Microsoft Azure vs. SAS Visual Analytics

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Microsoft Azure
Score 8.5 out of 10
N/A
Microsoft 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
Score 6.8 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.
$0
Annual By Users: 5, 10, 20
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
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
Features
Microsoft AzureSAS Visual Analytics
Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS)
Comparison of Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) features of Product A and Product B
Microsoft Azure
8.4
28 Ratings
2% above category average
SAS Visual Analytics
-
Ratings
Service-level Agreement (SLA) uptime8.227 Ratings00 Ratings
Dynamic scaling8.626 Ratings00 Ratings
Elastic load balancing8.725 Ratings00 Ratings
Pre-configured templates8.126 Ratings00 Ratings
Monitoring tools8.227 Ratings00 Ratings
Pre-defined machine images8.425 Ratings00 Ratings
Operating system support8.927 Ratings00 Ratings
Security controls8.627 Ratings00 Ratings
Automation8.225 Ratings00 Ratings
BI Standard Reporting
Comparison of BI Standard Reporting features of Product A and Product B
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 Product A and Product B
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 Product A and Product B
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 Product A and Product B
Microsoft Azure
-
Ratings
SAS Visual Analytics
9.7
10 Ratings
20% 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 Product A and Product B
Microsoft Azure
-
Ratings
SAS Visual Analytics
8.3
11 Ratings
3% 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 Product A and Product B
Microsoft Azure
-
Ratings
SAS Visual Analytics
8.7
9 Ratings
10% 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 Product A and Product B
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
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User Ratings
Microsoft AzureSAS Visual Analytics
Likelihood to Recommend
8.7
(97 ratings)
9.0
(17 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
10.0
(17 ratings)
9.3
(3 ratings)
Usability
8.4
(37 ratings)
6.0
(1 ratings)
Availability
6.8
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
8.0
(28 ratings)
8.0
(3 ratings)
Implementation Rating
8.0
(2 ratings)
-
(0 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.
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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.
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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.
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.
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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Reliability and Availability
Microsoft
It has proven to be unreliable in our production environment and services become unavailable without proper notification to system administrators
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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!
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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ScreenShots

SAS Visual Analytics Screenshots

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