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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Microsoft Azure

    Score8.5 out of 10
    N/AMicrosoft Azure is a cloud computing platform and infrastructure for building, deploying, and managing applications and services through a global network of Microsoft-managed datacenters.

    $29

    per month

    SAS Visual Analytics

    Score7.8 out of 10
    Enterprise companies (1,001+ employees)
    SAS Visual Analytics provides a complete platform for analytics visualization, enabling users to identify patterns and relationships in data that weren't initially evident. Interactive, self-service BI and reporting capabilities are combined with out-of-the-box advanced analytics so everyone can discover insights from any size and type of data, including text.N/A
    Pricing
    Microsoft AzureSAS Visual Analytics
    Editions & Modules
    Developer
    $29
    per month
    Standard
    $100
    per month
    Professional Direct
    $1000
    per month
    Basic
    Free
    per month
    SAS Visual Analytics for SAS Cloud
    $0
    Annual By Users: 5, 10, 20
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    Microsoft AzureSAS Visual Analytics
    Free Trial
    YesYes
    Free/Freemium Version
    YesNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoYes
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional DetailsThe free tier lets users have access to a variety of services free for 12 months with limited usage after making an Azure account.SAS Visual Statistics and SAS Office Analytics are also available as add-ons.
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    Microsoft AzureSAS Visual Analytics
    Considered Both Products
    Microsoft
    No answer on this topic
    SAS
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    92%
    Would buy again
    34 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Delivers good value for the price
    94%
    Delivers good value for the price
    31 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Happy with the feature set
    95%
    Happy with the feature set
    35 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    89%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    24 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Implementation went as expected
    94%
    Implementation went as expected
    34 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Features
    Microsoft AzureSAS Visual Analytics
    Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS)
    Comparison of Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) features of Microsoft Azure and SAS Visual Analytics
    Feature
    Microsoft Azure
    8.4
    27 Ratings
    2% above category average
    SAS Visual Analytics
    -
    Ratings
    Service-level Agreement (SLA) uptime8.126 Ratings00 Ratings
    Dynamic scaling8.725 Ratings00 Ratings
    Elastic load balancing8.624 Ratings00 Ratings
    Pre-configured templates8.225 Ratings00 Ratings
    Monitoring tools8.326 Ratings00 Ratings
    Pre-defined machine images8.424 Ratings00 Ratings
    Operating system support8.926 Ratings00 Ratings
    Security controls8.626 Ratings00 Ratings
    Automation8.224 Ratings00 Ratings
    BI Standard Reporting
    Comparison of BI Standard Reporting features of Microsoft Azure and SAS Visual Analytics
    Feature
    Microsoft Azure
    -
    Ratings
    SAS Visual Analytics
    8.3
    11 Ratings
    2% above category average
    Pixel Perfect reports00 Ratings8.011 Ratings
    Customizable dashboards00 Ratings8.011 Ratings
    Report Formatting Templates00 Ratings9.010 Ratings
    Ad-hoc Reporting
    Comparison of Ad-hoc Reporting features of Microsoft Azure and SAS Visual Analytics
    Feature
    Microsoft Azure
    -
    Ratings
    SAS Visual Analytics
    8.8
    12 Ratings
    9% above category average
    Drill-down analysis00 Ratings9.012 Ratings
    Formatting capabilities00 Ratings8.012 Ratings
    Integration with R or other statistical packages00 Ratings8.010 Ratings
    Report sharing and collaboration00 Ratings10.011 Ratings
    Report Output and Scheduling
    Comparison of Report Output and Scheduling features of Microsoft Azure and SAS Visual Analytics
    Feature
    Microsoft Azure
    -
    Ratings
    SAS Visual Analytics
    9.2
    12 Ratings
    11% above category average
    Publish to Web00 Ratings9.011 Ratings
    Publish to PDF00 Ratings9.012 Ratings
    Report Versioning00 Ratings9.09 Ratings
    Report Delivery Scheduling00 Ratings10.011 Ratings
    Delivery to Remote Servers00 Ratings9.06 Ratings
    Data Discovery and Visualization
    Comparison of Data Discovery and Visualization features of Microsoft Azure and SAS Visual Analytics
    Feature
    Microsoft Azure
    -
    Ratings
    SAS Visual Analytics
    9.7
    10 Ratings
    19% above category average
    Pre-built visualization formats (heatmaps, scatter plots etc.)00 Ratings10.09 Ratings
    Location Analytics / Geographic Visualization00 Ratings10.010 Ratings
    Predictive Analytics00 Ratings9.09 Ratings
    Access Control and Security
    Comparison of Access Control and Security features of Microsoft Azure and SAS Visual Analytics
    Feature
    Microsoft Azure
    -
    Ratings
    SAS Visual Analytics
    8.3
    11 Ratings
    2% below category average
    Multi-User Support (named login)00 Ratings9.011 Ratings
    Role-Based Security Model00 Ratings8.010 Ratings
