More than a year ago, SAS made a strategic decision to strengthen our focus on the U.S. intelligence community (IC) by forming a new business unit (SAS Federal, LLC). Since then, the explosion of data in the IC has only grown and the threats to national security continue to evolve more rapidly.

In my opinion, there’s an urgent need for the application of advanced analytics in the IC to defeat national security threats and, ultimately, save lives. SAS took a big step towards meeting that need today with the acquisition of Vision Systems and Technology, Inc. (VSTI), a professional services company that has been delivering analytic solutions to the U.S. IC for over a decade.

VSTI specializes in culling all but the most relevant data so that agencies can make decisions much quicker. Combining that with SAS’ analytics prowess will create a unique offering in the IC.

During this process I’ve gotten to know VSTI’s leadership, particularly CEO Dwayne Robinson and CTO Bryan Harris. They, and the people they lead, are some of the most brilliant, dedicated technologists I’ve come across and I’m confident that there is no better company to deliver the power of SAS to the folks protecting this country.

I’m very excited about what the future holds. Dwayne and Bryan have been soaking up info on SAS technology like sponges and have amazing ideas about what we can accomplish. (Bryan was the proverbial kid in the candy when he started reading about SAS Social Media Analytics©.)

I’ll share more as we go down this road, and it will require little arm twisting to get Dwayne and Bryan talking, too!