Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Integration Services Problem-design-solution (Wrox Programmer to Programmer) [Paperback]

I usually don't do book reviews (at least publicly, anyway), but when I find a piece of work that I really get a lot out of, I don't mind sharing my experience. Such was the case with a book I finished recently. SQL Server 2008 Integration Services: Problem - Design - Solution is a concise guide to becoming a better ETL developer, written by four highly experienced industry experts. After reading this book, I can recommend it without hesitation!

From the first few pages, it's obvious that this book is different from many other SSIS books. Rather than trying to teach the reader how to use the software, this book instead focuses on common business problems and the methodology behind solving them. The authors assume some familiarity with SSIS, so you won't find a comprehensive how-to manual if you've never created a package before. That being said, the concepts presented here are not so complex that only highly seasoned ETL developers will understand them; to the contrary, the book illustrates a number of simple yet practical approaches, along with relevant examples, that audiences of various skill levels will get something out of it.

One of the most relevant topics covered was the concept of building an SSIS management framework, which was my favorite part of the book. Having recently moved from an environment with a relatively small number of packages to a consulting role where I might interact with hundreds of packages a month, I found that a solid ETL framework is a critical component of success. Chapter 2 of the Problem - Design - Solution book explains why, and illustrates how, one would build an SSIS management framework. For anyone that has struggled with a large number of packages or has wrestled with the shortcomings of the built-in SSIS logging tools, this chapter should prove useful as both a guide and a best practices reference. Further into the book, the authors cover other topics essential to data warehousing ETL, including data cleansing and fact and dimension table ETL. The authors go on to cover scripting in SSIS, one of my favorite topics, and do a good job of addressing scripting patterns in both the script task and script component. Finally, the book reviews ways to monitor and improve SSIS performance.

I consider a technical book to be successful if it contains the right mix of information so that I can immediately apply what I've learned to legitimate problems and situation. To that end, this book is a winner in my opinion; even though I have been developing ETL processes in SSIS for years, I was able to walk away with some practical techniques that I began using almost immediately. Experienced ETL developers, as well as those with only a little SSIS experience, will likely find this book very useful.

This book is a treasury for ETL developers / architects. It is very different from other ETL books in the way that it is written with a top-to-bottom approach instead of focusing on details of an ETL tool. Each chapter presents a problem that an ETL developer/architect will face during a real project. Then it provides design ideas and best practices for the problem and finally delivers a solution that can be implemented. The collection of design ideas, best practices and solutions provided is priceless. The solutions are ready for use or require minimal change and presented in enough details for someone who is familiar with SSIS. This is the book you want to have if you want to know how the SSIS experts would solve the ETL problems you are facing.

The only chapter that falls short in comparison with others in terms of the quality of the solution provided is chapter 9 on SSAS processing. The information is useful and written with the same format of other chapters but is not as comprehensive and of the same caliber. Considering that the focus of this book is on SSIS and not SSAS, this chapter is a good starting point for SSAS processing.

One highlight of this book is that many of the design patterns and frameworks presented in this book are independent of the version of SQL Server and will be useful in future versions. There are many references to other useful books when the reader needs to gain a deeper background knowledge. This is a great book to keep and come back to.

Overall this book is written well, easy to understand, and chapters flow smoothly together. Once I started reading this book, it was hard to put it down.

This book is really good for more advanced users. If you have developed SSIS packages in the past, and want to take the next step to make your systems better, then get this book. I am a developer for a big company and I rarely see advanced "real world" examples of SSIS solutions. I love the first chapter on SSIS logging. Download the code from the website, and it will create your logging tables and procs with just minor modifications to the scripts.

I initially put off buying this book for a week because it only had one review at the time (even though it was 5 stars).
This is an excellent Book!