SAS Viya - Detailed Review

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SAS Viya - Detailed Review Contents
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    SAS Viya - Product Overview



    Introduction to SAS Viya

    SAS Viya is a comprehensive data and AI platform that streamlines and accelerates data analysis, model development, and decision-making processes. Here’s a breakdown of its primary function, target audience, and key features:



    Primary Function

    SAS Viya serves as an end-to-end analytics platform, enabling users to collect, analyze, and deploy data-driven insights efficiently. It integrates data management, machine learning, and AI capabilities to support a wide range of analytical tasks, from data preparation and model development to deployment and decision governance.



    Target Audience

    SAS Viya is designed for a diverse group of users, including developers, data scientists, IT professionals, and business analysts. It caters to both technical and non-technical users, allowing them to collaborate seamlessly throughout the data and AI lifecycle.



    Key Features



    Speed and Efficiency

    SAS Viya is known for its speed, performing data and AI tasks up to 30 times faster than its competitors. This platform also reduces cloud operating costs by an average of 86%, making it highly cost-efficient.



    Data Management

    It offers advanced data management capabilities, allowing users to access and integrate data from virtually any source. The platform includes no-code and automated ETL processes, robust data pipelines, and data governance features to track data and model lineage.



    Model Development and Deployment

    SAS Viya speeds up model development with tools like quick-start model recommendations, automated feature engineering, and model tournaments to identify the most effective models. Deployment is seamless, with the ability to automate performance monitoring and retrain models quickly.



    Visual Analytics

    The platform includes SAS visual analytics, which helps in presenting data insights in a digestible way using visual tools like bar graphs, charts, and heat maps. This is particularly beneficial for marketers in creating detailed customer profiles and optimizing marketing messages.



    Generative AI and Automation

    SAS Viya integrates generative AI (GenAI) capabilities, such as Viya Copilot, which acts as a personal assistant for developers, data scientists, and business users. It enhances productivity by automating tasks like code generation, data cleaning, and data exploration. Additionally, SAS Data Maker generates high-quality synthetic tabular data to address data privacy and scarcity challenges.



    Advanced Analytics

    The platform supports various advanced analytics techniques, including forecasting, optimization, econometrics, text analytics, and event stream analytics. It also includes matrix programming for innovative computations and advanced workload management using Kubernetes.



    Productivity and Collaboration

    SAS Viya is highly productive, allowing business analysts and other non-technical staff to complete up to 86% of data lifecycle tasks. It outperforms competitors in terms of productivity for data engineers, data scientists, and MLOps engineers, enabling faster and more efficient decision-making.

    Overall, SAS Viya is a powerful tool that enhances the speed, efficiency, and trustworthiness of data-driven decision-making across various industries and user roles.

    SAS Viya - User Interface and Experience



    User Interface of SAS Viya

    The user interface of SAS Viya is crafted to be intuitive, efficient, and user-friendly, catering to a wide range of users from data engineers and scientists to business analysts.



    User-Friendly Interface

    SAS Viya features a graphical and visual interface that simplifies the analytics lifecycle. It includes tools like SAS Visual Analytics, which allows users to visualize and discover relevant relationships in their data, creating and sharing interactive reports and dashboards.



    Automation and Low-Code Options

    The platform offers extensive automation and low-code/no-code options, making it accessible even to users without deep technical expertise. For instance, data engineers can use drag-and-drop tools to craft data pipelines, and business analysts can achieve up to 86% of data and AI lifecycle tasks without extensive coding.



    Streamlined Data Management

    SAS Viya provides easy access to data, regardless of size or complexity, with features like automated ETL processes and data lineage for transparency. This ensures high data quality and simplifies data management tasks.



    Collaboration and Model Development

    Data scientists and analysts can collaborate effectively using tools like SAS Visual Statistics, which enables them to build, adjust, and refine predictive analytical models iteratively. The platform also includes machine learning capabilities that handle all tasks in the analytics lifecycle within a single, scalable in-memory processing environment.



    Productivity Features

    The SAS Studio application, part of the SAS Viya platform, is web-based and accessible on any device. It offers several productivity features such as a Start Page for quick initiation of SAS tasks, easy access to keyboard shortcuts, and optimized screen real estate. These features enhance user productivity and satisfaction.



