Here’s a question: can you name one item of IT hardware that carries a SAS logo ?
You may be surprised to learn that it’s the Teradata Appliance for SAS High-Performance Analytics Model 750 (see here for a picture of the appliance sporting the SAS logo). With this appliance, customers can run SAS® High-Performance Analytics Products, SAS® Visual Analytics, SAS® Visual Statistics, and SAS® IMSTAT together on one system, simplifying infrastructure while reducing costs and accelerating performance. Customers using this companion approach include Post Italiane, Unicredit Italy and Christus Health, a US healthcare provider.
Much has changed since Model 750 was launched in the Fall of 2015: Teradata has decoupled its software from the hardware to provide customers more flexibility in where they install their database software; and SAS has since announced and delivered SAS® Viya®, so you might be forgiven for concluding it was the end of the line for this integration initiative – but you would be wrong.
The announcement at SAS Global Forum in April for SAS® Viya® to support SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (in addition to Red Hat Enterprise Linux ) means that customers wishing to deploy SAS Viya with Teradata can now do so in the cloud or on-premise with the same level of performance. As before, the premise is straightforward: by supporting SAS Viya on the IntelliFlex infrastructure alongside Teradata database and Hadoop platforms, clients are able to perform analytics without having to move or duplicate the data – improving performance and data governance.
Within an IntelliFlex environment SAS® Viya can connect to Teradata BYNET™ for high-speed messaging. It provides serial (SAS Data Connector) and parallel (SAS Data Connector Accelerator) methods for loading data into CAS. For parallel loading, you need to have installed the SAS Embedded Process in the Teradata or Hadoop source system. It’s also possible to deploy a SAS® 9.4 configuration on IntelliFlex using its SAS Managed Server capability.
For clients with an ongoing investment in Teradata, this announcement offers new flexibility for deploying SAS analytical workloads with the convenience of a common hardware and software infrastructure. For new customers looking for the flexibility of the cloud with proven performance, then the proven & trusted combination of Teradata and SAS is an exciting new option - even if you no longer see a server cabinet sporting a SAS logo.
