Author:Andy Leonard

Christian, husband, dad, grandpa, Data Philosopher, Data Engineer; Azure Data Factory, Fabric Data Factory, and SSIS guy; and farmer. I was cloud before cloud was cool. :{> Twenty years of watching SSIS catalog drift, environment mismatches, and deployment chaos finally has a name: Data Integration Lifecycle Management. I build tools for it at DILM Suite. Start with SSIS Catalog Compare.

Deploying to the SSIS Catalog Changes the Protection Level

Posted on Updated on by Andy LeonardCategories:Data Engineering, Data Integration Patterns, SSIS, SSIS Catalog

I recently answered a question on the SQL Community Slack #ssis channel about SSIS and security. Let me begin by stating that SSIS security is complex, made up of many moving parts, and not trivial. If you struggle with SSIS security configuration, you are struggling with one of the harder parts of SSIS. Protection Level …
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Honored to be a Certified Microsoft Big Data Professional

Posted on Updated on by Andy LeonardCategories:Big Data, Data Engineering

I’m so excited and honored to be a Microsoft Certified Big Data Professional! I enjoyed the courses and learned a lot the past seven months. It was super cool to work with Frank La Vigne – co-host of the Data Driven podcast – on the capstone project. (Any time I get to work with Frank, it’s …
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Data Flow Buffer Size

Posted on Updated on by Andy LeonardCategories:Performance, SSIS

I started answering a question on SQL Community Slack’s #ssis channel and I realized this would be better served as a blog post. The question was about three SSIS Data Flow properties: DefaultBufferSize, Engine Thread and DefaultBufferMaxRows. I rarely change the EngineThreads property. DefaultBufferSize and DefaultBufferMaxRows are two ways of managing the size limits of a Data …
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Completed: Microsoft Big Data Professional Program Capstone Project

Posted on by Andy LeonardCategories:Analytics, Automation, Azure, Big Data, Certifications, Professional Development, Spark, SSIS

I’m excited to announce that I’ve completed – with help from my friend and brother and co-host of the Data Driven podcast, Frank La Vigne (Blog | @Tableteer) – the Microsoft Big Data Professional Program Capstone project! The capstone is the last course requirement (of 10 courses) to complete the Microsoft Professional Program in Big …
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Honored to Deliver Intelligent Data Integration – a PASS Summit 2018 Precon

Posted on Updated on by Andy LeonardCategories:Automation, Biml, Biml Frameworks, BimlExpress Metadata Framework, Catalog Reports, Data Integration Patterns, DILM, DILM Suite, Framework Browser, PASS Summit, Presentations, SSIS Catalog Browser, SSIS Frameworks

I’m honored to deliver my full-day precon, Intelligent Data Integration with SSIS, at the PASS Summit 2018! You can see a list of other precons at the PASS Summit 2018 Pre-Conference Sessions page. I refer to this group as “a bunch of really smart people… plus me!” Abstract What is Intelligent Data Integration? SSIS (SQL Server …
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Honored to Present Faster SSIS at SQL Saturday Albuquerque on Cinco de Mayo!

Posted on by Andy LeonardCategories:Data Integration Patterns, PASS, Presentations, SQL Saturday, SSIS, SSIS Design Patterns

I am honored to present Faster SSIS at SQL Saturday #720 – Albuquerque 5 May 2018! Abstract Ever wonder why SSIS runs so slow? Watch SSIS author Andy Leonard as he runs test loads using sample and real-world data and shows you how to tune SQL Server 2016 Integration Services (SSIS 2016) packages. We’ll start …
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Experience Matters

Posted on Updated on by Andy LeonardCategories:Consulting, Data Warehousing, Enterprise Data & Analytics, Experience, Leadership, Management

This is a picture of Kent Bradshaw, Microsoft Certified Data Scientist. Kent and I work together at Enterprise Data & Analytics delivering data engineering, business intelligence, and data-based solutions that help businesses turn their data into actionable information. We do not do this alone, we are surrounded by an excellent team that holds diverse skills, …
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The Recording for Introduction to Loading the Cloud with SSIS is Now Available

Posted on by Andy LeonardCategories:Azure, Data Integration Patterns, Enterprise Data & Analytics, Performance, SSIS, Webinars

The recording for the free webinar titled Introduction to Loading the Cloud with SSIS is now available (registration required). Abstract The cloud is coming, ready of not. In this session, presenter and author Andy Leonard discusses and demonstrates some patterns for loading cloud destinations using SSIS. For more information on data integration in the cloud, …
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My Learning Resources for SSIS

Posted on Updated on by Andy LeonardCategories:Automation, Biml, Data Integration Patterns, DILM, ETL Instrumentation, Presentations, SQL Saturday, SQL Server Community, SSIS, SSIS Best Practices, SSIS Catalog, SSIS Design Patterns, Training

People often ask me, “Andy, where can I learn SSIS or learn more about it?” Well, you’re at one such location – my blog! I’ve been blogging about SSIS for about 10 years as I type this. There’s a lot posts here about SSIS – that’s the good news. The bad news is: There’s a …
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