Cage match: SAS Studio versus SAS Enterprise Guide

I wish I had a nickel for every time I heard this question at SAS Global Forum:

"So, does this SAS Studio thing replace SAS Enterprise Guide?"

SAS Studio is a pretty big deal. It's groundbreaking in several ways:

It's a web-based programming interface to SAS. It runs in your browser, which means that end users don't have to install anything (when connecting to a remote SAS session).

It's an HTML5-based application, so there are no browser plugins needed. It runs on Windows, Macs, and even the iPad.

It's the basis for new offerings from SAS, most notably SAS OnDemand for Academics. This offering is free to just about any learner for non-commercial use. Tens of thousands of students and others learning SAS have accessed it.

You're going to be hearing a lot about SAS Studio. So what does this mean for those of us who have invested our skills and processes in SAS Enterprise Guide? If you read this blog regularly, you know that includes me! Does this "new app on the block" replace our beloved SAS Enterprise Guide? The answer is No -- and Yes.

No, SAS Studio isn't a direct SAS Enterprise Guide replacement. SAS Enterprise Guide continues to get new features, mostly targeting productivity enhancements and integration with other SAS offerings, such as SAS Visual Analytics. Many thousands of users around the world use SAS Enterprise Guide to manage process flows, reporting and analytics, database access, and custom processes. SAS Studio doesn't have all of that infrastructure (at least, not yet), and cannot step in to replace all of that.

But also, Yes: SAS Studio can replace some uses of SAS Enterprise Guide. If you use SAS Enterprise Guide simply as way to manage SAS programs in your SAS environment, then you can certainly use SAS Studio instead (or as well) to develop and maintain those programs. SAS Studio also includes some tasks for non-programmers, similar to those found in SAS Enterprise Guide -- but for now the library isn't as rich as what you'll find in SAS Enterprise Guide. And with the SAS University Edition, SAS Studio will represent the first SAS experience for the next generation of SAS programmers.

Sometimes SAS users ask me (usually in a hushed tone): Why does SAS create these different applications that seem to compete with each other? Is there some sort of contest in SAS R&D to see which teams can outdo the others? My answer: while these apps might have a certain amount of overlap, they really do serve different purposes and different audiences. Our goal is to enable SAS users -- regardless of discipline, industry, or expertise -- with the tools that are most fit for their particular purpose. One size does not fit all (though some diehard PC SAS fans might disagree with me).

Plus, here's another secret: the same developers have built all of these applications. The SAS Studio development team includes people who worked on SAS Display Manager (you know, "PC SAS") and SAS Enterprise Guide. This is a direct benefit of SAS being such a great workplace: nobody leaves. That means that the lessons learned from customers and developers are carried over and applied in each successive "app generation". If developers are competing, then they are mostly competing with the proven work they've done in the past. But since the teams always have new technology and techniques at their disposal, it's the end users who win.
LEARN MORE | A Productive Future for SAS Enterprise Guide