Exploring New Features in SAS Viya 4.0

SAS Viya 4.0 delivers a significant advancement in the world of analytics and data management, building on the robust foundation of its predecessors to offer a suite of new and enhanced features.

As data analysts and engineers, you’re constantly seeking tools that streamline processes, improve performance, and offer insightful analytics. SAS Viya 4.0 meets these needs with its cloud-enabled analytics engine, designed to accelerate your journey from data to discovery.

 

 

What Is SAS Viya?

When efficiency translates directly to value, SAS Viya champions both. Imagine an analytics platform that not only accelerates your data analysis but also scales according to your needs while simultaneously slashing cloud operating costs. This is SAS Viya.

Key SAS Features

• Speed: On average, SAS Viya performs data and AI tasks 30 times faster than its competitors, offering a swift execution of analytics that can keep pace with the speed of your business.
• Cost-Efficiency: With SAS Viya, expect an average cost reduction of 86% in cloud operating expenses compared to alternative solutions.
• Scalability: Whether your datasets are large or small, SAS Viya expands to meet your computational needs without skipping a beat.

Transforming Data Management

• Integration and Automation: It integrates data no matter where it resides, utilizing intelligent automation to streamline data preparation—a stage where many analytic processes typically bottleneck.
• Data Trust: With SAS Viya, you can trust your data. The system is designed to ensure the highest quality and reliability of your information.

Model Development and Deployment

• Efficient Modeling: SAS Viya speeds up model development with tools like quick-start model recommendations, automated feature engineering, and transparent model tuning.
• Model Tournaments: SAS Viya identifies the most effective model or ensemble through model tournaments, ensuring the chosen analytics are optimized for your specific business expectations.
• Seamless Deployment: Deployment is hassle-free, with the ability to deploy anywhere, automate performance monitoring, and retrain models quickly for fast iteration.

Responsible Innovation

SAS’s analytics capabilities don’t just process data; they ensure that every data-driven decision is responsible, fair, and monitored for bias. It stands at the forefront of responsible innovation, providing you with results that you can trust.

What’s New in SAS Viya 4.0?

Discover the latest advancements in SAS Viya 4.0 that elevate your analytical capabilities to new heights. This release focuses on enhancing ease of use and expanding compatibility. Here’s what you need to know:

Installation and Integration Enhancements

• Simplified Installation Process: Downloading and setting up SAS Viya is more intuitive in version 4.0, with improved SAS documentation to guide you every step of the way.
• Integration with SQreamDB: The integration with SQreamDB, which has been rigorously tested with SAS Viya versions from v.03.05 and newer, highlights the commitment to versatility and performance. Installing the necessary JDBC driver is a breeze, following a few clear steps in the updated documentation.

Configuration and Operation Improvements

• Streamlined JDBC Driver Configuration: Configuring SAS Viya to operate with SQreamDB is now hassle-free. Detailed instructions right from the SAS Studio environment mean you spend less time setting up and more time analyzing.
• Visual Analytics Usability: SAS Viya Visual Analytics has been overhauled to offer a user-friendly experience. Logging in, connecting to databases, and creating new reports is now a quick and straightforward process. The interface is designed with the end-user in mind, ensuring seamless steps from data connection to visualization.

Troubleshooting and Best Practices

• Inserting Data with Precision: The focus is on efficiency; by inserting only the required data and utilizing pre-analysis filters, SAS Viya 4.0 significantly boosts query performance.
• Dedicated Service for SAS Viya: Establishing a separate service for SAS Viya within the DWLM helps isolate and protect its operations, enhancing overall system stability and performance.
• Enhanced Error Resolution: The dreaded “java.lang.ClassNotFoundException” error is a thing of the past. With clearer guidelines on how to ensure the JDBC driver’s visibility to SAS Viya, these issues are quickly resolved.

Support for TEXT Data Type

• Improved TEXT to CHAR Casting: Previous versions faced challenges with casting TEXT to CHAR, resulting in unintended data truncation. SAS Viya 4.0 introduces a refined method when using the JDBC driver, preserving the integrity and size of your TEXT data.

Harnessing the Power of SAS Viya 4.0 and SQream

For data analysts and engineers seeking to elevate their work, SAS Viya 4.0 offers unparalleled efficiency and scalability. The enhancements touch every aspect of the analytics lifecycle, from data integration to advanced modeling and beyond.

 

As we integrate these features with the robust offerings of SQream, the synergy provides a dynamic, powerful solution for handling extensive datasets with ease. The SQreamDB, with its GPU-accelerated prowess, complements SAS Viya’s analytics, allowing you to extract deeper insights from your data swiftly and with more precision.

 

SQream optimizes SAS Viya’s Visual Machine Learning platform’s ability to prepare data  aggregated from large datasets, in particular large tables. Integrating with SQream lets users perform their initial data aggregations and data prep to efficiently train and test a machine learning model, as well as any other uses that require combing through large datasets. 

Connecting SAS Viya with SQream

Integrating SAS Viya with SQream creates a powerful alliance for your data analytics needs. This combination brings you:

• Seamless Integration: Connect SAS Viya with SQreamDB for enhanced data processing and analytics performance.
• Comprehensive Documentation: Leverage detailed documentation for a smooth setup and troubleshooting process.
• Practical Solutions: SQream’s diverse product offerings ensure there’s a tailored solution for every analytical need—from data scientists to decision-makers across various industries.