Is it faster to use 1 type of provider over the other? We are using SSIS (SQL Server 2005) to pull some data from Oracle and import it into SQL Server. It was my understanding that OLEDB is faster, because the connection is native, and the data isn't being run through any .NET code?
Is this correct?
That depends! From .NET code you would always prefer using the Oracle .NET provider to access a Oracle database. Recon you would want to use the .NET provider from SSIS as wel
OLEBD will work faster for sure.
But you will have to make a choice between Microsoft or Oracle driver for the oracle database. I recommend you to try both and decide which one offers you a better performance.
I've heard that oracle's drivers have improved quite a lot on ssis 2008 (writing performance was horrible).