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Azure SQL Database vs. SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS)

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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Azure SQL Database

    Score8.5 out of 10
    N/AAzure SQL Database is Microsoft's relational database as a service (DBaaS).

    $0.50

    Per Hour

    SSIS

    Score8 out of 10
    N/AMicrosoft's SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS) is a data integration solution.N/A
    Pricing
    Azure SQL DatabaseSSIS
    Editions & Modules
    2 vCORE
    $0.5044
    Per Hour
    6 vCORE
    $1.5131
    Per Hour
    10 vCORE
    $2.52
    Per Hour
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    Azure SQL DatabaseSSIS
    Free Trial
    NoNo
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional Details——
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    Azure SQL DatabaseSSIS
    Considered Both Products
    Microsoft
    Chose Azure SQL Database
    AWS's solution would be an alternative. I felt since we're a Window shop and already had a small investment into Azure, it was a no brainer.
    Incentivized
    Microsoft
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    100%
    Would buy again
    17 Answers
    84%
    Would buy again
    21 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    16 Answers
    96%
    Delivers good value for the price
    24 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    94%
    Happy with the feature set
    16 Answers
    88%
    Happy with the feature set
    22 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    93%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    14 Answers
    100%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    10 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    94%
    Implementation went as expected
    16 Answers
    95%
    Implementation went as expected
    19 Answers
    Features
    Azure SQL DatabaseSSIS
    Database-as-a-Service
    Comparison of Database-as-a-Service features of Azure SQL Database and SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS)
    Feature
    Azure SQL Database
    7.2
    32 Ratings
    16% below category average
    SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS)
    -
    Ratings
    Automatic software patching6.330 Ratings00 Ratings
    Database scalability7.832 Ratings00 Ratings
    Automated backups7.832 Ratings00 Ratings
    Database security provisions8.832 Ratings00 Ratings
    Monitoring and metrics6.831 Ratings00 Ratings
    Automatic host deployment6.127 Ratings00 Ratings
    Data Source Connection
    Comparison of Data Source Connection features of Azure SQL Database and SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS)
    Feature
    Azure SQL Database
    -
    Ratings
    SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS)
    7.0
    56 Ratings
    18% below category average
    Connect to traditional data sources00 Ratings9.156 Ratings
    Connecto to Big Data and NoSQL00 Ratings5.043 Ratings
    Data Transformations
    Comparison of Data Transformations features of Azure SQL Database and SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS)
    Feature
    Azure SQL Database
    -
    Ratings
    SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS)
    6.8
    56 Ratings
    18% below category average
    Simple transformations00 Ratings8.956 Ratings
    Complex transformations00 Ratings4.755 Ratings
    Data Modeling
    Comparison of Data Modeling features of Azure SQL Database and SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS)
    Feature
    Azure SQL Database
    -
    Ratings
    SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS)
    7.5
    54 Ratings
    6% below category average
    Data model creation00 Ratings9.028 Ratings
    Metadata management00 Ratings6.035 Ratings
    Business rules and workflow00 Ratings7.145 Ratings
    Collaboration00 Ratings9.140 Ratings
    Testing and debugging00 Ratings6.451 Ratings
    Data Governance
    Comparison of Data Governance features of Azure SQL Database and SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS)
    Feature
    Azure SQL Database
    -
    Ratings
    SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS)
    5.4
    43 Ratings
    40% below category average
    Integration with data quality tools00 Ratings6.338 Ratings
    Integration with MDM tools00 Ratings4.638 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    Azure SQL DatabaseSSIS
    Small Businesses
    MongoDB Atlas
    Score7.8 out of 10
    Skyvia
    Score10 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    Azure Database
    Score8.8 out of 10
    IBM InfoSphere Information Server
    Score10 out of 10
    Enterprises
    Google Cloud SQL
    Score8.7 out of 10
    SolarWinds Task Factory
    Score8.3 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    Azure SQL DatabaseSSIS
    Likelihood to Recommend
    8.0
    (32 ratings)
    8.0
    (56 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    9.0
    (4 ratings)
    Usability
    8.5
    (5 ratings)
    8.0
    (11 ratings)
    Performance
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.8
    (6 ratings)
    Support Rating
    9.0
    (5 ratings)
    8.0
    (8 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (2 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    Azure SQL DatabaseSSIS
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Microsoft
    We have found it's a great alternative for making older legacy applications work with online databases instead of only on-premises databases. We've converted over a dozen applications this way, and it has allowed our clients to have a distributed workforce using their applications without incurring the expense of a complete application rewrite.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    As I mentioned earlier SQL Server Integration Services is suitable if you want to manage data from different applications. It really helps in fetching the data and generating reports. Its automation make it very easy and time efficient. It works well with large database as well. But it doesn't work well with real time data, it will take some time to gather the real time data. I would not recommend using it in a real time/fast-paced environment.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pros
    Microsoft
    • Maintenance is always an issue, so using a cloud solution saves a lot of trouble.
    • On premise solutions always suffer from fragmented implementations here and there, where several "dba's" keep track of security and maintenance. With a cloud database it's much easier to keep a central overview.
