Introduction Part 2
I have always viewed "social" movements on the Internet with somewhat of a mocking look. Think of a cross between Spock's eyebrow raise and the gleeful mocking smile and laugh that you crack when you see someone run a red light right into the waiting arms of the cop on the other side of the intersection. I lump many "fantastic things" into this category such as MySpace, Facebook, Blogs, etc. There is not enough to keep our quickly declining intelligences busy, so let us fill them with more useless things! "OMG you didn't say HI!!1! on my MySpace page! I h4t3 y0u!"
Lately, my titanium exterior has been softened towards Blogs (but only technical ones!). I began to use SSIS in extreme ways the day after RTM. My first project was to de-dupe 41m records of telco (Sprint) customer data. The data was horrendous and SSIS had fuzzy logic! Sounds like a perfect fit! The previous project owner had done it all in T-SQL. Yech! Certainly this wonderful new Microsoft technology can solve all our ills! What I learned on the next few weeks was an important lesson about SSIS that you all should know/learn. SSIS is a very powerful technology, but you have to use it correctly to be effective.
"Well, duh" you may say, but over the last ~2.5 years working with SSIS I've seen people use it in the worst ways EVER. This brings me to the motivation for this blog. I am here to slap some sense into y'all who are making the SSIS gods (and little babies) cry many many rivers of tears. When I started with SSIS there was little RELIABLE technical information for SSIS. Most of what was out there was inaccurate or speculative (even from Microsoft! I know, shocking). There are now several Blogs with some very good information, but there is so much that I have learned that isn't out there. I felt that it would benefit the community to get some of that information out to the unwashed masses.
The tips/lessons I have to post range from Mindless to MindNumbing and I will tell you up front what is difficult and what is simple. I will ATTEMPT to post at least once a week, but I cannot guarantee that regularity. I have a TON of stuff to get out there to start with, so there will most likely be a big burst of postings at the outset and then it will taper down a bit. Also, school will affect how often I post.
Hang on for this wild ride… Big one coming at you to start us off!