SSIS performance alternative

problem: SSIS performance and data transformation complexity

You’re a satisfied Microsoft developer, but the increasing complexity of your data integration needs is expanding beyond the limits of Microsoft SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS). You have to write too much complex code to transform your data. Some of your applications are not fast enough. You’re having trouble integrating diverse data sources. You’re aware of and may have even looked at other ETL / DI solutions, so you know that they would offer additional functionality but would cost you a lot more – especially in training and application maintenance. They may also cause too much change to your current IT infrastructure.

expressor solution: familiar tools, exceptional results

The expressor semantic data integration system enables your current development team to deliver enterprise-level ETL capabilities. The expressor graphical tools are built on familiar Microsoft applications and tools, including Internet Explorer, Visio, Excel and .Net. The expressor semantic data integration system is supported on Windows XP, Vista, and soon Windows 7. expressor offers full support for ODBC, providing connectivity to all Microsoft database products, including SQL Server. And expressor software is a member of the Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN).

benefits: turbocharge your etl

expressor offers breakthrough productivity and performance at a significant price / performance advantage:

• highest performance -- expressor’s ultra-fast parallel data processing engine can easily handle hundreds of thousands of records per second and process complex data transformations “on the fly.”
• powerful data mappings – expressor’s very rich set of data transformation capabilities combined with a powerful scripting language, expressor datascript, allow you to overcome many of the complexities and flexibility limitations encountered with Microsoft SSIS and other ETL tools.
• manage data integration complexity -- expressor’s semantic metadata repository maintains a dictionary of your source and semantically rationalized business definitions and lets you build reusable business and transformation rules that speed project development and lower your project maintenance costs.
• easy, vendor-neutral integration of diverse data sources – expressor’s smart semantics quickly correlates simple to highly complex hierarchical data from multiple and diverse sources to a set of common business definitions.
• affordable license and maintenance costs -- expressor offers a very simple and affordable usage-based pricing model that is designed for broad adoption of its semantic data integration system in medium and large size businesses.

American Tower turbocharges data warehousing application with expressor

American Tower operates thousands of communications sites for US wireless and broadcast operators. The company is a heavy user of Microsoft SQL Server and has adopted many Microsoft tools -- including SSIS. American Tower is satisfied with SSIS overall, but recently recognized that it could not meet the data loading or complex data transformation requirements for its data warehouse application. SSIS took several hours to load 200 GB of data, in part because it forced the database to execute stored procedures to transform the data before landing it.

American Tower began evaluating ETL / Data integration tools from other vendors, but its limited budget eliminated vendors whose products cost hundreds of thousands of dollars -- such as Informatica – and narrowed the field to the affordable expressor semantic data integration system. In a rigorous POC, expressor significantly reduced American Tower’s data loading times. expressor’s ultrafast parallel data processing engine and its flexible datascript scripting language enabled American Tower to perform the required complex data transformations in a single process.

Other factors that convinced American Tower to migrate its data warehouse application to expressor included:

• the ability of expressor’s smart semantics to create a common set of business definitions from disparate data sources and definitions
• the fact that expressor is built on an enterprise-wide metadata repository
• the fact that expressor’s tool set is built around Microsoft Office and .Net, which made it easy for the company to get up to speed and fit expressor into their existing IT environment.

American Tower’s experience shows that expressor is an excellent fit for any business seeking to upgrade to an enterprise-class, Microsoft-friendly ETL/DI solution for their growing data volumes and complex DI requirements.