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SolarWinds Task Factory

SolarWinds Task Factory

Overview

What is SolarWinds Task Factory?

According to the vendor, SolarWinds Task Factory saves time managing tedious ELT/ETL tasks with high-performing SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS) components that can be used within the Visual Studio environment to connect to nearly any data source. Task Factory’s components…

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Recent Reviews

TrustRadius Insights

Upsert Component: Highly praised for its simplicity and ease of use, the Upsert component in Task Factory has been mentioned by several …
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Upgrade to Upsert

10 out of 10
April 30, 2020
Incentivized
Our prima facie need was to increase the speed for loading our data warehouses. We used SSIS, and needed an easy way to convert to bulk …
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Task Factory Review

8 out of 10
March 22, 2020
Incentivized
Our Data Integration team uses Task Factory as a 3rd-party plugin tool to support Microsoft SSIS packages. Task Factory makes our job …
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Awards

Products that are considered exceptional by their customers based on a variety of criteria win TrustRadius awards. Learn more about the types of TrustRadius awards to make the best purchase decision. More about TrustRadius Awards

Popular Features

View all 5 features
  • Complex transformations (35)
    9.6
    96%
  • Connect to traditional data sources (40)
    9.4
    94%
  • Simple transformations (39)
    8.7
    87%
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Pricing

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Task Factory

1,245 (annual subscription license)

On Premise
per server

Task Factory Azure Data Factory

1,495 (annual subscription license)

On Premise
per ADF node

Entry-level set up fee?

  • No setup fee
For the latest information on pricing, visithttps://www.sentryone.com/products/task…

Offerings

  • Free Trial
  • Free/Freemium Version
  • Premium Consulting/Integration Services
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Features

Data Source Connection

Ability to connect to multiple data sources

9.4
Avg 8.2

Data Transformations

Data transformations include calculations, search and replace, data normalization and data parsing

9.1
Avg 8.4

Data Governance

Data governance is the practise of implementing policies defining effective use of an organization's data assets

9.4
Avg 8.2
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Product Details

What is SolarWinds Task Factory?

According to the vendor, SolarWinds Task Factory saves time managing tedious ELT/ETL tasks with high-performing SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS) components that can be used within the Visual Studio environment to connect to nearly any data source. Task Factory’s components and tasks have been optimized to ensure fast performance of data-centric applications, and the user can run Task Factory on an Azure-SSIS Integration Runtime (IR) with Task Factory Azure Data Factory edition.

SolarWinds Task Factory Features

Data Source Connection Features

  • Supported: Connect to traditional data sources

Data Transformations Features

  • Supported: Simple transformations
  • Supported: Complex transformations

Data Governance Features

  • Supported: Integration with data quality tools
  • Supported: Integration with MDM tools

SolarWinds Task Factory Screenshots

Screenshot of Salesforce.com SourceScreenshot of Dimension Merge SCD TransformScreenshot of Upsert DestinationScreenshot of REST Source

SolarWinds Task Factory Integrations

SolarWinds Task Factory Technical Details

Deployment TypesOn-premise
Operating SystemsWindows
Mobile ApplicationNo

SolarWinds Task Factory Downloadables

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Comparisons

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Reviews and Ratings

(64)

Community Insights

TrustRadius Insights are summaries of user sentiment data from TrustRadius reviews and, when necessary, 3rd-party data sources. Have feedback on this content? Let us know!

Upsert Component: Highly praised for its simplicity and ease of use, the Upsert component in Task Factory has been mentioned by several users as a valuable feature. Users appreciate that with just a few clicks, they can perform merge operations without the complexities of writing code.

Extended Functionality: Many users find Task Factory to be highly beneficial due to its ability to extend the functionality of native SSIS components. This aspect allows them to work with a wider range of data sources and perform tasks that would otherwise be challenging with only native components.

Seamless Integration: The seamless integration capabilities of Task Factory have been highlighted by users. They mention specific use cases such as integrating with partners' Secure FTP sites, working with Excel, and sending out emails using partners' SMTP servers. Users appreciate how Task Factory simplifies these tasks and saves them significant time.

Challenging execution against non-licensed servers: Some users have found it challenging to execute packages against servers that do not have proper licenses, which has required them to search for alternative solutions or workarounds.

Lack of detailed logging for errors: Users have expressed a strong desire for more comprehensive and detailed logging capabilities when components encounter errors. This would enable better troubleshooting and analysis of issues during package execution.

Lack of notifications for software updates: Several users have mentioned that they were not notified or alerted when new versions of the software became available. This lack of notification caused them to miss out on important updates and improvements to the product.

