New SAS, Teradata Analytic Advantage Program enhancements increase business decision-making agility

Knowing businesses today need a consistent and scalable analytic platform to help them quickly address customer demands and market changes, SAS, the leader in business analytics software and services, and Teradata (NYSE: TDC), the world's largest company solely focused on data warehousing and enterprise intelligence, have enhanced the SAS and Teradata Analytic Advantage Program.

Four new capabilities will enable companies to get up and running with their analytic requirements in an environment that can quickly scale from exploratory analysis or prototyping of new ideas, to full development, deployment and management of analytic models and processes.

Availability of the Teradata Analytic Sandbox Appliance, which leverages Teradata's platform and unique self-service capabilities and components in the SAS Predictive Analytics Suite (including SAS Enterprise Miner and SAS Scoring Accelerator for Teradata). This new appliance enables SAS and Teradata customers to easily create an independent analytic environment to perform accelerated, in-depth analyses prior to deployment in their production enterprise data warehouse.

Integration of SAS Rapid Predictive Modeller within the SAS and Teradata Analytic Advantage Program enables business analysts to expand their use of predictive analytics across the enterprise. Companies can generate predictive models in a quick, automated fashion and decrease the time needed to gain valuable insights from their data. Those models can be deployed using SAS Scoring Accelerator for Teradata, allowing them to be executed directly within the Teradata Analytic Sandbox Appliance or production environment, and managed by SAS Model Manager.

Extended service offerings from SAS and Teradata that include a proven methodology and implementation process to help customers quickly use the Teradata Analytic Sandbox Appliance or SAS Enterprise Miner (including SAS Rapid Predictive Modeller) to deploy an advanced analytic environment. The joint services portfolio is designed to support customers every step of the way in their analytic journey.

Analytics on demand, a new hosted environment at SAS featuring the market-leading Teradata database, gives customers the flexibility and agility to build and run their analytic models without technical limitations. Businesses can quickly start modelling on a hosted, shareable and scalable infrastructure specifically designed for the SAS and Teradata Analytic Advantage Program. This feature will be available in early 2011.

“In today's highly competitive environment, companies must take advantage of the latest database features and analytics capabilities to mitigate enormous volumes of data to deliver more timely and accurate insight to their business. Teradata and SAS provide an optimal solution for this. The addition of analytic sandbox capabilities when used seamlessly with a production EDW further simplifies the complexity of data exploration, model deployment and ultimately analytic adoption,” says Dean Wynkoop, Cabela's Manager of Data Management for Market Research and Analysis.

Scott Gnau, Teradata Chief Development Officer, adds: "Companies now have exactly what they've asked for from the Teradata-SAS partnership: approaches that help them get up and running quickly for short-term analysis, testing and prototyping as well as departmental or enterprise-class analytic projects that combine tools, processes and a platform to migrate those projects to full operational implementation."

The enhancements announced today reflect new offers in the evolution of the SAS and Teradata Advantage Program as the companies' joint customer base and joint solutions continue to grow. Participating in more than 350 global customer engagements spanning multiple vertical markets and regions, SAS and Teradata customers include HSBC, Discover, Cabela's, Rogers Communications, Oita Bank and Telstra.

“We know that a company's success is based in part on its ability to perform analyses on data that can quickly deliver informed, insightful business decisions,” said Keith Collins, SAS Senior Vice-President and Chief Technology Officer. “With SAS and Teradata, our joint customers are leveraging the power and expertise of our respective products to maintain a competitive edge.”

Today's announcement was made at the Teradata PARTNERS User Group Conference and Expo in San Diego, California and at the 2010 SAS Premier Business Leadership Series in Las Vegas, Nevada.