    Security and Governance

    SAS Viya ensures secure and governed model deployment and monitoring. MLOps engineers can govern, validate, test, and deploy models efficiently across different environments from a single interface, with automatic performance reports and visualizations.



    Ease of Use

    The overall user experience is enhanced by the intuitive design and the availability of prebuilt model templates, natural language descriptions of visualizations, and automated processes. This makes it easier for users to explain their work and make data-driven decisions quickly.



    Conclusion

    In summary, SAS Viya’s user interface is designed to be easy to use, highly automated, and visually engaging, making advanced analytics and AI accessible to a broad range of users within an organization.

    SAS Viya - Key Features and Functionality



    SAS Viya Overview

    SAS Viya is a comprehensive data and AI platform that offers a wide range of features and functionalities, particularly in the AI-driven category. Here are the main features and how they work, along with their benefits and the integration of AI:

    Data Management

    SAS Viya allows users to access and integrate data from virtually any source, regardless of size or complexity. This is achieved through:

    No-code and Automated ETL Processes

    These processes save hours by simplifying data preparation and integration.

    Seamless Data Access

    Users get transparent read, write, and update access to data from any source or platform.

    Data Pipelines

    Robust data pipelines are built to ingest, transform, and serve high-quality data.

    Data Governance

    The platform tracks data and model lineage, ensuring that if data changes, users know which models need retraining.

    AI and Machine Learning

    SAS Viya includes comprehensive AI and machine learning tools:

    Automated Feature Engineering

    The platform provides intelligent recommendations for optimizing and identifying the most effective models through automated feature engineering.

    End-to-End Data Mining and Machine Learning

    It supports these processes with visual and programming interfaces for users of all skill levels.

    Model Tournaments

    These help tune models for peak performance by identifying the most effective model.

    Insight Generation

    SAS Viya automatically generates insights to help solve complex analytical problems.

    Model Development and Deployment



    Model Development

    The platform supports the development of predictive analytical models with tools like SAS Visual Statistics, which allows data scientists and analysts to collaborate and refine models.

    Model Deployment

    SAS Viya simplifies the creation and management of model collections, allowing easy embedding of models into operational systems to monitor performance. It ensures models perform as expected in real-world scenarios and integrates business rules for real-time results.

    Advanced Analytics Capabilities



    Forecasting

    SAS Viya quickly and reliably predicts outcomes and plans for the future by automating large-scale time series analyses and hierarchical forecasts.

    Optimization

    The platform helps deliver the best results given resource constraints by considering alternative actions and scenarios to determine the best allocation of resources.

    Econometrics

    It models, forecasts, and simulates complex economic and business scenarios using large amounts of observational data.

    Text Analytics

    SAS Viya scales the human act of reading, organizing, and extracting useful information from huge volumes of textual data.

    Event Streaming Analytics

    The platform analyzes streaming data, uncovers hidden insights with AI, and makes real-time, intelligent decisions.

    Integration with Large Language Models (LLMs)



    GenAI Orchestration

    SAS Viya integrates external GenAI models with existing business processes and systems, orchestrating LLMs for end-to-end enterprise use cases. This includes the ability to explain and integrate large language models to augment existing processes.

    Real-Time and Distributed Capabilities



    Real-Time Distributed Database

    The platform uses the SingleStore database to gain open access to data and accelerate analytical processes.

    Real-Time Event Detection

    SAS Viya combines business rules, real-time event detection, decision governance, and powerful analytics to automate operational decisions.

    Collaboration and Automation



    Centralized Platform

    The platform enhances and encourages collaboration with intuitive visual interfaces and AI-driven automation.

    MLOps

    MLOps engineers can automate tasks, govern decisions, and deploy models efficiently across environments from a single interface within automated model performance reporting. These features collectively enable organizations to generate trusted outcomes from their data, automate tasks, and make data-driven decisions efficiently and effectively. The integration of AI across these functionalities ensures that users can leverage advanced analytics, automation, and insights to drive their business forward.

