According to McKinsey & Company, 70% of companies using cloud technology plan to increase their cloud budgets. The public cloud computing market is projected to grow to $800 billion by 2024, with implementations across all industries – retail, media, telecom, education, banking, insurance and more.

What's driving this investment? Forrester Consulting's new Total Economic Impact^™ study, shows organisations deploying SAS^® Viya^® on Microsoft Azure can see significant returns in as little as 14-months. In fact, one company more than tripled its investment in three years, results that will be explored during the May 18 webinar, Driving 204% ROI With SAS Viya On Microsoft Azure.

Journey to the cloud

SAS' cloud-first transformation didn't happen overnight. Using its decades-long legacy as a bridge to the future, step No. 1 was to develop SAS^® Viya^® as a cloud-first analytics platform. That endeavour ran in sync with ongoing strategic partnership investments, including Microsoft Azure. More recently, SAS joined new partner Cosmo Tech to fortify its digital twin simulation capabilities.

"We transformed our portfolio to be cloud-native and cloud-portable so customers can accelerate their move to the cloud and expand their use of analytics, machine learning and AI," said Bryan Harris, SAS Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer. "At the end of the day, we want our platform and industry solutions to be a critical part of every customer's analytic innovation."

Because SAS is both cloud-first and cloud-agnostic, helping customers manage the complexity of analysing intense data in the cloud is second nature. "Our customers don't need to stress about data complexity or the details of running analytic workloads in the cloud, because SAS gives them the expertise they need," said Jay Upchurch, SAS Executive Vice President and Chief Information Officer – who also leads the SAS cloud business. "SAS analytics in the cloud gives our customers a distinct advantage, whether they're using SAS Viya or an industry solution."

SAS helps progressive customers see results in the cloud more easily

In 2021, SAS realised the most cloud revenue growth from customers Asia Pacific (48% growth) and EMEA (29% growth) – and SAS' commitment to cloud and AI innovation lives in its customers' successes. Among them:

• Georgia-Pacific uses SAS^® Analytics for IoT powered by SAS Viya on AWS and is digitally transforming its manufacturing and commercial operation. By using SAS, Georgia-Pacific saw a 30% reduction in unplanned downtime in its factories and was able to catch supply chain issues earlier to ensure commercial deliveries arrived on time and in full.
• Inland Revenue New Zealand has digitally transformed using SAS Viya. This makeover helped the agency boost compliance, save taxpayer money, and improve customer experience.
• Iveco Group, a global truck manufacturer, digital transformed using SAS Viya. SAS analytics in the cloud helps Iveco Group reduce truck recalls by proactively fixing customer issues before they become major problems.
• The North Carolina Collaboratory analyses IoT sensor data from COVID-19 vaccine storage freezers to strengthen cold-chain integrity and improve dosage delivery, particularly to underserved and rural communities.  

Other customers embracing the transformative power of SAS Viya include Kellogg's, Ahold Delhaize and the State of Idaho.

SAS differentiates itself with broad portfolio of AI-infused industry solutions

SAS' experience and expertise in industry and horizontal solutions is unmatched, with new solutions being built continuously. The newest additions include:

• SAS 360 Match. As streaming media giants face headline-grabbing subscription losses, SAS delivers technology to help them put consumers' desires front and centre. This martech solution delivers a first-party, cloud-based ad serving platform, fully integrated with other SAS technologies, including customer data platform, marketing planning and strategy, and customer journey optimisation. It streamlines the entire customer engagement process – from advertising, to marketing, to customer engagement and, ultimately, conversion.
• SAS Clinical Enrollment Simulation Cloud. The pandemic gave the world a front-row seat to the importance of clinical trials in developing life-saving vaccines and treatments. This new software-as-a-service offering, built on SAS Viya, enables life sciences and contract research organisations to virtually simulate the outcome of complex clinical trial enrolment processes. Available later this year on the Microsoft Azure Marketplace, it leverages a powerful discrete event simulation (DES) engine to model the clinical trial enrolment process as it evolves over time, facilitating improved insights to guide enrolment strategy and meet contracted patient targets. The result is faster, more strategic clinical trial enrolment planning.
• SAS^® Grid Guardian AI. The IoT analytics solution helps energy companies reduce costs, protect workers in the field and improve energy grid reliability. By applying edge computing, AI and machine learning to the radio frequency (RF) emissions flowing from overhead power distribution equipment, SAS helps energy companies better understand when overhead equipment failures might occur so they can prioritise maintenance schedules to boost safety, reliability and uptime.

SAS Hackathon teams innovate with SAS in the cloud

The SAS Hackathon is an incubator for innovation and a test bed for AI in the cloud. Hackathon teams use SAS Viya on Microsoft Azure, along with open-source tools, to help solve some of the world's toughest social and economic challenges.

This year's SAS Hackathon included a team of eight members from South African who competed alongside 69 other team, representing 135 organisations and 75 countries.

The team from South Africa leveraged advanced augmented intelligence to build a solution that included creating models that could be trained to identify lung disease using digital X-rays. Even with limited data sets available the models were able to achieve diagnostic accuracy above 90% - and while for the duration of the Hackathon the team focused on lung diseases, the models have the potential to be scaled up to include other body parts for the same purpose of quick identification, diagnosis and treatment prioritisation.

About SAS Viya

SAS Viya is an AI, analytic and data management platform that runs on a modern, scalable architecture. It is cloud-first software, designed to be delivered and updated continuously and bring the power of analytics to everyone, everywhere. SAS Viya integrates the art of decision making with the science of AI and advanced analytics, helping organisations to make better decisions, faster.

About SAS

SAS is the leader in analytics. Through innovative software and services, SAS empowers and inspires customers around the world to transform data into intelligence. SAS gives you THE POWER TO KNOW^®.