Milano, 10 novembre 2006 – SAS, the leader in business intelligence, today announced that it has successfully ported its data integration, business intelligence and analytics software to Sun’s Solaris^TM 10 Operating System (OS) running on x64 servers. Available now, the added functionality makes it easier for customers to use data mining and data integration products in a grid-enabled environment, as well as improves productivity and performance by consolidating SAS business intelligence applications to maximize server usage.

The Sun x64 server line, which includes the Sun Fire X4200, X4500 and X4600, takes full advantage of the AMD dual-core Opteron processor to deliver enhanced performance and manageability for mission-critical BI applications running on Sun’s Solaris 10 operating system. Collaborative engineering between SAS and Sun keep the performance of SAS’ software optimized on Sun servers, and the cooperative agreement between the two companies helps ensure hassle-free implementation of an integrated software and hardware solution for customers.

"We have a long standing relationship with Sun, having leveraged Solaris for years and believe it to be one of the most robust operating systems available today," said Dave Marrow, DHSoft President & CEO. "For this reason, it was easy for us to recommend the Solaris 10 x64 platform for our SAS-based customers and give them the ability to take advantage of a powerful OS along with the depth and breadth of SAS business intelligence at a much lower price point."

With the SAS Enterprise Intelligence Platform, SAS takes businesses beyond traditional BI that only provides limited insight and hindsight in the form of historical reports by integrating predictive analytics that help predict outcomes and allow clearer foresight. With these capabilities, SAS offers users at any level immediate access to cleansed and reliable data through targeted user interfaces that match the skill level of the individual user. The combination of SAS’ software offerings along with Sun’s x64 servers and the AMD processors deliver the performance, features and value customers need to successfully achieve a complete intelligence solution that spans the enterprise across all levels. "Addressing our customer’s business and technology needs is of utmost important to us, which is why we are happy to give our Solaris 10 customers a choice in deployment platforms," said Keith Collins, Chief Technology Officer at SAS. "The new features of the Sun Solaris 10 are well-suited for the SAS Enterprise Intelligence Platform on SAS®9."

"The Sun Fire X4500 unit is an ideal platform for optimal SAS data storage in that it provides parallel access to multiple drives while giving SAS’ product the ability to control drive utilization," said Joseph Costanzo, CTO at Zencos Consulting LLC. "We achieved excellent performance with read times in the range of 1GB/sec, proving to us that the Sun X4500 is well suited for SAS software based on cost, control, and performance. We couldn’t be more pleased with the results and what it means for our clients."