What data management topics would you like to see covered during SAS Global Forum 2017?

[lauralawton]

SAS Global Forum 2016 just ended, but we are already looking ahead to 2017. We are in the planning stages for papers and presentations and would like your input. What topics would you like to see covered next year? Please be as specific as possible. This conference is for YOU, so we want to ensure the presentations hit the mark. 

[DarthPathos]

Ooh - Data management - one of my favourite topics 🙂

I would love to see (all topics using Base SAS - i don't have access to any of the SAS Data Management products :-))

how to use Powershell with a locally installed version of SAS 9.4 (either through EG or Base SAS) to extract, manage and manipulate data;

creating a data dictionary for a SQL Server database - including number of rows, number of missing values per variable, datatype, min / max values, etc. for a database that has an unknown number of tables / views;

handling missing values for different types of datasets (longitudingal, survey, demographic, etc....).

Thanks for your time and let me know if you need any further information!!

Chris

[lauralawton]

Hello DarthPathos,

Thanks for sharing your ideas for data management topics. I'll be sure to forward your suggestions to the folks organizing SAS Global Forum 2017.

Regards,

Laura

[SASKiwi]

Hi Laura,

Hot topics for me are

• Any plans SAS may have to improve accessing of external database names, table names, column names longer than 32 characters - this is a significant source of frustration. 
• Any plans or ways to encrypt in-flight data between external RDBMSs and SAS - this seems to be a gap in SAS's security model.
• Connecting to external databases using connection strings to minimise the need to configure outside of SAS such as in the ODBC Administrator and Oracle TNSNAMES.ORA files - I know this is possible for some databases but it is not explained in a holistic way in any support documents I'm aware of.
• Techniques for improving the reading and writing performance of data between SAS and external databases, both basic and advanced.

Thanks,

SASKiwi 

[LinusH]

I think much of future questions spells Viya. So what data management products is/will be implemented in Viya and how?

Also, what is the future on ETL? Will DI Studio be migrated to Viya? SAS/CONNECT couldn't possibly be the final solution...hope not...
Tightly coupled is the topic about meta data, will Viya provide a more integrated meta data then todays quite fragmented model?

And What is SAS take on the growing market on mapping tools? I think integration with some/any of these is crucial if SAS still wish to be a player on the ETL/DW market.

And to add to @SASKiwi list about databases if there any plans to integrate more attributes through SAS/ACCESS, like labels and other extended attributes?

[LinusH]

Yet another topic, Hadoop integration.
There are several option today on data storage. Each of them more or less detailed described in the documentation. Bit it would be nice with a prez where these options are compared. Like performance, ease of setup and maintenance, functionality, possibly relationship with other SAS products/functionality. The ones I can think from the top of of my head:
-Hive (and other Hadoop relational storage engines)
-SPDE
-SPD Server
-SASHDAT
-....

Hive (and may be others?) offers different physical file formats. Perhaps a comparison of these could be interesting from a SAS/DW point of view.

[AnnaBrown]

Hi DarthPathos, SASKiwi and LinusH,

Now that content is available on the SAS Global Forum 2017 web site, I’ve pulled out some sessions that relate to topics that interest you. Thanks again for outlining these areas!

Below are your topic ideas followed by related sessions at the event. Note that the Super Demo schedule is not yet available. If you’re not able to attend the conference this year, these links will update with the actual papers as they become available.

DarthPathos:

I would love to see (all topics using Base SAS - i don't have access to any of the SAS Data Management products :-))

how to use Powershell with a locally installed version of SAS 9.4 (either through EG or Base SAS) to extract, manage and manipulate data;

creating a data dictionary for a SQL Server database - including number of rows, number of missing values per variable, datatype, min / max values, etc. for a database that has an unknown number of tables / views; handling missing values for different types of datasets (longitudingal, survey, demographic, etc....).

• Super Demo topic: Managing the Data Dictionary and Business Glossary using SAS® Business Data Network
• Paper: Automatically Map CDASH Data to the Study Data Tabulation Model (SDTM) Structure
• Paper: Document and Enhance SAS® Code, Data Sets, and Catalogs with SAS Functions, Macros, and Metadata
• Paper: Health-Care Data Sharing and Innovative Analytic Development in Distributed Data Networks 

SASKiwi:

  Any plans SAS may have to improve accessing of external database names, table names, column names longer than 32 characters - this is a significant source of frustration. 

• No related content
  

  Any plans or ways to encrypt in-flight data between external RDBMSs and SAS - this seems to be a gap in SAS's security model.

• Paper: Transport Layer Security (TLS) Configuration for SAS® 9.4 and SAS® Viya™ Components Made Easy

  Connecting to external databases using connection strings to minimise the need to configure outside of SAS such as in the ODBC Administrator and Oracle TNSNAMES.ORA files - I know this is possible for some databases but it is not explained in a holistic way in any support documents I'm aware of.

• Paper: SAS® Views for Implicit, In-Database Teradata Queries on One or More Tables
• Recent SAS Communities article by Jeff Bailey: A quick guide to connecting to Oracle from SAS

  Techniques for improving the reading and writing performance of data between SAS and external databases, both basic and advanced.

• Paper: PROC DS2: What's in It for You?
• Super Demo: Exploring SAS® Embedded Process Technologies on Hadoop

LinusH:

I think much of future questions spells Viya. So what data management products is/will be implemented in Viya and how?

Also, what is the future on ETL? Will DI Studio be migrated to Viya? SAS/CONNECT couldn't possibly be the final solution...hope not...

Tightly coupled is the topic about meta data, will Viya provide a more integrated meta data then todays quite fragmented model?

• “Emerging Technologies” session, time/link TBD: The Power of Suggestion: Prepare Data Faster on SAS Viya and Hadoop
• Super Demo: Loading Data into Cloud Analytics Server on SAS Viya
• Super Demo: The Data Life Cycle between SAS Viya and a Remote Hadoop Cluster
• Paper: Introduction to SAS® Data Connectors and SAS® Data Connect Accelerators on SAS® Viya
• Paper: The Architecture of the SAS® Cloud Analytic Services in SAS® Viya
• The roundup of the latest SAS Data Management release notes speaks to some of this too.

And What is SAS take on the growing market on mapping tools? I think integration with some/any of these is crucial if SAS still wish to be a player on the ETL/DW market. 

• Paper: What's New in SAS® Data Management

And to add to @SASKiwi list about databases if there any plans to integrate more attributes through SAS/ACCESS, like labels and other extended attributes?

• All ACCESS-related sessions

Yet another topic, Hadoop integration. 

There are several option today on data storage. Each of them more or less detailed described in the documentation. Bit it would be nice with a prez where these options are compared. Like performance, ease of setup and maintenance, functionality, possibly relationship with other SAS products/functionality. The ones I can think from the top of of my head:
-Hive (and other Hadoop relational storage engines)
-SPDE
-SPD Server 
-SASHDAT 
-....

Hive (and may be others?) offers different physical file formats. Perhaps a comparison of these could be interesting from a SAS/DW point of view.

• (Again) “Emerging Technologies” session, time/link TBD: The Power of Suggestion: Prepare Data Faster on SAS Viya and Hadoop
• Paper: Ten Tips to Unlock the Power of Hadoop with SAS®
• Paper: From Source to Target: Hadoop Capabilities of SAS® Data Integration Studio
• Paper: Understanding SAS® Embedded Process with Hadoop Security
• Super Demo: The Data Life Cycle between SAS Viya and a Remote Hadoop Cluster
• Super Demo: SAS® Data Loader for Hadoop Goes Enterprise

[abnerlugo]

O:o thanks lauralawtown