Attribute Ratings

Reviews

(1-5 of 5)
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Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Task Factory is used to support our SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS) needs. SSIS has many tasks built in but we have found they fall short of our needs and Task Factory fills that gap for us. The components provided are well designed and easy to configure for the package to use and allow parameters to be configured for ease of use across environments.
  • The SFTP task is particularly helpful with proxy capabilities and setup with environment variables.
  • The RestAPI task is something new that we have found helpful now.
  • The latest UpSert task has also been a great addition.
  • I thought it needed to improve the UpSert task to include delete capabilities but was informed it is present. Just might be useful to be more apparent to an infrequent user.
One task we use with every package is the Advanced Email task, although simple and used primarily for our monitoring of package success, it is helpful and simple to use. Only downside as with any product is it does require some maintenance and has had the occasional blip of an update breaking an existing functionality.
Data Source Connection (1)
100%
10.0
Connect to traditional data sources
100%
10.0
Data Transformations (2)
45%
4.5
Simple transformations
90%
9.0
Complex transformations
N/A
N/A
Data Modeling
N/A
N/A
Data Governance
N/A
N/A
  • Having to only license production and not our development laptops makes it possible.
  • Cost is always an impact, and Task Factory has kept the cost within reach for smaller environments like us.
None
  • We use the Advanced email and SMS Task to alert us with package results, Pass or Fail
  • Making great use of the Upsert Destination task, requiring far less development over previous methods used.
  • Most recently find the SharePoint Destination to be a useful and simple task to use.
  • Price
  • Product Features
The capabilities Task Factory provides help simplify and reduce time to develop our projects. This is a major decision factor to add Task Factory over using the built-in components. Ease of configuration of the tasks, and of course that a single task meets the need versus multiple components without the product.
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We have been using Task Factory to better standardize our ETL and to reduce the number of script tasks leveraged. It is primarily used for data flow and control flow tasks, although some connections are used as well. This is used as a standard, centralized tool within IT, along with other 3rd party SSIS tools.
  • Email notifications.
  • File management.
  • User defined settings for external package calls.
  • Better software update methodology.
Being able to easily call packages from other projects is the biggest win. Having a single process to handle all child calls is a big win over using the standard component for calls within a project, and some other mechanism (via SQL stored procedure calls and/or SQL agent calls) for packages not within the same project.
Data Source Connection (1)
80%
8.0
Connect to traditional data sources
80%
8.0
Data Transformations (2)
85%
8.5
Simple transformations
80%
8.0
Complex transformations
90%
9.0
Data Modeling
N/A
N/A
Data Governance
N/A
N/A
  • Faster development has reduced the amount of time it takes for some tasks.
  • Fewer script tasks make maintenance and administration easier.
COZYROC has a few more connectors, but Task Factory's focus on tasks is a better overall fit for us. ZappySys had some compelling features around web services which seemed a bit more robust, but that was not our primary interest at the time of purchase. Basically, all of these sets have similar features, but some are complementary. Depending on your ETL needs, more than one such product may be required.
  • File transfers to facilitate EDI processes (SFTP)
  • Salesforce integration with our data warehouse using Task Factory connectors
  • Enhanced e-mail functionality, used for error handling and end-user delivery
  • Performance using advanced lookup and caching
  • Product Features
  • Product Usability
  • Prior Experience with the Product
Product features was the biggest. The ability to execute packages across projects effectively was a large selling point. Lookup caching also has made a significant difference in our load times. These were the two major features that allowed us to greatly improve efficiency of our ETL processes, both from an overall time standpoint as well as modularization and re-runnability.
Yes
We are in the process of replacing Cozyroc with Task Factory. Essentially Task Factory has given us all of the components we required from Cozyroc, in addition to several more components that they do not currently provide. Cozyroc has a large number of connectors, but in my opinion, Task Factory has better control and data flow components. We do not need most of the Cozyroc connectors, but found immediate use for a number of the Task Factory components that did not have a parallel in Cozyroc.

