Data refers to a collection of organised information, usually the result of experience, observation or experiment, other information within a
computer system, or a set of premises. This may consist of numbers, words, or images, particularly as measurements or observations of a set
of variables. In computer science, data is anything in a form suitable for use with a computer. Data is often distinguished from programs.
A program is a set of instructions that detail a task for the computer to perform. In this sense, data is thus everything that is not program code.
In an alternate usage, binary files (which are not human-readable) are sometimes called "data", as distinguished from human-readable "text".
The total amount of digital data in 2007 was estimated to be 281 billion gigabytes.
Data Transformation Services, or DTS, is a set of objects and utilities to allow the automation of extract, transform and load operations
to or from a database. The objects are DTS packages and their components, and the utilities are called DTS tools. DTS is included with
Microsoft SQL Server, and is almost always used with SQL Server databases, although it can be used independently with other databases.
DTS allows data to be transformed and loaded from heterogeneous sources using OLE DB, ODBC, or text-only files, into any supported database.
DTS can also allow automation of data import or transformation on a scheduled basis, and can perform additional functions such as FTPing files
and executing external programs. In addition, DTS provides an alternative method of version control and backup for packages when used in
conjunction with a version control system, such as Microsoft Visual SourceSafe .
In SQL Server versions 6.5 and earlier, Database administrators (DBAs) used SQL Server Transfer Manager and Bulk Copy Program, included with
SQL Server, to transfer data. These tools had significant shortcomings, and many DBAs used third-party tools such as Data Junction to transfer
data more flexibly and easily. When SQL Server 7 was released, "Data Transformation Services" was packaged with it to replace all these tools.
SQL Server 2000 expanded DTS functionality in several ways. Many new types of tasks were made, including the ability to FTP files, move databases
or database components, and add messages into Microsoft Message Queue. DTS packages can be saved as a Visual Basic file in SQL Server 2000, and
this can be expanded to save into any COM-compliant language. Packages were also integrated into Windows 2000 security, DTS tools were made more
user-friendly, and tasks can accept input and output parameters.
DTS comes with all editions of SQL Server 7 and 2000, but was superseded by SQL Server Integration Services in the Microsoft SQL Server 2005 release.
Global Data packages:
The DTS package is the fundamental logical component of DTS; every DTS object is a child component of the package. Packages are used whenever
one modifies data using DTS. All the metadata about the data transformation is contained within the package. Packages can be saved directly in
a SQL Server, or can be saved in the Microsoft Repository or in COM files. SQL Server 2000 also allows a programmer to save packages in a Visual
Basic or other language file. (When stored to a VB file, the package is actually scripted -- that is, a VB script is executed to dynamically
create the package objects and its component objects.)
A package can contain any number of connection objects, but does not have to contain any. These allow the package to read data from any OLE
DB-compliant data source, and can be expanded to handle other sorts of data. The functionality of a package is organized into tasks and steps.
A DTS Task is a discrete set of functionalities executed as a single step in a DTS package. Each task defines a work item to be performed as
part of the data movement and data transformation process or as a job to be executed.
Data Transformation Services supplies a number of tasks that are part of the DTS object model and that can be accessed graphically through the
DTS Designer or accessed programmatically. These tasks, which can be configured individually, cover a wide variety of data copying, data
transformation and notification situations. For example, the following types of tasks represent some actions that you can perform by using DTS:
executing a single SQL statement, sending an email, and transferring a file with FTP.
A step within a DTS package describes the order in which tasks are run and the precedence constraints that describe what to do in the case of
failure. These steps can be executed sequentially or in parallel.
Packages can also contain global variables which can be used throughout the package. SQL Server 2000 allows input and output parameters for
tasks, greatly expanding the usefulness of global variables. DTS packages can be edited, password protected, scheduled for execution, and
retrieved by version.
Relative sites:
Mobile (Cell) Phones,
Mobile phone features,
Cell Phone Usage,
Cell Phone Business Models,
History of Cell Phones, 3G,
History of the Telephone,
History of the Telephone Controversy Debate and Patents
Mobile Networks in Europe
Mobile Operators in the Americas
Mobile Operators in Asia
Mobile Operators in Middle East and Africa
World Mobile Networks
Source References and additional reading:
- American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language.
- Webopedia. Retrieved on 2007-03-19.
- OpenBSD Manual Pages (2004-12-04).
- Paul, Ryan (March 12, 2008). "Study: amount of digital info > global storage capacity", Ars Technica.
- Wikipedia.org, the free encyclopedia
