SAS vs Open Source

SAS CEO Jim Goodnight elicited guffaws from the audience during his keynote at JSM this year when he said "I have a problem with government using open source software". Now it seems Goodnight is at the center of another controversy related to open source, having dismissed the growth of open-source software for business intelligence in an interview with CBR online:

Asked whether open source BI and data integration software from the likes of Jaspersoft, Pentaho and Talend is a growing threat, [Goodnight] said: "We haven't noticed that a lot. Most of our companies need industrial strength software that has been tested, put through every possible scenario or failure to make sure everything works correctly."

Between the growth of R for data analysis, Talend for ETL and the likes of Jaspersoft and and Pentaho for BI -- all areas where SAS has pricey commercial solutions -- it seems hard to believe that SAS hasn't noticed the impact of open source software in commercial environments. And, as Pentaho's Vinay Joosery pointed out today in a stinging response,

"Denying a market reality doesn't help your business in the long term."

Well said, Vinay.

CNR Online: Pentaho fires back across SAS' bows over "limited" open source appeal

Comments

[David Heffernan]

It's not surprising when the vendors peddle this nonsense about open source not being "industrial strength" but it's astonishing when the customers swallow it and parrot it. But you must have good experience of that from your Mathsoft days.

[Luis]

As a university researcher I can get SAS essentially for free and I still prefer to use R for my work that requires 'industrial strength'. In addition, we have converted most of our stat courses to R (except for first year ones, where students use mostly Excel).

This year the university renegotiated our SAS licence and obtained a much cheaper deal than before. So SAS must be hurting and will hurt a lot more when most students have gone through university learning R and not SAS. Thus, it is not surprising that they are spreading FUD.

[Ashwin Jayaprakash]

Gandhi once said - "First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win."

Sounds similar? :)