    Multiple Access Permission Levels (Create, Read, Delete)00 Ratings8.011 Ratings
    Single Sign-On (SSO)00 Ratings8.07 Ratings
    Mobile Capabilities
    Comparison of Mobile Capabilities features of Microsoft Azure and SAS Visual Analytics
    Feature
    Microsoft Azure
    -
    Ratings
    SAS Visual Analytics
    8.7
    9 Ratings
    12% above category average
    Responsive Design for Web Access00 Ratings10.09 Ratings
    Mobile Application00 Ratings9.07 Ratings
    Dashboard / Report / Visualization Interactivity on Mobile00 Ratings9.08 Ratings
    Application Program Interfaces (APIs) / Embedding
    Comparison of Application Program Interfaces (APIs) / Embedding features of Microsoft Azure and SAS Visual Analytics
    Feature
    Microsoft Azure
    -
    Ratings
    SAS Visual Analytics
    9.2
    5 Ratings
    17% above category average
    REST API00 Ratings10.04 Ratings
    Javascript API00 Ratings9.04 Ratings
    iFrames00 Ratings9.04 Ratings
    Java API00 Ratings9.04 Ratings
    Themeable User Interface (UI)00 Ratings9.04 Ratings
    Customizable Platform (Open Source)00 Ratings9.03 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    Microsoft AzureSAS Visual Analytics
    Small Businesses
    IBM Cloud Object Storage
    Score9 out of 10
    Cyfe
    Score4 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    IBM Cloud Bare Metal Servers
    Score8.7 out of 10
    Qlik Cloud Analytics (Qlik Sense)
    Score8.1 out of 10
    Enterprises
    SAP on IBM Cloud
    Score9 out of 10
    Sisense
    Score6.9 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    Microsoft AzureSAS Visual Analytics
    Likelihood to Recommend
    8.7
    (96 ratings)
    9.0
    (17 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    10.0
    (17 ratings)
    9.3
    (3 ratings)
    Usability
    8.3
    (36 ratings)
    6.0
    (1 ratings)
    Availability
    6.8
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Support Rating
    9.0
    (27 ratings)
    8.0
    (3 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    8.0
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Data Sharing and Collaboration
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.6
    (11 ratings)
    Data Sources
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.8
    (11 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    Microsoft AzureSAS Visual Analytics
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Microsoft
    Azure is particularly well suited for enterprise environments with existing Microsoft investments, those that require robust compliance features, and organizations that need hybrid cloud capabilities that bridge on-premises and cloud infrastructure. In my opinion, Azure is less appropriate for cost-sensitive startups or small businesses without dedicated cloud expertise and scenarios requiring edge computing use cases with limited connectivity. Azure offers comprehensive solutions for most business needs but can feel like there is a higher learning curve than other cloud-based providers, depending on the product and use case.
    Read full review
    SAS
    I was in a meeting with the client and there I have to show them some analytic data to them. But I was confused about how I will manage to show big data to clients with accuracy. But then the SAS Visual Analytics software helps me in presenting accurate data at the moment and it was very presentable and through that, I got the deal for that business.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pros
    Microsoft
    • Microsoft Azure is highly scalable and flexible. You can quickly scale up or down additional resources and computing power.
    • You have no longer upfront investments for hardware. You only pay for the use of your computing power, storage space, or services.
    • The uptime that can be achieved and guaranteed is very important for our company. This includes the rapid maintenance for security updates that are mostly carried out by Microsoft.
    • The wide range of capabilities of services that are possible in Microsoft Azure. You can practically put or create anything in Microsoft Azure.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    SAS
    • Provides the flexibility to the end user to slice and dice the data.
    • Anyone can make predictive models with the help of in-built algorithms without the need to write a single line of code or knowledge of what's under the hood of algorithms.
    • The feature to simply ask a question related to data and getting a response in form of text, chart or graph is amazing.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    Microsoft
    • The cost of resources is difficult to determine, technical documentation is frequently out of date, and documentation and mapping capabilities are lacking.
    • The documentation needs to be improved, and some advanced configuration options require research and experimentation.
    • Microsoft's licensing scheme is too complex for the average user, and Azure SQL syntax is too different from traditional SQL.
    Read full review
    SAS
    • SAS is relatively expensive when compared to other BI tools and requires a large amount of upfront fee which becomes an issue for smaller organizations.
    • UI for the dashboards looks a little date in comparison to competitors like Tableau and Microstrategy.
    • Integration with other open source software like Python needs to be built in.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    Microsoft
