Craig Newmark links to this article about competition for SAS.
But that good life is under threat today as never before. SAS’s specialty, a lucrative niche called business intelligence software, is becoming mainstream. Free, open-source alternatives to some of the company’s products are increasingly popular. On the other end of the spectrum, the heavyweights of the software industry — Oracle, SAP, Microsoft and, especially, I.B.M. — are plunging in and investing billions of dollars.
“It will be a dogfight,” says Bill Hostmann, an analyst at Gartner. “SAS has never faced a competitor like I.B.M. And I do think I.B.M. sees SAS as a big, fatted cow.”
I use SAS for database management these days. I used to use it for most everything, but there are many more convenient substitutes for it. For most of the regressions I run, I use STATA. I don't need to know a lot of code to be able to use it, but the biggest plus with STATA is the perpetual license. My university buys me a one-time license and I can use that version forever. But with SAS, I need to have my license renewed every year and that costs my university about $700 - $800 annually.
SAS? A big fatted cow? That's about right. I think I'll hoist one to the entrepreneurs who are taking the risk to provide researchers with more bang for their bucks. This Bud's homebrew's for you!