SAS Partners Microsoft, KPMG to Collaborate on Data Analytics

Analytics software maker SAS this week announced an extensive technology and go-to-market strategic partnership with Microsoft, which will allow its customers to easily run their SAS workloads on Microsoft Azure as the preferred cloud provider for SAS Cloud.

SAS Global Forum 2020

Announced at the SAS Global Forum 2020 virtual event, SAS and Microsoft will essentially work together to ensure that SAS products and solutions will work and run effectively on Azure. Customers can expect a seamless experience and help organizations accelerate their use of cloud for their analytics and AI workloads.

This will include optimizing SAS Viya, the latest release of the company’s cloud-native offering, for Azure as well as integrating SAS’ deep portfolio of industry solutions, from fraud to risk to retail, into the Azure Marketplace to provide improved productivity and enhanced business outcomes for customers.

The goal of the Microsoft partnership is to build smart, automated, reliable, and explainable decision systems that can work at scale, says, Oliver Schabenberger, COO of SAS.

Additional, SAS products and solutions will begin rolling out later this year. This will enable SAS and Microsoft customers to address some of their most critical and complex analytical challenges while fostering continuous innovation.

“Through this partnership, Microsoft and SAS will help our customers accelerate growth and find new ways to drive innovation with a broad set of SAS Analytics offerings on Microsoft Azure,” said Scott Guthrie, executive VP of Cloud and AI at Microsoft.

“SAS, with its recognized expertise in analytics, data science, and machine learning, is a strategic partner for Microsoft, and together we will help customers across dozens of industries and horizontals address their most critical and complex analytical challenges,” said Guthrie.

And as reported on TechRepublic, SAS will also work with KPMG cloud consultants to open Cloud Acceleration Centers. The centers will support SAS clients who have their own cloud environment as well as those who are employing other cloud-based managed services. With more than 400 practitioners around the world, KPMG is well-positioned to support SAS clients with digital transformation projects and cloud migration.

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