    Moving to Azure was and still is an organizational strategy and not simply changing vendors. Our product roadmap revolved around Azure as we are in the business of humanitarian relief and Azure and Microsoft play an important part in quickly and efficiently serving all of the world. Migration and investment in Azure should be considered as an overall strategy of an organization and communicated companywide.
    Read full review
    SAS
    SAS really is the cutting edge in Business Intelligence. That is all they do! They are constantly coming out with new products, product upgrades, and their tech support is second to none. In addition, their support of Education has made our ability to acquire their product possible.
    Read full review
    Usability
    Microsoft
    As Microsoft Azure is [doing a] really good with PaaS. The need of a market is to have [a] combo of PaaS and IaaS. While AWS is making [an] exceptionally well blend of both of them, Azure needs to work more on DevOps and Automation stuff. Apart from that, I would recommend Azure as a great platform for cloud services as scale.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    SAS
    SAS BI is good for creating reports and dashboards and then sharing it with the users. It also has ability to manage access to the reports and dashboards but somehow with most of the world moving to open source languages R, Python and Julia, SAS BI feels to be archaic in terms of feature set and integrations it allow[s]. Also, comparing it with other Business Intelligence tools like Tableau and Microsoft BI, the functionality of SAS BI is very limited and doesn't justify the pricing.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Reliability and Availability
    Microsoft
    It has proven to be unreliable in our production environment and services become unavailable without proper notification to system administrators
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    SAS
    No answers on this topic
    Support Rating
    Microsoft
    We were running Windows Server and Active Directory, so [Microsoft] Azure was a seamless transition. We ran into a few, if any support issues, however, the availability of Microsoft Azure's support team was more than willing and able to guide us through the process. They even proposed solutions to issues we had not even thought of!
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    SAS
    When you call tech support, you are immediately routed to a person who can answer your question. Often they can answer on the spot. However, if they cannot, you are given a track number and then followed up with. There have been times when I have had multiple track numbers open and they will actually TRACK YOU DOWN to ensure that your problem has been resolved. Issues do not fall into black holes with SAS. They are also willing to do a WebEx with you to diagnose the problem by seeing your environment, which is always helpful.
    Read full review
    Implementation Rating
    Microsoft
    As I have mentioned before the issue with my Oracle Mismatch Version issues that have put a delay on moving one of my platforms will justify my 7 rating.
    Read full review
    SAS
    No answers on this topic
    Alternatives Considered
    Microsoft
    As I continue to evaluate the "big three" cloud providers for our clients, I make the following distinctions, though this gap continues to close. AWS is more granular, and inherently powerful in the configuration options compared to [Microsoft] Azure. It is a "developer" platform for cloud. However, Azure PowerShell is helping close this gap. Google Cloud is the leading containerization platform, largely thanks to it building kubernetes from the ground up. Azure containerization is getting better at having the same storage/deployment options.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    SAS
    I have used Crystal Reports, Jaspersoft and SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS). I would recommended Business Intelligence over SSRS and Crystal Reports. SSRS is very SQL-centric and Crystal Reports is more of an end-user tool. I would recommend Jaspersoft over Business Intelligence for developing a seamless web-based reporting interface but I highly recommend Business Intelligence for end-user ad-hoc reporting.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Return on Investment
    Microsoft
    • For about 2 years we didn't have to do anything with our production VMs, the system ran without a hitch, which meant our engineers could focus on features rather than infrastructure.
    • DNS management was very easy in Azure, which made it easy to upgrade our cluster with zero downtime.
    • Azure Web UI was easy to work with and navigate, which meant our senior engineers and DevOps team could work with Azure without formal training.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    SAS
    • SAS Visual Analytics licensing cost should be reduced to enable users to use it in mass scale.
    • More statistical and mathematical equations and theories should be converted into SAS functions for reusing.
    • Because of enriched ETL and reporting capabilities SAS Visual Analytics is most preferred by business users.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots

    SAS Visual Analytics Screenshots

    Screenshot of Explore your data using analytics and interactive data visualizations.