SAS Viya now available in the Microsoft Azure Marketplace

The SAS Viya analytics platform is now available in the Microsoft Azure Marketplace with the click of a button on a pay-as-you-go basis. 

Full-featured SAS Viya on Microsoft Azure equips customers worldwide with access to essential data exploration, machine learning and model deployment analytics. In addition, it broadens analytics access across an organisation, allowing all users to increase productivity and collaborate seamlessly.

With the availability of SAS Viya on Microsoft Azure, users will have access to the complete Viya package, including SAS Visual Analytics, SAS Visual Statistics, SAS Visual Data Mining and Machine Learning, and SAS Model Manager.

It's available in many translated languages and includes an extensive in-app learning centre to support immediate onboarding and long-term success.

The platform offers both programming and low- or no-code options in a single visual interface to enable users of all skill levels to take advantage of best-in-class AI. 

With support for SAS and open source languages, including Python and R, data scientists can write code using their languages and techniques.

Market research from IDC forecasts that analytics software deployment on public clouds is growing and will match on-premises deployments by 2024. 

"In this strategic move, SAS makes access to its analytics easier," says Dan Vesset, Group Vice President, Analytics and Information Management at IDC. 

"SAS Viya is one of the most comprehensive analytics platforms on the market today. Presenting users with the complete analytics life cycle – from data to a deployed and managed model – available for immediate use and deployment via the Microsoft Azure Marketplace, is key. And offering it with built-in support and training is expected to bring significant productivity benefits to analytics, IT and business groups around the world."

Jim Goodnight, CEO, SAS, noted accessing Viya in the Microsoft Azure Marketplace is a fast and easy way to tap into the power of SAS.  

"We're excited to offer customers a new way to gain access to SAS Viya while continuing to provide all the powerful capabilities our users already know and love. We've spent decades building the most comprehensive suite of analytics on the market, with next-generation AI that addresses the complete analytics life cycle. We design and test our software to be the fastest and most productive. And now we're making it all available with a few clicks in the Microsoft Azure Marketplace." 

Bryan Harris, Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer at SAS, adds, "Our commitment to cloud and AI innovation is critical to our customers' success. Whether they are building simple reports or developing advanced AI solutions to answer critical business questions." 

"Making SAS Viya available to entire analytics organisations is our goal, regardless of skill level, team or preferred programming language. We want Viya to be the foundation of our customers' innovation stories." 

SAS Viya users include business analysts, data scientists and information consumers from line workers to executives. They are located worldwide across all industries, and experience benefits from fellow SAS users and experts within SAS Communities, which will be available directly through SAS Viya on Microsoft Azure.

Some examples include bioMérieux, a firm in the field in vitro diagnostics and its software-as-a-service offering, Clarion, powered by SAS. It connects the myriad of health care data inside US hospitals and reference laboratories to provide critical insights to battle public health threats. This innovative solution tracks antimicrobial-resistant bacteria and quickly produces data dashboards on SAS Viya to empower more informed clinical decision-making.

Another example is of S-Bank, Finland's top retail bank. 

By modernising with Viya, S-Bank has access to improved visual tools and faster performance from running its analytics closer to its data. 

"The solution with SAS and Azure has greatly improved how we are working with analytics, particularly the visual capabilities of the tool. This has helped strengthen the alignment between the analytics team and the business development team," says Iikka Kuosa, Senior Vice President of Products and IT, S-Bank. 

Launching SAS Viya as a Get It Now offering in the Microsoft Azure Marketplace represents a continued focus on expanding the SAS/Microsoft strategic partnership. 

SAS first announced its partnership with Microsoft in 2020, and recently earned Microsoft's Global Independent Software Vendor (ISV) 2022 Partner of the Year Award. This achievement recognises partners for demonstrating innovation and implementation excellence. 

The benefits of the partnership to organisations globally are also very clear. 

For the National Bank of Greece (NBG), the flexibility of the SAS platform combined with Microsoft Azure's cloud elasticity has helped transform bank operations. 

"With the SAS Viya implementation in the cloud, we have significantly improved development of new analytics infrastructure by decreasing the costs and the complexity of processes, and by acquiring agility, speed and efficiency," says Pantelis Maraveas, Assistant General Manager of Retail Segments, Bank Analytics and Liability Products at NBG.