CONS:
This is a lab guide. Every chapter introduces a new problem to solve and demonstrates a way to solve it. Concepts are not described in much detail. Basically it's a "do this, then do this, then shazam! It Worked! Next topic..." type of book. The reader can't get lost. It is filled with many, many screen shots and redundant text. Even in the second to last chapter, after going thru the process of opening a DTS package about 50 times, the author still burns an inch and a half of paper to explain how to open a DTS package. If I made any mistakes it was due to missing a step as I try to breeze past text I've already read many, many times before. In the author's defense, I think a reader would be able to jump into any chapter without reading any introductory information. This still makes the book about twice as thick as it could be.

Read the back cover to learn exactly what is covered. In the end, you'll know how to do these things and have a good framework to continue building your own data movement application. However your knowledge will be pretty shallow. I'm now going to buy a book that explains WHY packages should be designed one way vs. another.

CONCLUSION:
I'm giving this book four stars because it's well written and true to its title. If the redundant text and supurflueus pictures were removed that make it so think, I'd have given it five. It's a great book for beginners.