The Benefits of Integration

We now have designed two data mart structures to serve as the source for Analysis Services cubes. You might have noticed, however, if you look into either of these data marts, that they are completely empty. There is not much business intelligence to be gleaned from an empty data mart!

We need to get data into our data marts. This is done using Integration Services. In the next chapter, we look at the many and varied capabilities of Integration Services. We also develop and utilize some working Integration Services packages to populate our all-too-empty data marts, making them much more useful.