    SAS Viya - Performance and Accuracy



    Performance

    SAS Viya demonstrates exceptional performance across various AI and machine learning (ML) tasks. Here are some highlights from a comparative study:



    Speed and Efficiency

    SAS Viya outperformed other general-purpose libraries in most test configurations. For example, it was significantly faster in 49 out of 50 tested configurations for linear regression and logistic regression. It also showed a 30X average performance advantage over competitors for large or complex datasets.



    Resource Utilization

    Viya used 87% less CPU resources compared to other libraries across a majority of the datasets tested. This efficiency translates into substantial cost savings, especially in cloud environments where resource usage directly correlates with cost.



    Scalability

    SAS Viya scaled nearly linearly with the addition of CPU and memory, reducing runtime significantly as instance sizes increased. This scalability is particularly beneficial for complex datasets with a high number of features.



    Accuracy

    The accuracy of SAS Viya is also noteworthy:



    Consistent Results

    In the comparative study, the scoring accuracy of SAS Viya was statistically the same as its competitors to three digits of precision. This consistency was observed across various ML models, including linear regression, logistic regression, random forests, and gradient boosting.



    Reliability

    SAS Viya completed all but one of the 100 test configurations, while several competing libraries failed multiple complex datasets. This reliability ensures that users can depend on Viya to handle a wide range of datasets and ML tasks.



    Limitations and Areas for Improvement

    While SAS Viya performs exceptionally well, there are some areas to consider:



    Infrastructure Dependencies

    Performance issues can arise from infrastructure problems such as insufficient network bandwidth, inadequate server resources, or suboptimal operating system-level tunings. Proper infrastructure setup and monitoring are crucial to maintaining optimal performance.



    Specific Use Cases

    Although SAS Viya outperformed general-purpose libraries in most cases, there were instances where special-purpose libraries performed better. Identifying the right tool for the specific use case is important.



    Concurrency Settings

    To optimize concurrency performance, specific configuration settings need to be adjusted. This includes settings related to concurrent tasks, which can impact overall system performance.

    In summary, SAS Viya stands out for its high performance, accuracy, and scalability in AI and ML tasks. However, users need to ensure proper infrastructure setup and configuration to maximize its benefits.

    SAS Viya - Pricing and Plans



    The Pricing Structure of SAS Viya

    The pricing structure of SAS Viya is structured around several tiers, each offering a range of features to cater to different business needs.



    SAS Viya Tiers



    SAS Viya

    • This tier includes basic features such as data access, preparation, and integration, data catalog, quality, and governance, in-database technologies, workload management, visualization and reporting, statistics, machine learning, and deep learning.
    • It also covers model deployment and management, forecasting, text analytics, optimization, and econometrics.


    SAS Viya Advanced

    • This tier includes all the features of SAS Viya, plus additional capabilities like advanced flow steps and information governance.
    • It retains all the core analytics features such as machine learning, deep learning, model deployment, forecasting, text analytics, optimization, and econometrics.


    SAS Viya Enterprise

    • This is the most comprehensive tier, including all features from the previous tiers.
    • It adds specialized capabilities like event streaming analytics and intelligent decisioning.
    • It is designed for enterprises that need a full suite of advanced analytics and AI capabilities.


    SAS Viya Programming

    • This tier is focused on programming capabilities and includes features like data access, preparation, and integration, visualization and reporting, statistics, machine learning, and deep learning.
    • It is more limited in scope compared to the other tiers but is suitable for users who need strong programming interfaces.


    Pricing

    The pricing for SAS Viya varies based on the tier and the specific components chosen. Here are some general pricing details:

    • Core Components: Prices can range from around $1,124 to $24,673 per month for different combinations of SAS Visual Analytics, Visual Statistics, Econometrics, Optimization, and other modules, depending on the number of cores and RAM.
    • Add-On Capabilities: Additional capabilities such as forecasting, text analytics, and machine learning can be added to the base packages, with prices adjusting accordingly. For example, adding Visual Forecasting can increase the monthly cost significantly.


    Free Options

    • SAS offers a 14-day free trial for SAS Viya, allowing users to experience the platform’s advanced capabilities across the analytics life cycle without any initial cost.