    • Security options in SQL database are next level... data masking, hiding sensitive data where always neglected on premise, whereas you'll get this automatically in the cloud.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    • Standard ETL use cases for daily loads
    • Loading incoming data from Vendors which is placed on FTP and adding them to the SQL Warehouse
    • Creating outgoing data files and writing them to Vendor FTPs
    • Easy Active Directory integration for seamless connections to SQL Server
    • CI/CD by hosting the code on visualstudio.com
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    Microsoft
    • One needs to be aware that some T-SQL features are simply not available.
    • The programmatic access to server, trace flags, hardware from within Azure SQL Database is taken away (for a good reason).
    • No SQL Agent so your jobs need to be orchestrated differently.
    • The maximum concurrent logins maybe an unexpected problem.
    • Sudden disconnects.
    • The developers and admin must study the capacity and tier usage limits https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-subscription-service-limits otherwise some errors or even transaction aborts never seen before can occur.
    • Only one Latin Collation choice.
    • There is no way to debug T-SQL ( a big drawback in my point of view).
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    • Connection managers for online data sources can be tricky to configure.
    • Performance tuning is an art form and trialing different data flow task options can be cumbersome. SSIS can do a better job of providing performance data including historical for monitoring.
    • Mapping destination using OLE DB command is difficult as destination columns are unnamed.
    • Excel or flat file connections are limited by version and type.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    Microsoft
    This is best solution as a DBA one could expect from a service provider and as a cloud service, it removes all your hassles.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    Some features should be revised or improved, some tools (using it with Visual Studio) of the toolbox should be less schematic and somewhat more flexible. Using for example, the CSV data import is still very old-fashioned and if the data format changes it requires a bit of manual labor to accept the new data structure
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Usability
    Microsoft
    The interfaces are intuitive once you are familiar with all the functions. The ability to use different tools to interact with the platform, such as directly via a browser or code editors such as VS Code or Visual Studio is a great option and allows for integrating withn the project and other testing and developing tools.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    SSIS is a great tool for most ETL needs. It has the 90% (or more) use cases covered and even in many of the use cases where it is not ideal SSIS can be extended via a .NET language to do the job well in a supportable way for almost any performance workload.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Performance
    Microsoft
    No answers on this topic
    Microsoft
    SQL Server Integration Services performance is dependent directly upon the resources provided to the system. In our environment, we allocated 6 nodes of 4 CPUs, 64GB each, running in parallel. Unfortunately, we had to ramp-up to such a robust environment to get the performance to where we needed it. Most of the reports are completed in a reasonable timeframe. However, in the case of slow running reports, it is often difficult if not impossible to cancel the report without killing the report instance or stopping the service.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Support Rating
    Microsoft
    We give the support a high rating simply because every time we've had issues or questions, representatives were in contact with us quickly. Without fail, our issues/questions were handled in a timely matter. That kind of response is integral when client data integrity and availability is in question. There is also a wealth of documentation for resolving issues on your own.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    The support, when necessary, is excellent. But beyond that, it is very rarely necessary because the user community is so large, vibrant and knowledgable, a simple Google query or forum question can answer almost everything you want to know. You can also get prewritten script tasks with a variety of functionality that saves a lot of time.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Implementation Rating
    Microsoft
    No answers on this topic
    Microsoft
    The implementation may be different in each case, it is important to properly analyze all the existing infrastructure to understand the kind of work needed, the type of software used and the compatibility between these, the features that you want to exploit, to understand what is possible and which ones require integration with third-party tools
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Alternatives Considered
    Microsoft
    We moved away from Oracle and NoSQL because we had been so reliant on them for the last 25 years, the pricing was too much and we were looking for a way to cut the cord. Snowflake is just too up in the air, feels like it is soon to be just another line item to add to your Azure subscription. Azure was just priced right, easy to migrate to and plenty of resources to hire to support/maintain it. Very easy to learn, too.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    I think SQL Server Integration Services is better suited for on-premises data movement and ADF is more suited for the cloud. Though ADF has more connectors, SQL Server Integration Services is more robust and has better functionality just because it has been around much longer
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Return on Investment
    Microsoft
    • Perfect for small and medium databases, being very cost effective.
    • As a Platform as a Service, there is no concern about patches, upgrades and end of life.
    • Be aware of security and network capabilities. The service cannot run in the VNET as Azure Virtual Machines do.
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    • Without this, we would have to manually update a spreadsheet of our SQL Server inventory
    • We would also have poor alerting; if an instance was down we wouldn't know until it was reported by a user
    • We only have one other person who uses SQL Server Integration Services , he's the expert. It would fall to me without him and I would not enjoy being responsible for it.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
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