Item: SolarWinds Task Factory
Rating: 9
Author: Frank Coulter

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Task Factory is implemented by our database development and BI teams for use in supporting ETL requests from all departments within the organization. Task Factory has streamlined the process of loading data from many disparate data sources including flat files, Excel, XML, other database and cloud platforms. What could take many hours to write in SQL or to derive in native Microsoft SSIS components now takes as little as a few minutes to implement with Task Factory.

Pros and Cons

The single most beneficial component to Task Factory is the Upsert component. If you're familiar with writing MERGE statements in T-SQL, you'll appreciate the Upsert component. Drag the component into your Data Flow and a few clicks later you have a MERGE without the code complexities.
Where some native SSIS components leave you wanting more, Task Factory extends on many of these components as well as support for data sources not native to SSIS components.
The number of extra components that come in the Task Factory tool kit will expand your tool belt to do just about anything you need or want to accomplish in SSIS.

Limited to only running on a licensed server or in BIDS. We have development servers that require licensing as well, but I've had to get creative to be able to execute packages against non-licensed servers.
Wish the logging was more detailed when components error.
Not alerted when a new version is available.

Return on Investment

Task factory has saved our company thousands of dollars in development time.
If money is no concern then licensing your Task Factory for all SQL Servers in your environment is the way to go. However, you could operate in an environment that has a dedicated SSIS bus that manages all packages on all servers. In that architecture, your single license will be sufficient.
We recently retired a legacy system and moved the data to Salesforce. We now use task factory to support building our data warehouse from a replicated copy of Salesforce data. The tools allow for simple and quick additions to an ever changing Salesforce and warehouse environments.

Alternatives Considered

I've not found too many tools to bolt onto SSIS that encompass what you get with Task Factory. I have used some Enterprise ETL tools like Dell's Boomi, but did not find it to be very intuitive. Task Factory does not leave you guessing how to use its components. Additionally, their support is very responsive and helpful.

Other Software Used

Boomi, SQL Sentry, Bamboo

Likelihood to Recommend

The single most used component in our Task Factory toolbelt is the Upsert component. The time this component has saved our developers alone paid for the product in the first few months. If you've ever attempted to use the native SSIS components to do upserts, or gone the route of writing your own upsert/merge statements, you'll appreciate this component. Another component that helps in the debugging stage is the Terminator Destination component. This component allows you to test your source inside a Data Flow without the need to having a destination.
We have had our challenges with the Salesforce connection. It does not seem to process as efficiently as we'd like.

Task Factory Review

Overall Satisfaction with Task Factory