The Q1 2010 release of Forrester's periodic assessment of data mining software is now available (the full report can be purchased here, and a free version is available here.)
Couple of quick comments on Forrester's assessment:
(1) Forrester believes that in-database analytics (IDA) is the wave of the future. This is a debatable point (which I will address in a separate post). Even so, it's hard to argue that SAS leads the pack in IDA. IDA at SAS largely consists of some visible partnership initiatives, press releases and R&D; SAS continues to promote its own proprietary data platform, which is used by the overwhelming majority of SAS customers. Products such as Oracle Data Mining, on the other hand, are designed and built around IDA.
(2) The functional parity of current offerings from Oracle and SPSS suggest that SAS will be increasingly challenged to defend its current market dominance.
(3) Forrester's assessment of vendor strategy is puzzling. Most customers would disagree that SAS deserves an edge over SPSS and Oracle on licensing and cost. SAS' renewal pricing is an outlier in the software industry, and a constant bone of contention with key customers.
SAS leads this market because of its legacy, breadth of product line, a large and engaged community of users and because switching costs are high. Press releases and analyst relations aside, SAS' approach to technology is conservative, which is something that SAS loyalists consider a feature and not a bug. Buyers seeking cutting-edge technology and value in this category will generally do better with the Leaders that aren't SAS.
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