in terms of functionality, are there major differences between the two?

At a high level they're very similar because they both have the high performance data pipeline. AlthoughI don't know as much about the architecture of INFA's Mappings as I do to SSIS data-flows(INFA Mappings are analogous to SSIS data-flows). There are of course quite a few differences in functionality. For example INFA doesn't have fuzzy logic transforms like SSIS does (as far as I know anyway) What SSIS has that INFA doesn't have is all the other tasks that you get in the control-flow. INFA has afew of them (e.g. Execute SQL) but nowhere near as many and (in my opinion) its not as ridiculously simple to get them into the workflow as it is with SSIS. Thought its not too difficult. Alot of "other" stuff that you may want to do with INFA has to be driven by the command-line. What INFA does have that SSIS doesn't is a powerful metadata repository that captures all of your execution history. INFA's repository architecture is both a good thing and a bad thing IMO. If you want me to elaborate then just say so. INFA also does reuse of Mappings alot better than SSIS does with data-flows. MuchMUCH more information aboutSSIS -vs- INFA here: http://www.microsoft.com/sql/technologies/integration/conchango.mspx -Jamie

The main difference for many... $$$ If you own SQL Server... SSIS is free!

TGnat wrote:The main difference for many... $$$ If you own SQL Server... SSIS is free!uh...i already knew this. that's why i said "in terms of functionality".

Jamie Thomson wrote:Much MUCH more information about SSIS -vs- INFA here: http://www.microsoft.com/sql/technologies/integration/conchango.mspx -Jamiethanks jamie!

Please check this post 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