cooper to logan - expressor software's semantic data integration blog

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February 23, 2010

ten tips for selecting a data integration tool

As the economy begins to recover and more organizations are looking to increase their IT investment - we thought it would be helpful to highlight the following 'ten tips for selecting a data integrtion tool,' which were first published by Dr. David Waddington in his white paper entitled, "Data Integration: Total Cost of Ownership Really Matters."

1. Implement and enforce strong data governance across your organization so that the definitions, standards, ownership, location and history (audit trail) of key enterprise data is understood.


2. Implement a data quality program as an integral part of your data governance. This is not a once-off initiative.


3. Select data integration tools that fully support the governance organization and provide tracking, audit trail, alerts and other similar key performance parameters to allow effective management of the process.


4. Start small and grow. Don't be tempted to undertake a data integration or migration project using a 'big bang' approach.


5. Choose a data integration tool that is designed for purpose and avoid tools that are composed of multiple (bolted together) and not necessarily well-integrated components or modules.


6. Select tools that support a strong business-oriented focus for data integration. Many of today's tools are complex, sophisticated and difficult to learn, requiring specialists.


7. Select a tool that will offer the scalability needed to encompass your future business needs.


8. Seek vendors that can offer role-based implementation where (as described above) tasks currently undertaken by developers can be shared more effectively among your current experienced business staff.


9. Steer clear of products that require you to hard code or embed business logic into the internals of the tool.


10. Remember that total cost of ownership is what really matters. Not just the negotiation of license costs, but all cost aspects both now and in the future of your integration strategy.

Click here to download the entire paper and make sure to explore the wealth of information available for downloading without registration in our document center.

Posted by expressor software at 8:45 AM | Comments (0)

February 15, 2010

expressor

expressor data integration expert Hugo Sheng examines the architecture and technology behind expressor's smart semantics, lifecycle management, throughput and role-based development.

http://www.expressor-software.com/deep-dive.htm

Posted by expressor software at 6:00 PM | Comments (0)

February 10, 2010

improving your data integration performance for Microsoft SQL Server

On March 11, expressor will be sponsoring a webinar on this topic with guest speaker Andy Leonard, an accomplished architect, SQL Server database and Integration Services developer, SQL Server MVP, PASS Regional Mentor, and engineer. Andy will be talking about known product complexities in SSIS and how to work around them. Following his talk will be a presentation by Michael Ruland, our director of field engineering, on how expressor can complement SSIS to enable SQL Server customers to build high-performance, complex data integration applications at an affordable cost.

Register now!

Posted by expressor software at 6:00 PM | Comments (0)

February 5, 2010

SQLSaturday #34 (Boston) recap

expressor co-sponsored this event last Saturday, Jan 30, at the Microsoft office in Waltham, MA.

This training event was very well organized and there were at least 300 attendees at the venue during the day. We had a great reception at our exhibitor booth and were able to interact with over 100 attendees at our booth.

Many of the attendees we talked to are already using or planning to use SSIS, which confirms that the SQL Server community is increasingly embracing ETL technology. SSIS folks generally like the product but are very much aware of the limitations it has. We handed out a survey at this event were we asked booth visitors to answer a few questions aimed at finding out common pain points SSIS users have. Here is what they had to say:

• migrating SSIS packages from development, through testing, into production is very painful


• achieving good SSIS performance can be a difficult task and often requires serious performance tuning


• it is difficult to handle complex transformations such as multi-step business rules, complex multi-joins, multi-level aggregations, etc


• it is difficult to integrate non-Microsoft data sources (e.g. Oracle)

These survey results are very much in line with what we are hearing from our SSIS customers and sales prospects.

During lunch time, Michael Ruland, our director of field engineering, gave another great 45 minute technical overview presentation, which was well attended and received by the audience. Michael's presentation can be viewed by clicking here.

In summary, this was another great SQLSaturday event for us - and it is good to be amidst a vibrant SQL Server community that is very upbeat about the SQL Server product. As it regards expressor, we have a great opportunity to complement SSIS in SQL Server ETL projects where customers need enterprise-class performance, lifecycle management, and heterogeneous data integration capabilities.

On to the next SQLSaturday event in mid March.

Michael Waclawiczek, VP Marketing

Posted by expressor software at 5:45 PM | Comments (0)