SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS) has come a long way. In the early days of SQL Server, the only data transfer facilities available were BCP and SQL Server Transfer Manager. The former is a useful command-line utility still with us today, while the latter was superseded in SQL Server 7.0 by Data Transformation Services (DTS)
While DTS was a definite improvement, it had shortcomings that were difficult to work around. Complex DTS packages were difficult to work with, control flow was tied together with data flow and redeployment was a difficult experience.
In SQL Server 2005, Microsoft released the first version of the Integration Services we know and love today. Seven years on, with SQL Server 2012, SSIS has taken yet another jump forward and is arguably the best Extract, Transform and Load (ETL) tool available from a database vendor.
The SQL Server Data Tools (SST) interface has some shiny new enhancements, which are noticeable when developing packages...