In March 2012 I published SSDT - What's in a name? where I lamented the mistakes that Microsoft made in the naming of SQL Server Data Tools.
…official documentation stating that SSDT includes all the stuff for building SSIS/SSAS/SSRS solutions (this is confirmed in the installer, remember) yet someone from Microsoft tells him "SSDT doesn't include any BIDs components".
I have been close to this for a long time (all the way through the CTPs) so I can kind of understand where the confusion stems from. To my understanding SSDT was originally the name of the database dev stuff but eventually that got expanded to include all of the dev tools - I guess not everyone in Microsoft got the memo.
Since then I’ve seen lots of questions pertaining to SSIS/SSAS/SSRS being posted on the SSDT forum on MSDN which, frankly, is the wrong place for them.
With the release of the SSIS/SSAS/SSRS project templates for Visual Studio 2012 Microsoft have attempted to clear up the confusion. Matt Masson from the SSIS product team attempts to explain in his usual jovial way:
note that the component was renamed – we added “Business Intelligence” to the end to distinguish it from the SQL Server Data Tools (Juneau). We now refer to it as SSDTBI, rather than “SSDT, no, not that one, the other one – you know, the one that comes with the SQL installation media, not the one you download”.
http://www.mattmasson.com/2013/04/installing-ssis-for-visual-studio-2012/
So to clarify, its now:
- SSDT – for building databases
- SSDTBI – for building SSIS/SSAS/SSRS solutions
Got it? Good!
That may all seem slightly confusing but its a darn sight clearer than it was SQL Server 2012 was released over a year ago. And if nothing else you have to be amused with Microsoft’s penchant for ever-lengthening acronyms, I can’t recall ever seeing a six-letter-acronym before, can you?