SAS has released a new high-performance, in-memory solution that employs a visual interface to bring SAS analytics to a greater number of big data consumers, including business users. With Hadoop support and extensive avenues for information-delivery, including the iPad, SAS Visual Analytics is expected to help business and IT users alike make better-informed decisions and increase productivity. The solution is the newest product in the SAS High Performance Analytics family.
"Our mode here is, ‘Build it once, deploy it many,' " Randy Guard, vice president of product management at SAS, tells 5 Minute Briefing. Along with the ability to share big data insights at near-instant speeds on multiple platforms including the web and iPad, Guard says the interface for the new solution provides "a point-and-click/drag-and-drop environment, not a programming environment." In addition, SAS Visual Analytics enables business users to benefit from big data analytics but still allows corporate IT to "manage the application and any data in it as a corporate asset," along with a security infrastructure for management and permissions, Guard explains.
SAS Visual Analytics includes the SAS LASR Analytic Server which features Hadoop as local storage, providing speedy calculations and results. Other features include Explorer, the primary data discovery and visualization tool, and Designer, which allows users to create custom reports and dashboards. Mobile lets users share and view reports on the go on the iPad. Development for other mobile devices is planned in the near future.
By providing organizations with faster and more extensive analytical capabilities, SAS Visual Analytics aims to increase the productivity of both the IT and business user. Enabling business users to do more self-service analysis on their own, in turn, frees up IT staff time for other work, explains Steve Polilli, public relations program manager at SAS.
For more information on SAS Visual Analytics, visit www.sas.com/presscenter/visual-analytics/index.html.