SQL Server Integration Services - still kicking after all these years
Updated November 24, 2025

SQL Server Integration Services - still kicking after all these years

Anonymous | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with SQL Server Integration Services

Data Engineering and integration. Move data between different on-premise servers no matter the platform. Since we have an Enterprise Agreement with Microsoft, it does not cost any extra to use SQL Server Integration Services unlike Azure Data Factory or Informatica. Wherever data transfer is involved, it is the de-facto standard in our company.

Pros

  • Easily connects to source and destination systems
  • GUI interface - so minimal learning curve
  • Script task feature enables extensibility and access to .NET framework

Cons

  • Zero enhancements by Microsoft in a very long time
  • Has fewer connectors compared to Power BI or ADF
  • Not ideal for handling huge datasets
  • Saved tons of money over the years by not having to go out and buy another licensed product. Since we have been using it for 15 years, that would be approximately 15 times $25K
  • Saved a lot of development hours due to the minimal learning curve, even our interns are able to use it thereby freeing time for higher skilled employees to work on more complex problems
  • A big user community helps speed up trouble-shooting and support
Very user friendly interface, however the GUI has has zero improvements for a very long time. So, it has not kept up with similar tools and suffers in comparison.
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

Do you think SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS) delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS)'s feature set?

Yes

Did SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS) live up to sales and marketing promises?

I wasn't involved with the selection/purchase process

Did implementation of SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS) go as expected?

I wasn't involved with the implementation phase

Would you buy SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS) again?

Yes

Ideal if the company is already a Microsoft shop, so chances are that it is free with SQL Server. Also, good for moving data between on premise systems.

Not ideal for moving data to the cloud. No functionality out of the box to work with REST APIs. Stable product but definitely not the future

SSIS Feature Ratings

6.0
Connect to traditional data sources
8
Connecto to Big Data and NoSQL
4
7.0
Simple transformations
10
Complex transformations
4
6.3
Business rules and workflow
5
Collaboration
8
Testing and debugging
6
3.0
Integration with data quality tools
3
Integration with MDM tools
3

Using SQL Server Integration Services

8 - IT teams supporting Operations, Finance & Analytics
2 - Minimum 2 years hands-on experience with SSIS
Similar experience with the SQL language
Team with elevated permissions to database and job servers
  • Data movement for on-premises data warehouse jobs
  • Specific use cases to send alerts based on certain data related activity
  • Run within Azure data factory for movement from on-premises to cloud
  • Alerting based on certain data activities
  • Job that reads from a JSON and writes to a Postgres SQL database
  • Generate excel/csv files without user intervention as an end-product of an ETL job
  • Move toward the cloud - move from sql agent to ADF triggers
  • Make greater use of the script task to write more C# code
  • Try to call Machine Learning Python jobs
Since we have an enterprise license, SSIS is basically free for us and would be a no-brainer to renew.

Evaluating SSIS and Competitors

  • Integration with Other Systems
  • Ease of Use
Ease of use and the fact that SQL skills/familiarity with other Microsoft products easily translated over
Cloud/JSON/APIs were not factors back then. Would take those into consideration now.

SSIS Implementation

It was very easy for our SQL Server DBA team
  • Implemented in-house
Change management was a small part of the implementation and was well-handled
  • No issues but questions around single server or a cluster
  • Early challenges around dealing with large datasets - was mitigated by tuning the database and the statements
  • Very metadata sensitive - a small change in data type will generate warnings which can be annoying
  • Does not handle schema drift at all (like ADF)

SSIS Support

Never contacted support
ProsCons
None
None
No, seemed like a stable product
Never had to contact them for support

Using SSIS

ProsCons
Like to use
Relatively simple
Easy to use
Technical support not required
Consistent
Quick to learn
Convenient
Feel confident using
Familiar
None
  • reading and writing to databases
  • minimal coding experience required for basic data movement tasks
  • Works seamlessly with SQL server
  • Script task - need programming experience
  • Limited number of connector compared to ADF & Apache Airflow
  • No new features added in a few years - so no improvement in challenging tasks such as reading JSON

Comments

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