SAS Visual Analytics

SAS Visual Analytics typical implementation process:

1. Initial Consultation and Planning: Understanding the business needs and defining the scope of the analytics project.

2. Setup and Configuration: Deploying SAS Viya in the chosen environment, which could be SAS managed, self-managed, cloud-native, or cloud-agnostic.

3. Integration: Connecting SAS Viya with existing data sources and systems.

4. Customization and Optimization: Tailoring the platform to meet specific business requirements.

5. Training and Go-Live: Providing user training followed by the official launch of the platform for business use

SAS Visual Analytics can be customized extensively to fit specific business needs. Below are the ways it can be tailored, supported by its features and functionalities:

Customizable Features in SAS Visual Analytics:

1. Interactive Dashboards and Reports: Users can create tailored dashboards and reports using drag-and-drop features, allowing for interactive and business-specific visualizations. Reports can include unique KPIs, custom filters, and drill-down capabilities relevant to the organization's goals​.

2. Integration with Business Systems: SAS Visual Analytics integrates seamlessly with third-party tools like Microsoft 365, databases, and CRM systems, enabling custom workflows and access to proprietary data sources. Open APIs allow developers to build connections with other enterprise systems for data sharing​.

3. Augmented Analytics: Provides AI-driven recommendations and insights, which can be tuned to specific business domains or industry-specific requirements​.

4. Data Preparation and Transformation: The platform includes advanced tools for data profiling, cleansing, and transformation, allowing businesses to preprocess data according to their operational needs

5. Custom Calculations and Advanced Analytics: Users can define custom formulas and calculated items to meet unique analysis requirements. Predictive analytics and machine learning models can be trained on custom datasets​.

6. Geospatial Analytics: Businesses can incorporate location-based data into their analyses, enabling geographical insights tailored to industries like retail or logistics​.

7. Role-Based Access and Permissions: Custom roles and permissions can be defined to ensure users access only the data and reports relevant to their roles​.

8. Deployment Options: Businesses can deploy SAS Visual Analytics on-premises, in private clouds, or on public clouds (like AWS or Azure), depending on their IT strategy​.

9. Third-Party Extensions: Allows the use of JavaScript libraries like D3 and C3 for additional customization of visualizations. Developers can leverage REST APIs to build custom applications or features​.

10. Industry-Specific Templates: Pre-built templates for industries like healthcare, finance, and manufacturing can be further customized to align with organizational priorities.

Customizability Highlights:

• End-User Customization: Business users can make on-the-fly adjustments to reports and dashboards without requiring IT intervention.

• Developer Customization: Extensive SDKs and APIs provide advanced options for integration and feature development.

• Scalability: The platform adapts to businesses of varying sizes, from small-scale teams to enterprise-wide deployments.

SAS Visual Analytics training and supports:

• Documentation and Online Resources: Guides, tutorials, and documentation to help users understand and utilize the platform.

• Training Programs: Formal training sessions or courses designed to equip users with the necessary skills to effectively use SAS Visual Analytics.

• Customer Support: Access to SAS's customer support for troubleshooting, questions, and assistance with the platform.

SAS Visual Analytics security measures:

1. Device Whitelisting: Devices must be registered and whitelisted by an administrator to connect to the SAS Visual Analytics server, enhancing security by controlling which devices can access the system.

2. Data Encryption: SAS Viya provides self-signed certificates to offer HTTPS access out of the box, ensuring data encryption during transmission. Additionally, complex algorithms called ciphers are used to encrypt and decrypt data, protecting it from unauthorized access.

3. Passcode Protection: The SAS Visual Analytics app allows setting a passcode to prevent unauthorized access, with options for required and optional passcodes. This feature adds an extra layer of security for accessing reports and data on mobile devices.

4. SSL/HTTPS Configuration: Setting up SSL/HTTPS encrypts the data viewed in reports on mobile devices, safeguarding information during its transmission.

SAS Visual Analytics Updates:

• Stable Releases: These are monthly releases that provide the most up-to-date features, enhancements, bug fixes, and security patches. Customers can update to any of the three newer Stable releases within a rolling window of support.

• Long-Term Support (LTS) Releases: LTS releases occur semi-annually and include selected bug fixes and security patches. They are based on the Stable release from which they are seeded. This cadence is suitable for customers who prefer not to update their software too frequently.

SAS Visual Analytics data ownership and portability:

Data Ownership:

1. User Control: SAS Viya allows users to import their data, manage data quality, and create calculated columns, indicating that users retain control over their data within the platform.

2. Governance and Security: The platform includes robust security measures such as device whitelisting, data encryption, and passcode protection, which help ensure that data remains under the control of the rightful owners.

