Chapter 7: Fill er UpUsing Integration Services for Populating Data Marts

To change and to improve two different things
— Anonymous

Overview

In the previous chapter, created two data marts on our relation database server. As we pointed out at the end of Chapter 6, these data marts are not much use to us or our decision makers until they contain useful data. Fortunately, SQL Server 2005 has a shiny new tool designed for just such a purpose. This tool is Integration Services.

Integration Services enables us to change the location of data by copying it from our OLTP databases and other locations in to the data mart. As its being copied, we can Also transform the data from the format required by the OLTP systems to the format Required by the OLAP systems we are creating. Those of you familiar with earlier Versions of SQL Server will find this ability to transform data as it is being copied from One location to another as taken a giant step forward with SQL Server 2005!