Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Integration Services

All medium to large companies have to deal with data being stored in a number of databases, spreadsheets and proprietary applications. Bringing all this data together into one system can be useful to analyzing the business; but can also be quite difficult to do. Integration Services is the next big bet in Microsoft's business intelligence lineup. It provides true enterprise extract transform and load features (ETL). Analysts estimate that up to 80 percent of business intelligence system costs are expended on ETL processing. Integration Services makes implementing ETL processes simpler by virtually eliminating the need for custom coded solutions, thereby saving time and money. Integration Services also provides a rich development environment that's well integrated with Analysis Services and Reporting Services (both of which have proved to be very popular among database developers in 2004). Integration Services makes true enterprise level business intelligence more accessible to the masses. This book will concentrate on providing real world solutions to real world problems giving readers a head start on their various projects. Some readers may only be evaluating Integration Services and will just want to know the basics and the early chapters will provide those with the option of drilling down into details in the later chapters where some of the more complex concepts will be discussed in detail.