Copyright © 2013 http://jtonedm.com James Taylor

Keith Collins was up next to talk about Cloud. This is an area where I have done some research before – check out the results from our Predictive Analytics in the Cloud research. Keith presented the NIST definition of cloud with its 5 characteristics – one demand, broad network access, measured service (subscription), resource pooling and rapid elasticity. SaaS, PaaS and IaaS models across private, public, hybrid and community clouds. SAS is focusing on SaaS and PaaS across private, public and hybrid clouds.

SAS wants to use cloud to do three things, each of which has an implication for their technology:

  1. Enable their customers by delivering SAS in the cloud
    This means SAS vApps – packaged up visual components, classes, web service capabilities, compute tier etc all packaged up as a virtual application ready for cloud use.
  2. Simplify things for their customers by allowing access and management of SAS applications in the cloud
    App Cental and the Cloud Engine for managing applications in the cloud
  3. Innovate by allow applications to be built and distributed in the cloud,helping customers “keep up” as SAS develops new functions
    App Works and Public Interfaces

Keith then showed what App Central /App Works is going to look like. A web based interface allows the spinning up of a SAS application like Visual Analytics at a defined scale. Any running application can be updated to a new build, get more resources assigned to it and so on. This builds on the rPath acquisition they made (rPath was focused on automating the assembly, provisioning and updating of diverse operating systems and middleware platforms and application stacks throughout enterprises). The environment allows web application assets to be combined and SAS tools /programs used to build new applications that can be rapidly deployed and managed in the cloud.

All this is coming with SAS 9.4 in mid-second half 2013.

BOSTON, MA – May 4, 2026 – Blue Polaris announced it has been awarded the North America Winner of the 2026 IBM Partner Plus Awards for the Transformational SaaS Application category at IBM Partner Plus Day during Think 2026. This award celebrates IBM business partners who demonstrated measurable improvements through efficiency, cost savings and productivity through IBM SaaS deployments.

 

“This recognition underscores the meaningful impact and innovation our partners are delivering across the IBM Ecosystem,” said Nicholas Rogers, GM of Americas Ecosystem at IBM. “We are proud to recognize Blue Polaris as a North America winner and celebrate the work they have done to help clients scale and accelerate AI outcomes through IBM services and solutions — over the past year and into the future.”

 

The IBM Partner Plus Awards recognize partners who deliver exceptional impact aligned with IBM’s strategic priorities. Thirty-four winners were selected from hundreds of global submissions across all geographies and seven categories. 

 

Partners eligible to win an award are part of IBM Partner Plus, a program designed to help deepen partners’ technical expertise, accelerate time to market and win with clients with AI and hybrid cloud. For more information on IBM Partner Plus, please visit www.ibm.com/partnerplus.