Summary

In this chapter, you were introduced to the SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS) architecture and some of the different elements you'll be dealing with in SSIS. Tasks are individual units of work that are chained together with precedence constraints. Packages are executable programs in SSIS that are a collection of tasks. Lastly, transformations are the data flow items that change the data to the form you request, such as sorting the data.

In Chapter 2, you'll study some of the wizards you have at your disposal to expedite tasks in SSIS, and in Chapter 3, you'll dive deeper into the various SSIS tasks.