SAS analytics platform adds native support for AWS, GCP

SAS on Tuesday unveiled cloud-indigenous help for its analytics system in AWS and Google Cloud.

SAS prospects who shop their knowledge in AWS or Google Cloud will now be ready to do the job with knowledge where by it really is housed relatively than have to extract, change and load it into SAS for transformation and examination and then return it to their cloud knowledge warehouse. Previously, SAS enabled prospects to shop their knowledge in AWS and Google Cloud, but the knowledge had to be sent back again and forth between environments for use.

The new integrations had been discovered for the duration of the keynote address at SAS World Forum, the vendor’s virtual person conference.

SAS, started in 1976 when it was component of North Carolina Condition College and based mostly in Cary, N.C., has an present close partnership with Microsoft beneath which Microsoft is the favored cloud company for SAS’ analytics merchandise and features a go-to-marketplace approach.

The partnership, discovered in June 2020 just prior to that year’s World Forum, even so, is not unique and SAS supports customers’ dreams to shop knowledge in their location of decision, whether that’s a cloud knowledge warehouse, on premises or a hybrid of the two. In addition to the indigenous integrations with Azure, AWS and Google Cloud, an additional with Purple Hat OpenShift is beneath growth and envisioned to be prepared in drop 2021.

Each and every of the new cloud-indigenous integrations is as seamless as SAS’ integration with Microsoft, in accordance to Jay Upchurch, government vice president and CIO of SAS.

“Our program is cloud agnostic,” he stated for the duration of an interview. “We want to enable our prospects to have control and decision more than where by they decide on to operate it and how they decide on to operate it — that’s at the coronary heart of our approach. Info has gravity in our planet, and we want to make certain we are enabling that functionality.”

Jay Upchurch, government vice president and CIO of SAS, speaks for the duration of a virtual press briefing prior to SAS World Forum, SAS’ virtual person conference.

Upchurch extra that when prospects decide on to have SAS operate their cloud analytics platforms as a SaaS featuring, SAS employs Azure, but that prospects choosing to maintain full control more than their analytics are no cost to use the cloud of their decision, which include numerous clouds.

“From a tech help standpoint and in conditions of operational functionality, it should not be any unique,” he stated. “We know we have to give our prospects decision, [and] we want to enable entry to knowledge by bringing our technology nearer to it.”

SAS offers SAS 9.four, an company analytics system for the on-premises end users that continue to make up extra than fifty percent of the vendor’s seventeen,000 prospects, and Viya four, a system initially launched in 2016 that was overhauled in 2020 to turn into thoroughly cloud indigenous.

And while new integrations don’t add new functions to the SAS analytics system, they depict a significant improvement for prospects, in accordance to Mike Leone, senior analyst at Enterprise Tactic Team.

Our program is cloud agnostic. We want to enable our prospects to have control and decision more than where by they decide on to operate it and how they decide on to operate it — that’s at the coronary heart of our approach. Info has gravity in our planet, and we want to make certain we are enabling that functionality.
Jay UpchurchExecutive vice president and CIO, SAS

They enable prospects to extra quickly easily do the job with their knowledge, and that is significant, he stated.

“SAS is enabling their prospects to get advantage of modern-day program architecture tightly aligned and built-in with the cloud,” Leone stated. “That features offering on all the promises of the cloud. Elasticity and actual-time scalability, on-desire availability, enhanced resiliency and enhanced agility all are seamlessly shipped and accessible without a lot, if any, elevate from operations teams.”

Leone extra that by featuring indigenous help for numerous clouds, SAS is not only building knowledge examination speedier and simpler but also cutting down pitfalls this kind of as knowledge decline and costs connected with relocating large quantities of knowledge from its storage location into SAS and back again once again.

“The inherent chance of one thing heading completely wrong, the time it can take to transfer the enormous knowledge volumes and value to control and maintain all the underlying technologies that enable that movement are stopping companies from attaining their desired amounts of knowledge results,” he stated. “SAS is bringing the correct equipment and companies to where by the knowledge life nowadays.”

In addition to cloud-indigenous help for AWS and Google Cloud, SAS unveiled a new chatbot designed with the Identity Theft Resource Middle created to help fraud victims, and no cost knowledge literacy belongings, which include a knowledge literacy study course for experts and K-12 sources, to educate people about how to interpret and fully grasp knowledge.

In the meantime, with new cloud-indigenous integrations for AWS and Google Cloud now accessible, SAS is targeted on offering a related integration with OpenShift future. In addition, SAS’ roadmap features consolidating its various equipment so prospects can extra easily migrate from SAS 9.four to Viya and featuring extra business-certain answers.

“There is a theme there of building [analytics] uncomplicated,” Upchurch stated, “and driving down the time to value.”

Enterprise Tactic Team (ESG) is a division of TechTarget.