We also reviewed Kingsway and Zappysys. Both also have complementary functionality. We may bring Zappysys into our ecosystem as well due primarily to their extensive web services and xml parsing capabilities.
I don't think we would change the evaluation process. The vendor provided support during our proof of concept, and provided full functionality of the tool. For a specialized software package like this, nothing beats kicking the tires in your own environment, and solving known issues as the proof of concept. We did not have a formal demo of Task Factory, which is something I would normally do for a product with a broader scope.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use Task Factory within our team. We have a need to ensure efficient ETL design to drive our high-performing data-centric application. Task Factory helps us reduce development time spent programming custom SSIS tasks, gives us components and tasks that are optimized to perform well in production, and a broad array of connections to various data platforms.
  • One-click Auditing Feature. Simply push a button, and all of your SSIS packages now have detailed auditing built-in, including the ability to watch it in real-time.
  • Wide variety of connections. If you need to connect to a common data source, Task factory will have what you need. No need to roll your own anymore.
  • The Upsert Component. Task Factory has a simple and FAST way to do an insert or update with new row data. It just works and works well.
  • SCD component could be a little more intuitive.
  • The help documents could be more detailed and current with what is actually released.
You should strongly consider Task Factory if you are a Microsoft Data platform shop. It really rounds out SSIS. If you don't know what SSIS is, then this is the wrong product for you.
Data Source Connection (1)
90%
9.0
Connect to traditional data sources
90%
9.0
Data Transformations (2)
80%
8.0
Simple transformations
90%
9.0
Complex transformations
70%
7.0
Data Modeling
N/A
N/A
Data Governance
N/A
N/A
  • The auditing part has been crucial to our team. We can realize errors and bugs so much faster. Which leads to a quicker resolution.
  • Now that we don't have to create our own connections, we can create more packages instead!
Task Factory is more than just components. It is more than just monitoring. It is an entire suite of tools for SSIS package development. And this is not a case of someone going wide but not going deep. Task Factory by Sentry One (formerly of Pragmatic Works) goes wide and deep. You are getting a complete package here for your packages.
Microsoft SQL Server, Azure DevOps (formerly VSTS), SAP BPC (Business Planning and Consolidation)
10
The people in our organization who use Task Factory are Extract, Transform, and Load (ETL) developers who use SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS) as their ETL tool. They represent all areas of our business. This is because the developers are not assigned to any one business function. Instead, they support the entire organization's business needs.
1
We only have one person in-house to support Task Factory on an on-going basis. In addition, this person does not spend more than a few hours a month in support of the product. We have a Database Administrator (DBA) who sets up and maintains the product. You will need a DBA to get Task Factory up and running on any of your servers. It is possible for a developer to install the SSIS components themselves but they will not be able to deploy the solution to a server until they are properly installed on the server.
  • Needing to connect to various data sources, Task Factor has Custom Data source components
  • Needing to quickly perform insert and update queries to our data set, Task Factory has a super fast upsert component.
  • Needing to properly process a slowly changing dimension, Task Factory has an excellent SCD component that is feature rich and works fast.
  • The upsert functionality was really surprising. We didn't think we would use it since we already have code that does it. However, their implementation was so much faster.
  • The SCD component really makes it easier to load dimensional data over what you get out of the box. Every step is marked and all options are available to you that you can think of.
  • There are many more components out there that we can use, specifically with loading from disparate data sources.
  • Task Factory is always coming up with new improvements and custom components, so we know there will be some changes in the future!
Task Factory has become a key product for our use of doing ETL work in SSIS. Their custom SSIS components allow us to work simply on the data engineering side of things. We can ignore the lower level work needed to connect to disparate data sources. This allows us to work faster and provide more value to the business.
April 28, 2020

Love Task Factory!

