SAS vs .NET

[UdayGuntupalli]

All, 
     I am doing some research on how SAS offers advantages over .NET. While the statistical packages and models that SAS offers put it above .NET, I am looking for any solid research / articles / previous study done along similar lines. Would appreciate direction in this regard. 

Best 

Uday 

[Kurt_Bremser]

Apples and cucumbers (not even oranges). SAS provides a data warehousing framework, .NET is a programming environment.

[UdayGuntupalli]

@Kurt_Bremser ,
         Does SAS not offer a programming environment ? I thought it did.

         For a given analytics job, why would you prefer to use SAS vs writing in .NET or JAVA is my question ? Would appreciate if you share insights from your experience 

[ChrisHemedinger]

I have to agree with @Kurt_Bremser on this one.  I've programmed SAS and .NET together, and they can complement each other -- but not replace each other for most applications.

For example, SAS Enterprise Guide is a client application written entirely in C#, and it connects to SAS to run data management/analytics procedures and other code.  It brings back your results, organizes your work, etc.  But SAS Enterprise Guide doesn't manage the data or execute the analytics itself.

.NET is most often used to build user interfaces and client-app experiences.  SAS is a data management and analytics engine.

[UdayGuntupalli]

@ChrisHemedinger, 
       Ok. Point taken. Let me rephrase my question with an example. 

       If you needed to perform regression or some kind of statistical analysis, why do you believe SAS is superior at doing that vs doing this in C# ? I understand they are complementary, but what makes the SAS engine the better suited option for analytics ? If somebody asked you why EG was built in C#, your response would be something like: 

1. It offers great library of UI templates / functions 

2. It offers great source code control etc. 

       What such features make SAS the ideal platform to perform analytics ? 

[Kurt_Bremser]

Source code control is not tied in with any programming language. Any SCCS can work with codes in any programming language, as long as the sources are provided as pure text. IE we've used endevor for PL/1, SQL and SAS until recently, when we moved source code management from z/OS to SVN on Linux, where Java was added to the programming language mix.

You could write the whole SAS system in C#, but it would not be as performant, and you'd lose portability (of the backend, EG is already Windows-only, the biggest mistake SAS ever made IMO).

Once again, you are comparing apples and cucumbers.