Microsoft's Azure Machine Learning is and end-to-end data science and analytics solution that helps professional data scientists to prepare data, develop experiments, and deploy models in the cloud. It replaces the Azure Machine Learning Workbench.
$0
per month
SAS Enterprise Miner
Score 8.2 out of 10
N/A
SAS Enterprise Miner is a data science and statistical modeling solution enabling the creation of predictive and descriptive models on very large data sources across the organization.
SAS Enterprise Miner is world-class software for individuals interested in developing reproducible models in a reasonable amount of time. Perhaps the most useful part of SAS Enterprise Miner is the ability to compare models with other models without writing code. The ensemble modeling capabilities is the easiest way to do ensemble modeling I have come across. SAS Enterprise Miner is well-suited for beginning to advanced analysts who know something about advanced analytics. The software is not well-suited for analysts or companies that have little interest in advanced modeling.
User friendliness: This is by far the most user friendly tool I've seen in analytics. You don't need to know how to code at all! Just create a few blocks, connect a few lines and you are capable of running a boosted decision tree with a very high R squared!
Speed: Azure ML is a cloud based tool, so processing is not made with your computer, making the reliability and speed top notch!
Cost: If you don't know how to code, this is by far the cheapest machine learning tool out there. I believe it costs less than $15/month. If you know how to code, then R is free.
Connectivity: It is super easy to embed R or Python codes on Azure ML. So if you want to do more advanced stuff, or use a model that is not yet available on Azure ML, you can simply paste the code on R or Python there!
Microsoft environment: Many many companies rely on the Microsoft suite. And Azure ML connects perfectly with Excel, CSV and Access files.
Enterprise Miner is really visual and lets you do a whole lot without actually going into the detailed options. For decent results, you should really explore the different advanced options though.
The recent versions of Miner allow users to use R code in Miner. You can then compare several models and approach to get the best performing model.
The resulting data is really well displayed and easy to understand (ex: the lift graph, score ranking, etc.)
Miner has the ability to integrate custom SAS code which allows the user to add functionalities that are specific to the project.
With large data sets, SAS Enterprise Miner sometimes takes a long time to run. Sometimes you have to just leave your computer running while Enterprise Miner does its thing.
If you want complete control over the modeling framework, you have to take what Enterprise Miner does and customize it. SAS seems to be working hard on making things easier to customize, but it's not completely there yet.
The graphic capabilities of SAS Enterprise Miner leave a lot to be desired, especially in the era of self-service business intelligence software.
I have contacted SAS twice in the past year and they have been super responsive both times. They solved my problem. I am also registered for an in-person class next month and they called today to tell me that it will be an online-only session. They apologized for the change and registered me for the online version. Super helpful!
It is easier to learn, it has a very cost effective license for use, it has native build and created for Azure cloud services, and that makes it perfect when compared against the alternatives. As a Microsoft tool, it has been built to contain many visual features and improved usability even for non-specialist users.
SAS EM has a very great set of machine learning and predictive analytics toolsets, which helped our organization achieve its goals. We used other tools, but for us, SAS EM was the most intuitive and easy to learn the tool and it provides greater data exploration and data preparation capabilities compared to the other tools we used.
Productivity: Instead of coding and recoding, Azure ML helped my organization to get to meaningful results faster;
Cost: Azure ML can save hundreds (or even thousands) of dollars for an organization, since the license costs around $15/month per seat.
Focus on insights and not on statistics: Since running a model is so easy, analysts can focus more on recommendations and insights, rather than statistical details
