Hi Gurus I have been asked to do a comparative study between SSIS and informatica. I have found some points but not in depth. I am looking for more details but if you can help me sharing your in depth knowledge, will be great! Thanks for help Regards Utsav Verma

you can reference the white paper aobut this topic Conchango Describes How SQL Server 2005 Integration Services Compares with Informaticaat websitehttp://www.microsoft.com/sqlserver/2005/en/us/white-papers.aspx

What kind of comparison are you trying to do? Unless you can come up with a clear context and scope, it could take you months to complete such comparison. I have worked with both tools and would be gald to give you some insights in particular areas of your interest.

Hey Rafael,I am working on a comparative analysis between Informatica and SSIS 2005/2008, and also building a best practices guide on SSIS(Development- for developers, Deployment , Security & Supportability - for support teams).I would really appreciate if you can provide meanswers tothe following -Based on your experiences- 1. When should I use SSIS vs. Informatica?2. Best SSIS package Security recommendation 3. Implementation strategies for centralization of SSIS packages -File System or SQL ServerThanks in advance.

with which parameter r u want to compare. I have some of the parameter may help you regarding comparison1.Product Supplier InformationAffordability of Product Price (Catalogue Price)Affordability of Product Maintenance FeeMarket Perceived Product MaturityAvailability & Access to Training Programme by VendorPresence of helpdesk / support centres facilities across the globeFinancial Strength of the CompanyNumber of installation sites (stability of the product)Product Supplier effectiveness on providing support for all new release along with old releaseFormalized training sessions and presentations on upgrades, migrations and new products2.CompatibilityAbility to connect to most of databases as sourceXML sources, working with XML files etc,XML TargetAbility to connect to most of databases as targetCompatibility with any O/S (e.g. Windows, Unix, Linux)3.SecurityProvide robust Authorization & Authentication layersSupports Folder Level Security4.Administration & MaintenanceReadily Available Troubleshooting guides and WizardsSuitability for Onsite / Offshore EnvironmentData Quality HandlingNominal Learning CurveEase of administration and maintenanceEase of Installation & ConfigurationQuality of Available documentation (e.g. manuals - pdfs, docs, ppts etc)Quality of On-line help facility (e.g. Help File within the Tool, redirect to Product Supplier Internet Website etc.)5.ArchitectureMultiple Source Access(Relational - RDBMS/Flat Files - .txt, .dat/Legacy - VSAM)GUI Inteface for design and developmentConnectivity to Sources/Targets via Connectors (ERP, SAP, Oracle Apps, Siebel CRM, PS EPM)Direct Executable Code (without much of manual configuration, administration and scripting)Speed of Development - Robust Architecture and Integration to increase the productivityNo need for knowledge of proprietary Language for developmentInbuilt support for external procedure callsSupport RT (Real Time) / NRT(Near Real Time) data needsSlowly Changing DimensionsTool Integration with other Tools (Data Cleansing, Data Transformations, BI etc)6.PerformanceInbuilt functionality for Parallel ProcessingAbility to handle volumes of dataFast processing Features (e.g.Bulk Loading, Sort prior to load etc)Incremental cost for additional performance7. SchedulingInbuilt ETL Jobs/Sessions Scheduling CapabilitySupports Time-based schedulingSupports Event-based scheduling8.MetadataMetadata based on Robust Centralized RepositoryTightly aligned with the Industry Open Metadata Standards (CWM)Support for multiple languagesInbuilt functionality for Version controlMetadata Bridge for 2rd party accessImport of metadata from data modeling tool (e.g ERWin, Sybase PowerDesigner, Oracle Designer, Embarcadero ER/Studio etc)9.ProductivityProvide GUI Based Designing (with easy access to different functional components)Involves Minimal ProgrammingProvides Step through and Easy to use Debugging functionalityReusability (User defined transforms, reuasbility of same transform)10.Error HandingCustomizable error routineUser definable error/audit log locationsProvision to do Recovery from point of failureProvision to do Rollback/commit - unit of workUser definable error handling(Al2/Report errors)11.MiscellaneousStrength of the Developer Community (e.g. DEVNET portal)Availability of Case Studies, Best PracticesAvailability of Skill Set BasePosition of Tool in Gartner Magic QuadrantMetaGroup Rating of the ETL ToolDevelopment TimePlease mark the post as answered if it answers your question

Comparison based on the following criteria...-->Security-->Administration & Maintenance-->Performance-->Productivity-->Product Maturity--> Compliance requirementsif any..Thanks in advance.