Steven Gockley, MBA, MCSA | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We are heavy SQL Server Integration Services shop. There are a number of instances where we were faced with hand-coding solutions that would take hours or days to implement, but with Task Factory we were able to do it in seconds. We have a large number of highly visible, customer-facing processes that depend on Task Factory, and it has been very reliable and easy to use.
  • Our first use case was integrating with our Partners' Secure FTP Sites. Task Factory did this seamlessly.
  • Our second use case involved Excel. We have multiple groups that use Excel to monitor their processes, and using the Excel refresh task made this very quick and simple.
  • Our third use case was for SMTP. The basic SMTP did not give us enough control out of the box that we needed. We send out E-mails on behalf of our partners using their SMTP servers, so being able to change those connections effortlessly using this task was a huge time saver.
  • Not sure. I have not run into an instance where their transform didn't provide what I needed more easily than other solutions.
We use Task Factory a lot for our report automation. We have several use cases where we send out thousands of reports on a schedule to certain groups of customers, and Task Factory allows us to easily get files and move them via SFTP, FTP, or Email very easily. We have used it in our data warehouse as well, but not as heavily.
Data Source Connection (1)
100%
10.0
Connect to traditional data sources
100%
10.0
Data Transformations (2)
90%
9.0
Simple transformations
90%
9.0
Complex transformations
90%
9.0
Data Modeling
N/A
N/A
Data Governance
N/A
N/A
  • Huge ROI. With the SFTP and Advanced SMTP it saved us weeks in changes and hard coding that we would have had to do and maintain. The cost of the license was recovered the first day we installed Task Factory.
Honestly, I had seen Task Factory being used in a previous shop, and when the need came up I went straight to them.
1
The only current users we have is the Data Engineers / DBA's which, currently is only 1 person. In the past we have had as many as 4 people using the product on the team but with Automation and due to the current climate we are down to just 1 person.
1
In the past we have had as many as 5 people that would support processes using TaskFactory but at the current time we are down to only 1 person to provide that ongoing maintenance and support. The good thing is that these components really don't need any maintenance or support.
  • Data Warehouse ETL
  • Report Automation
  • Simplify SSIS Automation for DB maintenance jobs
  • SSIS process for report delivery via thei Secure FTP and more robust Mail components
  • Unknown at this time. When we are looking at automation this is a tool we tend to explore first to see if they can accomplish what we need
We have used this tool since 2014 and it is rock solid. We have it embedded in a large number of jobs and processes to the point it is a core piece of our infrastructure.
No
  • Product Features
  • Product Usability
  • Vendor Reputation
For us, the most important factor in going with Task Factory was the amount of transformations it provides and the amount of time it has saved us from having to code that functionality in a Script object.
We would not change a thing. Task Factory has not only provided us with the functionality we initially purchased it for but has exceeded those initial needs with other benefits that we had no intention or thoughts that it may.
  • Implemented in-house
No
Change management was minimal
We where actually implementing new reports and a new data warehouse so we were lucky in a sense that there where no old habits to break, retro fitting, etc. It was simple to get up and running. We were able to get new processes up and running quickly and it just worked.
  • A few user issues
  • Licensing configuration
Overall it went smoothly. Had a couple of gotchas with licensing and upgrading but nothing that really stopped us.
Yes
For the few times we have had to reach out to them, they respond very quickly. There really has not been any extended downtime. They are great to work with. Compared to other vendors we have these guys are by far the best.
Overall, the best vendor we currently have on the data side of the house. No issues, issues are resolved very quickly and upgrades go without any issues.
Yes
It was a long time ago but not only was it taken care of very quickly there was even very good followup from them to insure it was still taken care of. Great group.
Honestly there is nothing that stands out. They have been great every time we had to work with them.
  • Secure FTP
  • Mail
  • Compression Task
  • have not ran into any that where overly difficult
Compared to some of the other transformations I have worked with, it really is pretty simple for the type of functionality you get.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Usage: We are using Task Factory inside the IT department to enhance the capabilities of SSIS (SQL Server Integration services).

Business problem: Your team can keep using SSIS and tackle data problems they could not resolve before (read from different sources without any code and do data upsert in one component).
  • Read from APIs without code.
  • Upset mechanism.
  • Can be longer to debug.
  • Need one license for dev servers.
Well suited:
  • When the capabilities of SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS) are not enough for you.
  • When you want to extract data from web sources without writing some code.
Not Well suited:
  • If you have separate servers for all your environments (that will cost you more money).
  • If your team does not know SSIS enough (the tool can be difficult to debug).
Data Source Connection (1)
70%
7.0
Connect to traditional data sources
70%
7.0
Data Transformations (2)
75%
7.5
Simple transformations
80%
8.0
Complex transformations
70%
7.0
Data Modeling
N/A
N/A
Data Governance
N/A
N/A
  • Can tackle data reads and writes without writing any code.
  • Can be difficult to debug (especially the upsert component).
  • Faster to develop features with SSIS
We wanted more ways to connect with other sources and Task Factory offer the best suited solution.

Task Factory was also easier to integrate with our actual code base and was cheaper than the alternative. We were very satisfied with our choice and we recommend Task Factory to anybody who wants to save code
Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations (Dynamics AX), Azure DevOps (formerly VSTS), Freshservice
8
They represent the IT department in our organization more specifically the following teams in the department:
- Integration Team (ex. building integrations between our separate systems)
- Business Intelligence Team (ex. building a data warehouse, reports and dashboards that use the data warehouse)
- Security Team (ex. building automation systems in our company for users )
3
To support Task Factory you need a good understanding of SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS). You need to be able to debug transformations. We also have the help of our system administrators to install the software on our virtual machines and to perform updates of the software on a regular basis
  • Create SSIS packages with less code
  • Gather data from API
  • Gather data from Sharepoint
  • Gather data from sharepoint
  • Gather data from Facebook
  • Gather data from other sources
We still have a lot of actual integrations that still use components from Task Factory and we continue to create transformations that use it. Also, we found new ways to use the components (ex. Facebook, Sharepoint)
No
  • Price
  • Product Features
One of our previous business intelligence architect were using the product in the past and warmly recommend the product to us. We validate the price against our budget and it was fitting!
Had more other options, at the time, our experience with SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS) was not as deep as now. So we found ways to create transformations without using the product. Also, our analysis contained only 1 product.
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