As the buzz around the IBM acquisition of Cognos continues to spread, my colleagues here at SAS' world headquarters are engaging in their usual activities: briefing our international colleagues, reaching out to analysts and journalists, responding to interview requests. Still, the mood here is far from hectic -- we, like everyone else watching the Business Intelligence space, were not surprised by the announcement.

What journalists around the world want to know from us is, "Can an independent business intelligence vendor survive among these growing tech behemoths?" As the largest remaining independent BI vendor the spotlight is shining on SAS.

The question itself seems to fall a bit short of the point. It's not whether an independent BI provider can survive in this market, but precisely why the market needs an independent BI vendor to remain standing. And what about SAS' approach and offerings make us the logical survivor, beyond our privately held status.

Our philosophy from the beginning has been to remain hardware, operating system, and data agnostic. Why does that matter to customers? Is there any company out there who has eliminated legacy systems or is willing to bet their entire future with one IT provider? No, and probably never will. Can a model in which BI vendors are wedded to a single database/ERP/applications vendor be healthy for customers? Not likely.

Yes, we will survive. Thrive, in fact, as our peers in the industry continue to one-up each other with acquisitions and guide their customers through complex product integration efforts that may monopolize their resources for a year or more. Our emphasis continues to be on what our customers say they need: an integrated enterprise intelligence platform and powerful predictive analytics that allow them to prepare for what's coming, not just report on what's already happened, which is all you get from pure-play BI vendors like Cognos and Business Objects, the latter recently acquired by SAP.

So while the predictable acquisitions continue in the BI market consolidation frenzy -- no doubt making life difficult for organizations that invested their BI budgets in these companies -- SAS will be here. After three decades of year-over-year growth, that’s as predictable as anything in this market.