Integration Services Overhauled

SQL Server 2005 will ship with Integration Services, a new utility for building data-integration processes, such as gathering and aggregating data from operational databases to populate a data warehouse. Such processes are a key component of many companies’ business intelligence (BI) functions, which also typically include utilities for data analysis and reporting. Supporting BI functions allowed Microsoft to position SQL Server as more than just a data storage and management engine and helped it gain a foothold inside companies that use competing products (such as Oracle) for database management.

Compared to the Data Transformation Services (DTS) utility it replaces, Integration Services promises simpler programming, better performance, and improved management capabilities. These improvements could entice SQL Server 2000 customers to upgrade to SQL Server 2005 and attract new customers with complex, enterprise-class data integration needs, whose options today are limited to costly third-party products such as Informatica’s PowerCenter. However, even experienced DTS developers will require some ramp-up time to take full advantage of Integration Services; furthermore, Integration Services is not fully backward-compatible with DTS, and Microsoft’s planned migration tools will only work for some DTS packages.