Data Portability:

1. Export Capabilities: SAS Visual Analytics likely provides functionalities to export data and reports in various formats, facilitating data portability. This is a common feature in analytics platforms to ensure that users can move their data as needed.

2. Integration with Other Systems: The platform's ability to integrate with various data sources and systems and supports data portability by allowing data to be moved in and out of the system seamlessly.

SAS Visual Analytics scalability:

1. Flexible Deployment Options: SAS Visual Analytics offers flexible deployment options, allowing organizations to scale their systems as their data and analytic needs grow or shrink. This suggests that SAS provides mechanisms to scale up or down the deployment based on changing organizational requirements.

1. Cloud Deployment Support: SAS Visual Analytics supports deployment in public cloud environments like AWS, Azure, and GCP, which typically offer elastic scaling capabilities. Cloud providers allow scaling compute resources up or down on-demand or through auto-scaling rules based on workload demands.

2. Distributed Mode and Clustering: SAS Visual Analytics can be deployed in a distributed mode using a cluster of computers. This distributed architecture likely allows for scaling by adding or removing nodes from the cluster as required, enabling organizations to adjust compute resources based on their evolving needs.

3. Cloud-Native Architecture (SAS Viya 4): The cloud-native architecture of SAS Viya 4, which includes SAS Visual Analytics, is designed to facilitate scalability and leverage technologies like Kubernetes for elastic scaling.

SAS Visual Analytics terms and conditions:

Contract Renewal:

1. License Renewal: The license for SAS Visual Analytics can be renewed at the mutual agreement of the parties. This renewal is accomplished by the customer paying the invoice for the renewal period specified on the invoice. The renewal process is straightforward: the customer's payment of each license renewal invoice constitutes the renewal of the license for the software for the specified renewal period.

2. Notification and Agreement: The renewal of the license is subject to the terms and conditions of the original agreement, and it requires the customer to agree to these terms by paying the renewal invoice.

Contract Cancellation:

1. Termination by SAS: SAS reserves the right to terminate the software license if the customer breaches any terms of the agreement. In such cases, SAS may choose to repair the software, replace it, or terminate the license and refund the fees paid for the software during the current annual license period. SAS disclaims all other warranties, express or implied, which means that the termination could be based on various factors, including non-compliance with the agreement terms.

1. Customer's Right to Terminate: The customer can terminate the agreement if SAS fails to meet its obligations under the warranty. The exclusive remedy for the customer in such cases is either repair, replacement, or termination of the software license with a refund of the fees paid for the software during the current annual license period.

2. Effect of Termination: Upon termination, the customer's right to use the software ceases immediately. The customer must stop using the software and destroy all copies of the software and documentation in their possession. Any termination does not relieve the customer of the obligation to pay any fees payable to SAS for the period prior to the effective date of termination.

3. Non-Renewal: If the customer decides not to renew the license, they must notify SAS before the end of the current license period. Failure to renew the license by paying the renewal invoice will result in the termination of the license at the end of the current period.

SAS Visual Analytics adhere to the following compliance standards:

1. PCI-DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard): SAS Viya, which includes SAS Visual Analytics, supports PCI-DSS compliance, ensuring that payment card data is handled securely.

2. HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act): SAS Viya complies with HIPAA standards, which are crucial for handling protected health information (PHI) securely.

3. GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation): SAS Viya supports GDPR compliance, helping organizations manage and protect personal data in accordance with European Union regulations.

4. FedRAMP (Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program): SAS Viya on AWS GovCloud (US) complies with FedRAMP High standards, which are essential for federal agencies and their partners working with sensitive data.

5. FISMA (Federal Information Security Modernization Act): SAS Viya meets FISMA requirements, ensuring that federal information systems are protected against security threats.

6. DoD SRG (Department of Defense Cloud Security Requirements Guide): SAS Viya complies with the DoD SRG, which is necessary for handling Department of Defense data securely.

7. ITAR (International Traffic in Arms Regulations): SAS Viya adheres to ITAR, ensuring that defense-related data is managed in compliance with U.S. regulations.

8. CJIS (Criminal Justice Information Services): SAS Viya meets CJIS standards, which are critical for managing criminal justice information securely.

ISO 27001 (Information Security Management System):

• SAS has obtained ISO 27001 certification, which covers the information security management system (ISMS) for hosting and managing customer environments.

• This certification includes control objectives from ISO 27002:2013, ISO 27017:2015, and ISO 27018:2019 frameworks.

SOC 2 and SOC 3 (Service Organization Control):

• SAS engages in annual SOC 2 Type II audits and provides SOC 3 general-use reports, which cover security, availability, and confidentiality trust principles.

• These reports include controls related to physical security, environmental safeguards, logical access, change management, monitoring, risk assessment, and management.