SAS is launching SAS Viya Essentials, a standardized and managed version of its data and AI platform on Microsoft Azure. The solution is designed to help companies get started with analytics faster, without complex implementations or high initial costs.
Companies often struggle to rapidly deploy AI tools. SAS Viya Essentials attempts to solve that problem by offering four predefined architecture profiles. These include SAS Visual Analytics, SAS Visual Statistics, and the broader SAS Viya platform. Users can get started right away without extensive configurations or customizations.
The solution runs entirely on Microsoft Azure, with SAS Managed Cloud Services for management. Customers get a 99.5 percent uptime guarantee. Fixed costs and dedicated support teams are designed to limit disruptive costs and reduce pressure on IT departments.
“At SAS, we believe in making AI accessible to everyone, no matter their industry or size,” said Jay Upchurch, CIO at SAS. “We know that a common struggle for companies is how to quickly maximize their AI investments to meet their corporate aspirations.”
Expansion of SAS-Microsoft collaboration
The launch of SAS Viya Essentials is part of the extended collaboration between SAS and Microsoft. The partners have been strengthening their technological and commercial collaboration for five years. In addition to Viya Essentials, they have several other products.
SAS Viya Copilot is an AI assistant that works directly in the SAS Viya platform via Microsoft Azure AI Foundry. It provides code assistance and model line development for users. The tool is currently available via a private preview.
SAS Viya Workbench provides a coding environment for data scientists and model builders. They can build models with SAS, R, or Python via Visual Studio Code, Jupyter Notebook, or SAS Enterprise Guide. Viya Workbench is available on the Microsoft Marketplace.
SAS Decision Builder is a new workload within Microsoft Fabric. It brings intelligent decision-making capabilities to Fabric users and helps bring AI models into production. The tool is now available as a public preview.
With this collaboration, SAS and Microsoft primarily target companies looking to get started quickly without extensive investments in infrastructure or expertise. The standardized approach is intended to lower the threshold for getting started with advanced analytics.
Tip: With 50 years of experience in analytics, SAS is setting the course for AI