    In summary, SAS Viya provides a flexible pricing structure with multiple tiers to fit various business needs, along with the option to try the platform through a free trial. The costs are dependent on the specific features and infrastructure requirements chosen.

    SAS Viya - Integration and Compatibility



    SAS Viya Overview

    SAS Viya is a versatile and integrated analytics platform that offers extensive compatibility and integration capabilities, making it a powerful tool for various analytical needs.

    Integration with Programming Languages

    SAS Viya seamlessly integrates with popular programming languages such as Python, R, Java, and Lua. This allows users to leverage their existing code within the SAS Viya environment, enhancing their data science workflows. Whether you are a Python enthusiast, an R aficionado, or prefer using Jupyter Notebooks, SAS Viya supports these languages to facilitate interactive exploration and documentation of analyses.

    Cloud and On-Premise Environments

    SAS Viya is highly flexible and can be deployed in cloud, on-site, or hybrid environments. It supports major cloud providers like Azure, AWS, and GCP, as well as open-source Kubernetes. This flexibility ensures that users can choose the infrastructure that best fits their needs without being locked into a specific environment.

    Azure Integration

    SAS Viya has strong integration with Azure services, including Azure Synapse, Azure Machine Learning, Power Automate, and Power Apps. This integration enables users to enrich data from various sources, build and deploy analytic models, automate decision-making processes, and stream data from IoT devices for real-time analysis and decisioning.

    Data Sources and Services

    The platform provides high-performance connectors to source data from various Azure environments, databases, spreadsheets, and cloud storage. This ensures seamless connectivity to different data sources, facilitating efficient data preparation and analysis.

    ModelOps and Automation

    SAS Viya supports the automation of repetitive tasks within analytic workflows. Users can create data pipelines, schedule data refreshes, and automate model deployment. This automation, combined with the ability to collaborate by sharing workflows, streamlines the analytical process and enhances productivity.

    Additional Capabilities

    The platform offers a range of additional capabilities, including forecasting, optimization, econometrics, text analytics, and event stream analytics. These capabilities are available through different SAS Viya offerings such as SAS Viya, SAS Viya Advanced, and SAS Viya Enterprise, allowing users to choose the package that best fits their specific needs.

    Generative AI Integration

    SAS Viya also incorporates generative AI (GenAI) to accelerate customer productivity. It integrates external GenAI models with existing business processes, offers tools like Viya Copilot for enhanced productivity, and includes features like SAS Data Maker to generate high-quality synthetic data while maintaining data privacy.

    Multiuser Environment

    The platform provides a secure, scalable multiuser environment for concurrent access. Users can collaborate to explore the same data, probe findings, and identify analytically sound actions without interruptions, thanks to its fault-tolerant processing design.

    Conclusion

    In summary, SAS Viya’s extensive integration and compatibility features make it a highly adaptable and powerful analytics platform, capable of supporting a wide range of analytical tasks across various environments and devices.

    SAS Viya - Customer Support and Resources

    For users of the SAS Viya platform, particularly those engaging with its AI-driven tools like SAS Viya Workbench and SAS App Factory, several customer support options and additional resources are available.

    Support Channels



    Contacting SAS Technical Support

  • Users can contact SAS Technical Support via telephone, email, or web interface technical chat (where available). For critical issues, you can report problems by phone using the provided toll-free numbers or the US headquarters number.
  • The support team is accessible through a chat feature in the lower right corner of the browser for users in the US, Canada, and some US territories. If chat is unavailable, you can open a case in the customer service portal.


  • Support Levels



    Standard Support

  • SAS offers Standard Support, which includes full support for the software version, including select security and defect fixes. This level involves investigating all submitted support requests and providing circumventions when possible. Patch updates are provided for selected critical support requests.


  • Limited Support

  • For less urgent issues, Limited Support is available, though it is restricted to access to product documentation and self-help resources and does not include support for critical Severity Level 1 or 2 requests.


  • Additional Resources



    Self-Help Resources

  • Users have access to a comprehensive self-help resource section on the SAS support website. This includes product documentation, troubleshooting guides, and knowledge base articles to help resolve issues independently.


