Jupyter Notebook vs. SAS Enterprise Guide

I've created a number of daisy chain notebooks for different workflows, and every time, I create my workflows with other users in mind. Jupiter Notebook makes it very easy for me to outline my thought process in as granular a way as I want without using innumerable small. inline comments.

Incentivized

SAS Enterprise Guide is good at taking various datasets and giving analyst/user ability to do some transformations without substantial amounts of code. Once the data is inside SAS, the memory of it is very efficient. Using SAS for data analysis can be helpful. It will give good statistics for you, and it has a robust set of functions that aid analysis.

Incentivized

• Simple and elegant code writing ability. Easier to understand the code that way.
• The ability to see the output after each step.
• The ability to use ton of library functions in Python.
• Easy-user friendly interface.

Incentivized

• Ability to load an AutoExec when opening a session ensuring everyone has the same global variables.
• Formatting with Ctrl I. If you're reading someone else's code and it's not formatted correctly you can highlight the area and hit Ctrl I.

Incentivized

• Need more Hotkeys for creating a beautiful notebook. Sometimes we need to download other plugins which messes [with] its default settings.
• Not as powerful as IDE, which sometimes makes [the] job difficult and allows duplicate code as it get confusing when the number of lines increases. Need a feature where [an] error comes if duplicate code is found or [if a] developer tries the same function name.

Incentivized

• Process time of data is a bit long. It depends on the size of your data and complexity of your project tree.
• There is not enough online free training videos.
• While working with the project tree sometimes the links between the modules are broken or the order for running the modules get mixed up. You should know your project tree by heart.

Incentivized

On account of current user experience and the organization-wide acceptance.

Jupyter is highly simplistic. It took me about 5 mins to install and create my first "hello world" without having to look for help. The UI has minimalist options and is quite intuitive for anyone to become a pro in no time. The lightweight nature makes it even more likeable.

Incentivized

It's not all bad, but I don't believe that an enterprise purchase of SAS is worth the expense considering the widely available set of tools in the data analytics space at the moment. In my company, it's a good tool because others use it. Otherwise, I wouldn't purchase a new set of it because it doesn't have some of the better analytical functions in it.

Incentivized

I haven't had a need to contact support. However, all required help is out there in public forums.

Incentivized

Although I use SAS support for information on functions, these are SAS related and haven't really come across anything that is specifically for SAS EG.

Incentivized

I've not worked hands-on with the implementation team, but there were no escalations barring a few hiccups in the deployment due to change in requirement & adoption to our company's remote servers.

With Jupyter Notebook besides doing data analysis and performing complex visualizations you can also write machine learning algorithms with a long list of libraries that it supports. You can make better predictions, observations etc. with it which can help you achieve better business decisions and save cost to the company. It stacks up better as we know Python is more widely used than R in the industry and can be learnt easily. Unlike PyCharm jupyter notebooks can be used to make documentations and exported in a variety of formats.

Incentivized

Why I prefer SAS EG: Data processing speed is much faster than that R Studio. It can load any amount of data and any type of data like structured or unstructured or semi-structured. Its output delivery system by which we have the output in PDF file makes it very comfortable to use and share that file to clients very easily. Inbuilt functions are very powerful and plentiful. Facility of writing macros makes it far away from its competitors.

• Positive impact: flexible implementation on any OS, for many common software languages
• Positive impact: straightforward duplication for adaptation of workflows for other projects
• Negative impact: sometimes encourages pigeonholing of data science work into notebooks versus extending code capability into software integration

Incentivized

• Positive (cost): SAS made a bundle that include unlimited usage of SAS/Enterprise Guide with a server solution. That by itself made the company save a lot of money by not having to pay individual licences anymore.
• Positive (insight): Data analysts in business units often need to crunch data and they don't have access to ETL tools to do it. Having access to SAS/EG gives them that power.
• Positive (time to market): Having the users develop components with SAS/EG allows for easier integration in a production environment (SAS batch job) as no code rework is required.