Hadoop Bandwagon Continues with SAS High-Performance Analytics Server
The Hadoop bandwagon keeps rolling on: SAS announced earlier this week that its SAS High-Performance Analytics Server would rely on the popular data framework as part of its predictive modeling capabilities. While various open-source frameworks have emerged in recent years to assist data analysts and IT departments in running data applications on large hardware clusters, Apache Hadoop has emerged as a clear favorite of prominent organizations such as Facebook and IBM. Over the past several quarters, various research firms such as Market Research Media and IDC have attributed a significant portion of Hadoop’s popularity to the cost savings and flexibility associated with open-source software. When Jaspersoft surveyed 600 community members over the summer, for example, it found some 59 percent of them either deployed Hadoop as part of a “Big Data” project or had begun developing a role for it within their organizations. The SAS High-Performance Analytics Server supports Hadoop in deployments on industry-standard hardware platforms, according to the company. SAS leverages Hadoop as part of its SAS/ACCESS Interface, which connects the SAS platform with third-party data sources from data warehouses, enterprise applications and the like. There’s also a visualization element involved, with SAS Data Integration Server and other SAS graphical tools allowing users to analyze and display Hadoop data and processes within the SAS environments.