineage, they should set up the packages with a particular configuration that they would have to follow in order to get data lineage. If they were to start it from scratch, my recommendation would be just to follow the pattern to ensure data lineage. I would rate this solution eight out of ten.
See Entire SSIS Review (530 Words) »
Ismail Lahbabi
Data Engineer at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
Real User
Top 5
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Good support, user-friendly, and easy to integrate with Microsoft tools, but needs a better console, more features, and better capability to handle a large volume of data

What is our primary use case?

We are using it in our company and for our clients. I have experience in working with the whole data cycle, which includes data collection, transformation, and visualization. I have worked with the end-to-end process, and I have handled data integration, analysis, and visualization. I specialize in Microsoft tools, and I have used SSIS for data integration and Power BI for data visualization. I have also worked with Tableau for data visualization and Talend for data integration.

Pros and Cons

  • "The most valuable thing is that it is easy to connect with Microsoft tools. In Europe, particularly in France, a lot of companies use Excel, SQL Server, and other Microsoft tools, and it is easier to connect SSIS with Microsoft tools than other products."
  • "It is also easy to learn and user-friendly. Microsoft is also good in terms of technical support. They have built a large community all over the world."
  • "When I compare Talend and SSIS, Talend provides more features. With Talend, we can handle a large volume of data. Talend is usually used to treat a large volume of data, which makes it better than SSIS on the data side. Talend also has a very good Talend Management Console to schedule the jobs and do other things. It can also be easily connected to version control tools such as GitHub or SVN. The last time I used SSIS, it was connected through TSS for the Windows Console version. I am not sure it has been improved or not. If it is not improved, Microsoft should improve it. They should change the product to provide another console."

What other advice do I have?

I would rate SSIS a six out of ten. I prefer Talend over SSIS.
See Entire SSIS Review (512 Words) »
Muhammad Arif Javed
Senior Manager Software Development at Techlogix
Real User
Top 5
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While you can build your own components, that is not straightforward

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.

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 other advice do I have?

Overall, we remained in a good position and in control while using SSIS. We didn't face any challenges.
See Entire SSIS Review (429 Words) »
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