as you probably already know, informatica is a lot more mature than ssis...but it also costs a lot more money. based on what i've been hearing in the field is that ssis is attractive to some informatica etl shops because of the huge difference in price. obviously, companies are looking to save money in this economic environment...which gives ssis built-in cost advantage over informatica. i think a better question would be: is ssis mature enough for your needs or your client's needs? obviously, only someone with ample experience using both tools can answer that question with any authority. i don't work for microsoft, but i know for a fact that the sql server BI stack is rapidly gaining market share (and credibility) in the global BI implementation arena. hthDuane Douglas, MCAD, MCITP | http://www.ssisbi.com | Please mark the post(s) that answered your question.

you can reference the white paper aobut this topic Conchango Describes How SQL Server 2005 Integration Services Compares with Informaticaat websitehttp://www.microsoft.com/sqlserver/2005/en/us/white-papers.aspx Note that that paper is now very old asI wrote it 4 years ago. Having said that I think most of the information is still relevant (although I haven't been near Informatica in the intervening period).http://sqlblog.com/blogs/jamie_thomson/ | http://jamiethomson.spaces.live.com/ | @jamiet

If you are looking for points on Informatica as against SSIS http://free-informatica-tutorials.blogspot.com should be a great place to look into.As on a personal front I go with one of the opinions earlier raised.If SSIS can satisfy your client expectation go for it,mainly for a money you save over Informatica.But keep in mind that Informatica is indeed a far more advanced ETL solution when compared to SSIS

I love SSIS and think that can get most Data integration work done.Some of the weak points you may find in SSIS when comparing to Informatica may be:* High availability and failover* Metadata repository* Scheduling (infa has a built-in)* Server base Architecture* Data quality (in INFA that adds even more $$$)I still think that many of the whistles and bells you pay for INFA are not even worth or usable in most scenarios, and in some case those additional capabilities has to be paid separately.This is purely my opinion are based in my own working experience in both tools.Rafael Salas | Dont forget to mark the post(s) that answered your question http://rafael-salas.blogspot.com/

Perhaps a little late but for my 2c, architecturally Informatica is a true client/server ETL solution, meaning you can nicely isolate the ETL as an application separate from the underlying databases.SSIS has a bit of an identity problem in that it appears to be architected and built to be a client/server ETL solution but if you try to use it as such you are in for a lot of difficulty and performance issues. Limitations such lack of bulk update destination, too few data transformation functions an inability to define your own for use in the GUI mean that you find yourself generally resorting to script and doing most of the work as control flows rather than data flows (in true ETL tools it is usually the opposite). SSIS in operation tends to become more ELT like Oracle Warehouse Builder in that you end up relying of stored procedures, cross database queries (e.g. for MERGE) and the like thus coupling closely to the database. In its current form, SSIS pretty much ends up being a code sequencer (i.e. run this code, then this code then that code) whereas with Informatica you can implement most ETL tasks without having to write any code.Use SSIS if you have SQL Server and are just looking for a toy for your .NET guys to play with. Informatica (and DataStage for that matter) are ridiculously priced for simple ETL work but if you are looking for a strategic tool that can take care of all data movement (including application integration, SOA, distributed transactions etc uses) then those tools are a much better choice for building an enterprise data integration platform.

The conclusion in that white paper tells one nothing: "Which is the better or more relevant product suite is highly dependent on the particular nuances of individual project requirements, and would be beyond the scope of this document." Not even something like this perhaps..? The higher your budget, the greater the likelihood of Informatica being your tool of choice (for systems that process more than X GB of data per day) LaCie drives. Failing when you need them most."La" meaning "Terrible", "Cie" meaning "customer service"

Here is a blogpost of someone who workt with both products: http://denglishbi.wordpress.com/2010/06/12/informatica-powercenter-vs-integration-services-ssis-comparison/ JoostPlease mark the post as answered if it answers your question | My SSIS Blog: http://microsoft-ssis.blogspot.com

Here is very useful post about SSIS vs Informatica PowerCenter http://www.bidn.com/forums/microsoft-business-intelligence/integration-services/515/ssis-vs-informatica SSIS-Tutorials-FAQs | Convert DTS to SSIS | Document SSIS | SSIS Tasks | Real-time SSIS Monitoring

The conclusion in that white paper tells one nothing: "Which is the better or more relevant product suite is highly dependent on the particular nuances of individual project requirements, and would be beyond the scope of this document." Not even something like this perhaps..? The higher your budget, the greater the likelihood of Informatica being your tool of choice (for systems that process more than X GB of data per day) LaCie drives. Failing when you need them most."La" meaning "Terrible", "Cie" meaning "customer service" Our aim with that whitepaper was not to state which tool was best, it was to provide a comparison; that is stated quite clearly on the first page. Nor was the aim to provide a recommendation.http://sqlblog.com/blogs/jamie_thomson/ | @jamiet | About me