SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Customers will soon have even more choices in how they deploy SAS software: in public or private clouds, hosted by SAS, or via on-premise software. This flexibility is the result of a new version of the platform for SAS Business Analytics, the foundation for all SAS products.
With the June shipment of SAS 9.4 foundation software, customers can deploy SAS products and solutions in the manner that best suits their business. For example, customers who require quick access to SAS software to support an immediate business need or who are looking to reduce upfront costs can choose SAS hosting or a public cloud deployment. Other customers may opt for an on-site deployment for reasons such as tighter data control.
“Every IT organization is either building their own private cloud of virtualized systems on commodity hardware or looking to third-party providers. SAS 9.4 allows your IT team to choose SAS with the confidence that it meets their requirements for security, authentication, scale and resiliency. In short, SAS 9.4 is easier to deploy, manage and maintain,” said Keith Collins, SAS Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer.
“These enhancements will make it easier for users to access new SAS High-Performance Analytics capabilities in our current analytic product portfolio. Furthermore, SAS 9.4 provides access to numerous new features in our data management products, as well as enhanced Hadoop integration. Our goal is to decrease the time to value for SAS users while reducing the total cost of ownership for IT,” he said.
Data visualization on new platform
One of the first products to build on the SAS 9.4 foundation and take advantage of cloud deployment is SAS Visual Analytics. As the number of SAS Visual Analytics customers continues to grow - now more than 200 worldwide - so does the demand for new features. This latest release of this data visualization software, the third in just over a year, includes a wide range of upgrades.
“Supporting private and public cloud and software as a service for SAS Visual Analytics builds on the company’s long history of hosted solutions,” said Cindi Howson, CEO and founder of BI Scorecard. “SAS Visual Analytics is a visually appealing product that combines ease of use with SAS' mathematical brain power.”
SAS Visual Analytics forecasting support, now with powerful new scenario analysis capabilities, adds prescriptive analytics to existing descriptive and predictive analytics, helping organizations rapidly and easily move to more advanced uses of analytics.
“The new forecasting is a clear differentiator,” said Howson. “SAS Visual Analytics supports six different forecasting algorithms, including one that accounts for seasonality. Users can also specify which variables to use in the forecast, as well as simulation. This robust forecasting is a step up from what most BI products offer.”
Among the enhancements in SAS Visual Analytics:
- Analytics: support for scenario analysis and decision trees.
- Reporting: more graphical themes and custom theme definitions, enhanced progressive filtering, ability to define custom graph templates, expanded report linking.
- Mobile: increased collaboration with annotation markups and sharing, integration with mobile device management.
- Security: improved flexibility in setting permissions.
- Server platform: new support for Windows 64-bit, in addition to Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 and SuSE Enterprise Linux Server 11.
Among the first customers to recognize the value of SAS Visual Analytics was Philippines retailer SM Marketing Convergence Inc. SM-MCI was initially drawn to SAS Visual Analytics by its look and feel. Upon recognizing its analytic powers and scalability, SM-MCI replaced QlikView from QlikTech and ARC from Manthan with SAS Visual Analytics for data discovery in its customer loyalty operations.
“We process vast amounts of transaction data every day so that customers can accurately see accrued loyalty points. Our data store is an extremely rich market-data source for all retail spending in the Philippines. We needed a more powerful tool to gain insights on customer buying behaviors and create more effective promotions. SAS Visual Analytics has proven to be the right choice,” said SM-MCI President and CEO Baldwin C. Golangco.
For more information or to try an interactive demonstration of the software, please visit the SAS Visual Analytics Web pages. For a look at all SAS 9.4 offers, please read an in-depth description of the new platform.
Today's announcement was made at SAS Global Forum 2013, the world's premier analytics conference and the largest gathering of SAS users, attended by more than 4,000 business and IT users of SAS software and solutions. Key sessions will be live streamed at the SAS video portal.
About SAS
SAS is the leader in business analytics software and services, and the largest independent vendor in the business intelligence market. Through innovative solutions, SAS helps customers at more than 60,000 sites improve performance and deliver value by making better decisions faster. Since 1976 SAS has been giving customers around the world THE POWER TO KNOW®.
SAS and all other SAS Institute Inc. product or service names are registered trademarks or trademarks of SAS Institute Inc. in the USA and other countries. ® indicates USA registration. Other brand and product names are trademarks of their respective companies. Copyright © 2013 SAS Institute Inc. All rights reserved.
