My primary ETL background is SSIS and DTS before that. So I'm a big fan of using it to shunt complex data sets around, including dreaded VB.NET transformations.

I've had cases when trying to get data from DB2 and other non-MS sources in which I just couldn't get SSIS to work, so having played with Talend decided to try it in anger.

It opened the DB2 system straight up, was able to reference tables and data and when told to fire them into a SQL system (to make analysis easier & faster for me), offered to create SQL compliant tables on the fly!

It's a clunky interface, but once adjusted, it's very powerful. I've recommended it for other non-MS scenarios as a powerful tool. The range of native connectors really does it for me, something that for once SSIS needs to catch up with.

SSIS really needs native DB2 and SAP application connectors.