Updating data from several different sources

Question

I'm in the process of setting up a database with customer information. The database will handle customer data (customer id, address, phonenr etc.) as well as some basic information about which kind of advertisement a specific customer has been subjected to, and how they reacted to it.

The data will be maintained both from a central data-warehouse, but additional information about customers and the advertisement will also be updated from other sources. For example, if an external advertisement agency runs a campaign, I want them to be able to feed back data about OptOuts, e-mail bounces etc. I guess what I need is an API which can be easily handed out to any number of agencies.

My first thought was to set up a web service API for all external sources, but since we'll probably be talking large amounts of data (millions of records per batch) I'm not sure a web service is the best option.

So my question is, what's the best practice here? I need a solution simple enough for advertisement agencies (likely with moderately skilled IT-people) to make use of. Simplicity is of the essence – by which I mean “simplicity over performance” in this case. If the set up gets too complex, it won't work.

The system will very likely be based on Microsoft technology.

Any suggestions?

Answer 1

The process you're describing is commonly referred to as Data Integration using ETL processes. ETL stands for Extract-Transform-Load. The idea is to build up your central data warehouse by extracting information from a lot of different data-sources, transform it and then load it into your data warehouse.

A variety of (also graphical) tools exist to implement such a process. Since you said you'll probably running a Microsoft stack, I suggest having a look at Sql Server Integration Services (SSIS).

Regarding your suggestion to implement integration using a web-service, I don't think that's a good idea too. Similarily, I don't think shifting the burden of data integration to your customers is a good idea either. You should agree with your customers on some form of a data exchange format, it could be as simple as a CSV file, or XML, Excel sheets, Access databases, use whatever suits your needs.

Any modern ETL tool like SSIS is capable of working with those different data sources.