SAS Data Integration Server Reviews

I am involved in the ETR job. My role is focused on executing the ETR job.

A key feature allows us to enhance job performance by offloading processing to the server side, rather than processing on the server itself. The server sends the command, and processing occurs in the data warehouse server. Only the result is returned, with all processing running in the data warehouse server. I can analyze data independently without needing IT or SAS experts, maintaining the ability to analyze data, which is a benefit.

One area for improvement is the installation process. Another point could be the syntax, as it sometimes involves using syntax names that are not intuitive. For example, to calculate the difference between two dates, the general syntax in SAS is called the data difference or data net function. However, another name is used, such as NF and INK. Without knowledge of SAS programming, it becomes unclear what these functions mean. It is not good to define function names this way.

I have used the solution for around five to six years.

The stability rating is seven out of ten. I have encountered some issues.

The license cost already fixes the number of CPU cores and the solution is not installed in a distributed computing manner, but in a standalone manner. I cannot scale up since I cannot increase the number of CPU cores without incurring more costs. Possibly due to licensing costs, I can only scale storage by myself yet not the computing.

Customer service is professional, however, the process is cumbersome. When contacting them, I cannot just state the issue. I must provide all information, such as the sign number, license number, and additional details that might cause the error. I cannot just ask them for help; I must provide all relevant information before they can offer support. This may be excessive, and I have never encountered it with other vendors who can support me immediately after I mention the issue.

Neutral

Initially, I did not choose the solution myself, as it was chosen by the marketing department. At the project's start, they wanted a tool for communicating and distributing campaigns to customers. This is part of why they selected and purchased it. The data Integration tool was previously included in the package, so I used it for free as the marketing department had already purchased it and included the licensing cost.

The initial setup had issues, and even after using it for about one year, it was still not fixed. I had to manage that part, which involved setting up another part that we already purchased but could not use because the installation failed. It was not a new installation, rather, an upgrade from the old version. The change involved significant internal structural modifications to the platform. The old version was called SAS version analytics, and the new one had a major change, resulting in an unacceptable installation.

We already have SAS support, and they can help if we create a ticket through email. However, the steps required to provide all information before they offer support can be excessive.

If the solution integrates with another system, it depends on skills. Understanding Python, I think Python is more recommended for me. I might have more options beyond SAS in Python Integration.

I use it without further details. For example, if I use SAS to connect to a NetEazt database or purchase a shared asset to ODBC, I can connect to any database with ODBC connection support. 

The overall product rating is seven out of ten.

In my company, we use SAS Data Integration Server for data handling, and we have a huge amount of transactional data we deal with in our company daily. In my company, we have separate business teams who consume data regularly on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis. We use SAS Data Integration Server to fetch, transform, and publish dedicated data for the individual teams in our company.

The most valuable feature of the solution is its amazing capabilities in regard to data handling. Since my company belongs to the finance domain, we have a couple of data that remain with us for ten to fifteen days with a huge volume. We process a lot of data for a month, and such a huge volume of data is handled by Data Integration Servers, making it a very good tool for us.

Visualization is an area with a few shortcomings in the product. Some new and amazing visualization capabilities have been added to the product, but I haven't used them enough to be able to comment on them. In SAS VA, which is a different product, there is a need to add more visualization capabilities because other companies have started providing better visualization.

The initial setup phase of SAS Data Integration Server should be made easier since it is currently a complex process.

I have been using SAS Data Integration Server for seven to eight years.

It is a stable solution.

It is a scalable solution.

In my company, more than 500 people use the solution.

The solution's technical support is amazing. Our company has a separate team to deal with the solution's vendor, so we receive a lot of support.

The initial setup of SAS Data Integration Server was complex.

The configuration phase of the solution took around three to four days since SAS Data Integration Server is not an easy tool to handle because its server has complexities involved in it.

The solution is deployed on-premises.

The implementation process of the solution was carried out with the help of a consultant.

I don't handle the cost and budget part. From the tool's perspective, I can say that it is an amazing product.

I am from the data visualization team and used SAS VA and SAS Data Integration Server. This year, my team has stopped the use of SAS VA and SAS Data Integration Server. We have a separate team that uses SAS Data Integration Server since they belong to the data management team.

I recommend the solution to those organizations that have a very large scale of data to handle so that they can utilize the solution's data handling capabilities. Organizations can go with the solution's on-premises or cloud version. Since the cost of the on-premises version of the solution is huge, I recommend businesses go with the cloud version.

I rate the overall product between seven to eight out of ten.

Our primary use case of this solution is to maintain customer data, policy, products, and other administrative information for financial institutions.

Something that could improve is writing SQL to integration studio because it is not that straightforward. There should be better integration with other software. I believe the process is where the problem lies. It's a niche technology that does not interact with many DB connectors. For example, if you need to connect the CD tool, you need to have a specific connector. We've been facing some issues with that for some time and we always had to go to the SAS partners to ask for their hotfix. So I would like to see that being improved.

I have been using SAS Data Integration Server for almost three years now.

The solution is very stable.

I believe the program is scalable. Whenever we have issues with the product or if we feel that something should be modified, we contact the support team. They are usually accessible and they provide the success or measure versions we need.

I think the technical support could be better. You can imagine that a US-based company has interviews all over Europe, but mostly they operate based on partnerships. For example, if you need to look at something, they always have external partners that you should use.

Our deployment team was responsible for the initial setup and deployment.

It is a rather expensive program.

My advice to others would be to use the demo version first. I will rate this product a seven out of ten.

We primarily use the solution to handle the entire dashboarding of certain data points. 

The solution offers very good data manipulation and loading.

The transform tool has limited access. They should make it more flexible.

If there is any way for the system to analyze and also implement indexing on the data, that would be great.

I've been using the solution for six years.

We haven't had any issues with stability.

We haven't had any issues with scalability. Right now, we have 300 users. We do plan to increase usage.

Technical support is very good.

We didn't previously use a different solution.

The initial setup was complex. At the time we implemented the solution, there was no access recommendation using the DI.

We use the on-premises deployment model.

For anyone who deals with data, I'd recommend the solution.

I'd rate the solution seven out of ten. There are many other products out there, like Hadoop, that have a lot of features. I'll probably end up looking into them as a possible option as well.