  • Contacting Support via Email

  • When contacting support via email, it is recommended to include detailed information such as product versions, operating system, site number, problem details, and any troubleshooting steps already taken. This helps ensure quick and efficient service.


  • Specific Tools Support



    Support for SAS Viya Workbench and SAS App Factory

  • For tools like SAS Viya Workbench and SAS App Factory, users can leverage the support channels mentioned above. These tools, part of the SAS Viya analytics suite, are supported through the standard SAS technical support mechanisms.
  • In summary, SAS Viya users have multiple avenues for support, including direct contact with technical support teams and extensive self-help resources. This ensures that users can quickly address any issues they encounter while using the platform’s AI-driven tools.

    SAS Viya - Pros and Cons



    Advantages of SAS Viya

    SAS Viya offers several significant advantages, particularly in the areas of performance, automation, and integration.

    Performance and Speed

    • SAS Viya is optimized for cloud computing, allowing it to perform tasks much faster than its competitors. It can produce results up to 30 times faster while using significantly fewer resources, leading to substantial cost savings.
    • The platform leverages multi-threading, including in the DATA step, which significantly speeds up processing times, especially for long-running jobs.
    • It reduces I/O operations by loading data from platforms like Hive/HDFS and Teradata into CAS memory in parallel, speeding up data loading and analysis.


    Automation and Efficiency

    • SAS Viya automates many tedious tasks such as data cleaning, feature engineering, and hyperparameter tuning, freeing data scientists to focus on more strategic initiatives.
    • The platform supports automated feature selection, model selection, and comparison, making the model-building process more efficient.
    • AI integration within SAS Viya streamlines workflows, automates data exploration and preparation, and enhances pattern recognition and predictive analytics.


    Integration and Collaboration

    • SAS Viya provides a unified analytics environment that fosters cross-departmental collaboration among data scientists, IT teams, and business leaders. This ensures that AI and ML models are aligned with business goals and can be deployed efficiently.
    • The platform offers improved data integration and visual interface advantages, allowing seamless editing and passing of data through various applications like reporting, modeling, and forecasting.


    AI and Machine Learning Capabilities

    • SAS Viya supports advanced machine learning algorithms, including deep learning models for tasks like image recognition, natural language processing (NLP), and time series forecasting.
    • It includes AI-powered data management tools that simplify data preparation and ensure high-quality data for AI and ML applications.
    • Generative AI capabilities within SAS Viya enable data augmentation, data imputation, and scenario planning, enhancing the accuracy and completeness of analyses.


    Disadvantages of SAS Viya

    While SAS Viya offers numerous advantages, there are some potential drawbacks and considerations:

    Learning Curve

    • Transitioning from SAS 9 to SAS Viya may require some learning and adaptation, especially for users accustomed to the older system. However, the multi-threaded capabilities and automated features can be leveraged with minimal code modifications.


    Cost

    • Although SAS Viya can lead to significant cost savings in the long run due to its efficiency and performance, the initial investment in the platform and any necessary training or consulting services could be substantial.


    Dependency on Cloud Infrastructure

    • SAS Viya is optimized for cloud computing, which means organizations need to have a reliable and scalable cloud infrastructure in place to fully leverage its capabilities. This could be a challenge for organizations with limited cloud resources or those in regions with poor cloud connectivity.


    Compatibility and Integration with Existing Systems

    • While SAS Viya integrates well with various data sources and platforms, there might be compatibility issues with certain legacy systems or specific software configurations. Ensuring seamless integration could require additional effort and resources.
    In summary, SAS Viya offers significant advantages in terms of performance, automation, and integration, but it also requires careful consideration of the learning curve, initial costs, and dependency on cloud infrastructure.

    SAS Viya - Comparison with Competitors



    Key Features and Distinctions of SAS Viya



    Cloud-Native and Hybrid Environment Support

    SAS Viya is a cloud-native AI, analytics, and data management platform that can operate in both public and private cloud environments, as well as on-premises settings. This flexibility allows businesses to optimize their workloads across a hybrid operating environment, which is a significant advantage over some competitors that may be limited to either cloud or on-premises deployment.

