IBM SAP Versus SAS: A Faux Dust Up

July 22, 2015

Ah, the freebie statistics are like gnats. One or two make no difference when one is eating a chicken leg. Toss in 20,000 or more and the leg eating becomes a chore.

I read an oblique write up called “SAS UK Chief: Envious Rivals, Skills Gap and Analytics in the Cloud.” The topics are interesting because they are mixed together, a fruit salad to go with that picnic chicken.

The write up begins a statement attributed to an IBM SAP executive along the lines: “SAS could be entirely replaced.” That seems a bit of fortune telling which might not be entirely in line with some SAS users’ plans. IBM, as you may know, is fresh from 13 straight quarters of revenue decline. I interpreted the feisty comment as a signal to IBM management that the much loved SAP division is replete with machismo and doing its bit to increase revenues. There’s nothing like a statistics squabble to pump up the sales spice.

As I understand the write up, that allegedly “put ‘em up, chump” statement caused an SAS executive to flounder. SAS’s problem is that it is still a little chunk of graduate school. SAS faces competition from upstarts like Talend. SAP, on the other hand, is chasing consulting and giant IBM cloud-type things. But the two outfits are old school operations. For proof just ask a graduate student in statistics.

The reality is that both SAP and SAS may be victims of the same market shifts. In order to get either company’s products to deliver a perfect grilled chicken, one has to know about statistics and have resources (money, gentle reader).

Big companies are okay with these requirements. But the buzz in the analytics world is for open source, point and click, ready to run solutions. The outputs of these next generation systems may not meet the standards of the SAPs and the SASs of the world, but the customers don’t care.

These two firms are facing many gnats. Neither is going to have a pleasant meal. The good old days of sunshine, blue skies, and a bug free experience are gone.

Stephen E Arnold, July 22, 2015

Written by Stephen E. Arnold · Filed Under Analytics, Big data, News

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Stephen E. Arnold monitors search, content processing, text mining and related topics from his high-tech nerve center in rural Kentucky. He tries to winnow the goose feathers from the giblets. He works with colleagues worldwide to make this Web log useful to those who want to go "beyond search". Contact him at sa [at] arnoldit.com. His Web site with additional information about search is arnoldit.com.