See Also: Main_Page - Code Management - Loaders - Integration Services (SSIS)


SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS) is a high performance data extraction, transformation and loading (ETL) tool included with SQL Server 2005 family of products. It can be thought of as the next generation of Data Transformation Services (DTS) - the tool available with the previous versions of SQL Server. In fact many SSIS executables retain the DTS acronym because the new name wasn't introduced until later stages of the product development cycle. However, it is important to note that SSIS is a completely new product and it is developed using .NET technologies. SSIS offers superior performance and considerably improved development, debugging and logging features compared to DTS. While DTS packages have to be developed using Enterprise Manager, SSIS packages will normally be built using Business Intelligence Development Studio (BIDS).



The primary purpose of SSIS is to move data from one or multiple sources into a destination, cleansing and massaging data while it is in transit. However, SSIS also offers a multitude of additional tasks that are very useful for SQL Server database administrators. For example, it includes tasks for processing Analysis Services dimensions and measure groups, tasks for checking database integrity, rebuilding indexes and more.