In my previous post, Are you ready for the Analytics Fast Track? Part I, I shared details of the SAS and Intel proof of concept program, and promised to follow up with information about our “For Purchase” program.

Many organizations are looking for sandbox environments that allow their data scientists to play with data, model, explore and fail-fast. They want an environment that's connected to the corporate network, but isolated from production systems -- an environment specifically designed for speed and robust analytical analysis, but in a playpen area where analysts can experiment with many different modeling techniques.

The Analytics Fast Track™ for SAS® (AFT) has an option that allows you to purchase just such a software and hardware environment. SAS has determined a number of software stack use cases that have been built into virtual machines for fast and easy deployment, as well as maintenance.

For example, SAS can provide you with a six-month license of one of the identified software stacks, instructor-led training and SAS Professional Services' “Rapid Start” support. SAS and Intel work with you and the hardware vendor of your choice for the server purchase. We can work with IBM, Cisco, Dell and HP as part of the AFT hardware program. A typical AFT server configuration is 72 core, 3 TB of RAM with 25 TB of SSD storage.

When you purchase an AFT, you're getting industry-leading software and services from SAS, along with a fast server and support from your preferred vendor. After six-months, you have the option for one additional six-month license period, or the production license of the software stack and then you own the server to do with as you please.

The main goal of the AFT For Purchase option is to provide an organization with a state of the art software and hardware environment designed for today’s data scientist. Please contact your account team for any AFT For Purchase questions.