Datasheet

Integration Services

SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS) is Microsoft’s new enterprise class data Extract, Transform, and

Load (ETL) tool. SSIS is a completely new product built from the ashes of SQL Server 2000’s Data

Transformation Services (DTS). SSIS offers a much richer feature set and the ability to create much more

powerful and flexible data transformations than its predecessor. This huge improvement, however, is

not without a cost. SSIS is a fairly complex tool and offers a completely different design paradigm than

DTS. Database administrators adept at the former tool are very often intimidated and frustrated by the

new SSIS. Their biggest mistake is in thinking that Integration Services would just be an upgrade of Data

Transformation Services. As stated previously, this simply isn’t the case. More research, preparation, and

training will be crucial to effectively utilizing SSIS. For an introductory look at SSIS, see Chapter 13.

For a very thorough discussion of this new feature of SQL Server 2005, read the excellent book,

Professional SQL Server 2005 Integration Services (Indianapolis: Wiley, 2006).

Notification Services

Notification Services is used to build and deploy applications that support the generation and sending

of data-driven notifications. Notification Services’ applications provide the mechanism for subscribers to

create a subscription for a specific event, which could be a database, file system, or some other program-

matic event. The notification can take the form of an email or other custom delivery methods. For more

information on Notification Services, see Chapter 14.

Service Broker

Service Broker provides the framework and services to enable the creation of asynchronous, loosely cou-

pled applications. Service Broker implements a Service Orientated Architecture (SOA) in the data tier. It

provides more controlled transaction-based communications than traditionally available in other SOA

implementations such as Microsoft Message Queuing (MSMQ). Service Broker allows the developer to cre-

ate database applications that focus on a particular task and allows the asynchronous communication with

other applications that perform related (yet disconnected) tasks. For more information, see Chapter 15.

Data Tier Web Services

SQL Server 2005 provides support for creating and publishing data tier objects via HTTP without the use

of an Internet Information Services (IIS) server. SQL Server 2005 can listen and respond to an HTTP port

allowing developers to create applications that interact with a database across the Internet or through a

firewall by using a Web service. For more information, see Chapter 7.

Replication Services

SQL Server 2005 Replication Services provides the ability to automate and schedule the copying and dis-

tribution of data and database objects from one database or server to another, while ensuring data

integrity and consistency. Replication has been enhanced in SQL Server 2005 to include true Peer-to-Peer

replication, replication over HTTP, the ability to replicate schema changes, and, very interestingly, the

ability to configure an Oracle server as a replication publisher.

Chapter 1

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