SAS has been named a leader in the 2021 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Data Science and Machine Learning Platforms for the eighth year in a row.

The report analysed vendors based on their completeness of vision and ability to execute. It states, “To achieve fully mature, advanced analytic capabilities, organisations must plan for and invest in the end-to-end data science life cycle.

“The lifecycle includes processes for accessing and transforming data, conducting analysis and building analytic models, operationalising and embedding models, managing and monitoring models over time to reassess their relevancy, and adjusting models to reflect changes in the data and business environment.”

According to SAS, its position as a leader is thanks to its Visual Data Mining and Machine Learning platform, which is a visual and programming interface build on the SAS Viya engine.

The company states that SAS Visual Data Mining and Machine Learning supports users of all skill levels to conduct end-to-end data mining and machine learning processes, so that they can handle all tasks in the analytics lifecycle in a way that is simple and automated.

The SAS Viya Platform, which is cloud-native software that enables organisations to leverage analytics, was released in February. The company says the platform is designed for continuous delivery and updates.

“SAS Viya helps organisations see their data, customers and operations in new ways that encourage confident decision making,” explains SAS CEO and founder Jim Goodnight.

“Organisations expect to accelerate innovation and reduce costs when they operationalize analytics.”

The company says that SAS Viya provides the missing layer between models developed in multiple languages and the systems where they’re deployed, eliminating the need for time-consuming recoding to deploy models.

At launch, SAS Viya was made available on the Microsoft Azure cloud platform, building on the companies’ strategic partnership announced last year.

Microsoft vice president of global ISV sales, Casey McGee, says the innovation will provide customer experience and analytics that can enable businesses to make decisions faster.

“The partnership we have with SAS has helped our customers accelerate growth and expand their digital transformation initiatives,” says McGee.

SAS AI strategist Susan Kahler adds, “Across the globe, organisations are aspiring to operationalise analytics and accelerate artificial intelligence adoption to facilitate better, more intelligent business decisions.”

“SAS advanced analytic solutions, which offer innate integrations with popular open source tools, give users at all levels of an organisation access to agile, powerful advanced machine learning to help master the complex data that’s in cloud environments.”

SAS has now brought its SAS Cloud platform to Australia, with the help of Microsoft Azure.

Customers in Australia and the wider region can now access SAS Cloud on Azure in Sydney, meaning that cloud tools such as analytics and artificial intelligence are closer to home than ever before.

“Australian organisations are increasingly aware of the power of data, analytics and AI to support their people, to deliver exceptional customer experiences and to ensure businesses thrive and succeed,” comments Microsoft Australia chief partner officer Rachel Bondi.

“Our partnership with SAS and the establishment of the SAS Cloud on Azure streamlines access to this capability for local organisations and we are delighted to partner on this initiative.”

The announcement follows the formation of a global partnership between SAS and Microsoft, which was announced in June 2020. The partnership focuses on promoting Microsoft Azure as the preferred SAS Cloud provider.

According to SAS, Australia and New Zealand (A/NZ) is a strong market for SAS Cloud, which demonstrate strong local demand for cloud services.

SAS Australia and New Zealand region vice president Lynette Clunies-Ross says that the combination of SAS and Microsoft could underpin a new ‘operating system’ for digital transformation.

“It represents a tangible local investment in the global strategic partnership when coupled with the establishment of our SAS Cloud Centre of Excellence in Sydney to serve Australia and the Asia Pacific region”.

Further, Clunies-Ross adds that the local commitment means that customers and partners can be confident that they have access to the tools they need to continue their digital transformation initiatives.

Clunies-Ross was appointed as SAS’ A/NZ region vice president just this month. She was previously SAS A/NZ chief operating officer before leaving in 2017, and she has now rejoined the company.

“I am thrilled to re-join SAS as the region vice president in Australia and New Zealand, passionate about SAS’ mission to make it easier for more people to use powerful analytics every day, and to inspire bold new discoveries that drive progress,” she says.

“As we move into 2021, our focus is supporting organisations with their cloud-based digital transformations, as well as continuing to bolster our Academic Outreach Program where we connect corporates with academia and learning resources to help democratise and educate executives on AI and analytics technology.”

“As the lifeblood of businesses, it’s important in-house teams are deepening their knowledge of innovative analytics software and services, so they can work with their IT partners to fully maximise their data,” concludes Clunies-Ross.