    Multi-Language Support and Development Tools

    SAS Viya offers a range of development tools, including the SAS Viya Workbench, which supports programming languages such as Python, R, and SAS. Additionally, it will soon include code editor clients like Jupyter Notebook, Visual Studio Code, and SAS Enterprise Guide. This multi-language support is beneficial for diverse development teams.

    Automation and Integration

    The SAS App Factory is another notable component, allowing enterprises to automate the setup and integration of a cloud-native technology stack built on React, Typescript, and Postgres. This automation enables developers to focus more on getting AI models and applications into production, a feature that sets SAS Viya apart from many competitors.

    Performance and Scalability

    SAS Viya has been compared favorably against other AI/ML platforms in terms of performance and scalability. It outperformed general-purpose libraries in 97% of test cases, although there were instances where special purpose libraries performed better. This performance makes SAS Viya a strong contender in the market.

    Generative AI Integration

    SAS is also integrating generative AI capabilities through a partnership with Microsoft, combining the scale of Microsoft Azure OpenAI with SAS’s orchestration of enterprise tasks. This integration, expected to be available in private preview, adds a unique dimension to SAS Viya’s capabilities.

    User Assistance Tools

    The introduction of Viya Copilot, a personal assistant for developers, data scientists, and business users, is another unique feature. Viya Copilot helps with tasks such as code generation, data cleaning, data exploration, and knowledge gap analysis, reducing the need for manual tasks and enhancing productivity.

    Real-World Applications

    SAS Viya is being used in various real-world applications, such as an AI-based application to increase the success rate of kidney transplants at Cambridge University Hospitals, and an energy forecasting cloud for utility companies. These practical applications demonstrate the platform’s versatility and effectiveness.

    Alternatives

    For those considering alternatives, other platforms like Competitor-A (a commercial Data AI platform) and various open-source general-purpose platforms may offer different strengths. For instance, special purpose libraries might outperform SAS Viya in specific tasks, but SAS Viya’s broad ML support and performance across a wide range of configurations make it a strong choice for many use cases.

    Conclusion

    In summary, SAS Viya stands out due to its cloud-native and hybrid environment support, multi-language development tools, automation capabilities, strong performance and scalability, and innovative features like generative AI integration and user assistance tools. While other platforms may have their own strengths, SAS Viya’s comprehensive suite of features makes it a compelling option in the AI-driven app tools category.

    SAS Viya - Frequently Asked Questions



    Frequently Asked Questions about SAS Viya



    What is SAS Viya?

    SAS Viya is an end-to-end data and AI platform that enables trustworthy AI practices at every stage of the life cycle, from development to deployment. It provides intuitive visual interfaces, a centralized platform for collaboration, AI-driven automation, and more, allowing users to generate trusted outcomes from their data.

    How does SAS Viya handle data management?

    SAS Viya allows users to access and integrate data from virtually any source, regardless of size and complexity. It offers no-code and automated ETL (Extract, Transform, Load) processes, seamless data access, and robust data pipelines to ingest, transform, and serve high-quality data. Additionally, it includes data governance features to track data and model lineage.

    What AI and machine learning capabilities does SAS Viya offer?

    SAS Viya includes comprehensive machine learning tools with automated feature engineering capabilities. It supports end-to-end data mining and machine learning processes through visual and programming interfaces, suitable for users of all skill levels. The platform also allows for model tuning through model tournaments to identify the most effective models and automatically generates insights to solve complex analytical problems.

    How does SAS Viya facilitate model deployment and management?

    SAS Viya simplifies the deployment and management of AI models in production. It automates tasks, governs decisions, and deploys every type of model efficiently across different environments. The platform ensures smooth integration, real-time performance monitoring, and alignment with real-world data to maintain continuous model effectiveness.

    What is the role of generative AI in SAS Viya?

    SAS Viya has recently integrated generative AI (GenAI) capabilities, including the orchestration of large language models (LLMs) to augment existing business processes. Features like Viya Copilot and SAS Data Maker enhance productivity and address data privacy challenges by generating high-quality synthetic data. These GenAI functionalities are aimed at delivering industry-driven and ethically applied use cases.

    Can SAS Viya handle real-time analytics and event streaming?

