Input on others moving SAS devs from Base SAS to SAS VA in the cloud

[Sajid01]

In a typical case flat files can be imported into SAS Viya but the way one works will be some what different.
I highly recommend what @SASKiwi has suggested.

[merrittr]

Here is what we are moving to from SAS Base sorry too awhile to track this down

This Package Includes:
• SAS Office Analytics
– Base SAS
– SAS/STAT
– SAS/GRAPH
• SAS/IML
• SAS Studio
• SAS ACCESS/Interface to ODBC
• SAS ACCESS to PC Files
• SAS ACCESS for SQL Server
• SAS Add-In for Microsoft Office

[SASKiwi]

That product list is way more than just VA. My advice on doing a proper content assessment and checking out the Migration Focus web page still stands. You can't accurately estimate the migration resources and time until you've done that. 

[Sajid01]

You said you want to move the following to the cloud.

This Package Includes:
• SAS Office Analytics
– Base SAS
– SAS/STAT
– SAS/GRAPH
• SAS/IML
• SAS Studio
• SAS ACCESS/Interface to ODBC
• SAS ACCESS to PC Files
• SAS ACCESS for SQL Server
• SAS Add-In for Microsoft Office

Well the are a part of SAS and should be available in the cloud installation. Nothing needs to be done on your part.

[Patrick]

What does 1 year mean?

1 year until the users can start using the new environment feels certainly too long but 1 year until the old environment can get decommissioned might be realistic.

The step from on-prem SAS9.4 to cloud Viya is significant and users need also to learn how to use this new environment. Migration could be more than just "lift and shift" but could also include clean-up and re-design to take full advantage of the new SAS architecture/environment. And migration will also require significant involvement of these 11 users/devs besides of their normal day job. ...and that's why 1 year might be a realistic number.

I'd care more about if the total effort/cost of this migration feels realistic than about the duration.

[merrittr]

The main goal here is to get all the data sets (sas7bdat) into the new environment and getting the epidemeoloigst coding in the new environment. they all have had training , so what would it take to import all there data sets into the new environment

[SASKiwi]

So have you run a content assessment on SAS 9.4 yet? That will identify all SAS artifacts that need migrating and will even point out source code changes that are necessary. If your SAS 9.4 and cloud SAS VA OSs are different then all SAS content like datasets and catalogs will need to be converted. Have you chosen a mechanism for transporting SAS files yet? FTP is one option that is commonly used. 

[merrittr]

No we havent done that , we really are in the dark at the moment is moving the data sets is as simple as ftp/sftp then we are good I will suggest that assesment tool not sure what it will pick up as the epis just use base sas and add ina data set (s) via libray command

[SASKiwi]

What is your SAS 9.4 OS? If it isn't linux then you will have to convert all SAS data libraries using PROC CPORT, then FTP to the cloud, then use CIMPORT to read them in on SAS VA. To be blunt, you will remain in the dark until you do a content assessment. I've done these and they are very, very useful for identifying migration issues.

[Quentin]

What do your SAS consultants say?  My sense is you're not trusting the assessment from your IT group.  If you've hired SAS consultants to create a new Viya environment for you, I would think part of that project would involve them developing a migration plan (or at least assisting with the development of a migration plan).

[JuanS_OCS]

Hello,

I am not sure why it has been estimated 1 year. It would be nice to have an inventory of your SAS artifacts and data, how many SAS environments and workspaces do you have, and what kind of company you are working on, since it policies can affect the timelines and kind of workloads.

- How many reports, stored processes, programs, EG projects, libraries, data connections/servers do you have?

- How much data are we talking about? In disk and in memory

- How many workspace servers per environment?

- How many environments?

- Do you work for banking, pharma, life sciences, or any other highly compliant and regulated type of company?

- Who will do the migration, are those teams skilled enough?

This being said, you might want to look into the SAS Content Assessment tool. It will help a lot during this journey.

When you have any doubts, it is a good idea to schedule a visit by one SAS Consultant or SAS specialized partner, to get second opinions and insights.

Best regards,

Juan