    Yes, SAS Viya supports real-time analytics and event streaming. It allows users to analyze streaming data, uncover hidden insights with AI, and make real-time, intelligent decisions. The platform includes capabilities for real-time event detection and combines business rules with powerful analytics to automate operational decisions.

    How does SAS Viya support data visualization and reporting?

    SAS Viya offers strong data visualization and reporting features through tools like SAS Visual Analytics. Users can create and share interactive reports and dashboards, visualize data relationships, and quickly assess probable outcomes for smarter, more data-driven decisions.

    What kind of integrations does SAS Viya support?

    SAS Viya has integration arrangements with various third-party apps and platforms, including Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox, Amazon Redshift, Google BigQuery, Greenplum, and Hadoop. This allows for seamless data access and integration from multiple sources.

    How does SAS Viya ensure data security and governance?

    SAS Viya includes data governance features that track data and model lineage, ensuring that if data changes, users know which models need retraining. Additionally, the platform addresses data privacy challenges through tools like SAS Data Maker, which generates synthetic data without compromising sensitive information.

    What are the pricing options for SAS Viya?

    The pricing for SAS Viya varies based on the number of cores, RAM, and storage required. It offers different packages that include various SAS tools such as Visual Analytics, Visual Statistics, Econometrics, Optimization, and more. The prices range from around $1,124 to $68,271 per month, depending on the configuration and the number of cores.

    Is SAS Viya suitable for businesses of all sizes?

    Yes, SAS Viya is designed to accommodate businesses of all sizes and analytic needs. It provides a flexible and scalable platform that can be adapted to suit the specific requirements of different organizations, from small businesses to large enterprises.

    SAS Viya - Conclusion and Recommendation



    Final Assessment of SAS Viya

    SAS Viya stands out as a comprehensive and highly efficient data and AI platform, offering a wide range of benefits that make it an invaluable tool for various users.



    Key Benefits

    • Scalability and Performance: SAS Viya is cloud-native, allowing for maximum scalability, flexibility, and cost-efficiency. It handles large datasets and complex AI models with ease, ensuring fast and distributed in-memory processing.

    • Multi-Language Support: The platform supports programming in multiple languages, including SAS, Python, R, Java, Lua, and Scala, making it versatile for different user skill levels.

    • Collaboration and Governance: It provides a secure, multiuser environment where teams can collaborate seamlessly. Features like full versioning, authorship, lineage viewer, and change management ensure comprehensive governance and reduce version discrepancies.

    • Productivity: SAS Viya significantly outperforms competing solutions in terms of productivity. For instance, data engineers are 16 times more productive, data scientists are 3.5 times more productive, and business analysts can complete 86% of data life cycle tasks compared to 56% in other commercial environments.



    Who Would Benefit Most

    • Data Engineers: With automated ETL processes, drag-and-drop data pipelines, and confidence in data quality through lineage and transparency, data engineers can save hours and improve efficiency.

    • Data Scientists: The platform offers built-in automation, visualizations, and prebuilt model templates, allowing data scientists to explore and report data 69 times faster and optimize models more effectively.

    • MLOps Engineers: SAS Viya simplifies model governance, validation, testing, and deployment across environments, with automatic performance reports and visualizations, making the process faster and easier.

    • Business Analysts: Non-technical staff can complete a high percentage of data and AI life cycle tasks due to the platform’s low-code and no-code options, enabling them to derive insights independently.



    Overall Recommendation

    SAS Viya is highly recommended for organizations seeking to enhance their analytical capabilities, speed up decision-making, and drive innovation. Its ability to integrate all elements of the analytics process, from data preparation to model deployment, in a governed and scalable environment, makes it an excellent choice.

    For businesses looking to centralize their analytics efforts, improve collaboration among diverse teams, and achieve faster results, SAS Viya offers a comprehensive solution. Its visual analytics tools, such as those described for marketing applications, also make it easier to present insights in a digestible manner, facilitating better decision-making.

    In summary, SAS Viya is a powerful tool that can significantly boost productivity, reduce costs, and enhance innovation across various roles and industries. Its versatility, scalability, and user-friendly interface make it an excellent addition to any organization’s analytics toolkit.

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