SAS in the Cloud

In a few weeks I will serve as moderator at Western Users of SAS Software 2013 for:

SAS in the Cloud: A Panel Discussion

Panelists:  Rebecca Ottesen, AnnMaria DeMars, Tyler Smith and Amy Peters

Abstract:  Over the last decade, SAS Institute has been quietly developing cloud computing products.  Now several options are available for SAS users via SAS OnDemand for Academics, SAS OnDemand for Professionals, and SAS Visual Analytics.  These products enable you to run SAS over the Internet using a thin client such as a Web browser, SAS Enterprise Guide, or a mobile app.  Come hear a panel of experts discuss the who, what, where and how of using SAS in the Cloud.

If you are at the conference, I hope you will attend our presentation Thursday November 14, 2013 9:00-9:50am. (Note that this is 30 min. later than originally scheduled.) If you cannot make it or you would like to learn more about SAS and Cloud computing, then check out these links to good resources that are—very appropriately—available on the Web:

PowerPoint slides from the panel discussion

General discussion of cloud computing

SAS OnDemand for Academics

SAS OnDemand for Professionals

Video about SAS OnDemand for Professionals

SAS Visual Analytics 6.2: Video Library

Article about SAS and the Cloud, thanks to Tricia Aanderud for sharing this link

SAS document about Cloud computing and link to white paper

Cloud facts, thanks again to Tricia Aanderud for this link

Your Resume–Selling Yourself Using SAS

Here is another presentation to which I have contributed for the Western Users of SAS Software 2013 conference.

Your Resume–Selling Yourself Using SAS

I am honored to have served as a co-author with Rebecca Ottesen on this highly original paper.  This paper shows how to use your SAS skills to create a resume that is clever, unique, and effective.

Here is an excerpt:

Your resume should demonstrate strengths and skills, cite meaningful performance metrics, quantify contributions to the organization, and set you apart from the competition, all while being concise and staying to the point.  As a SAS user, it is likely that the skill set you would like to showcase involves programming and data analysis, so it seems perfectly natural that you should use these skills to create content for your resume.  A well thought out SAS graphic or table might be the perfect selling point to catch the attention of a hiring manager.

Here is an example of a graphic showing a timeline for work and academic experience:

If you are at the conference, I hope you will attend our presentation Wednesday November 13, 2013 2:30-2:50pm. If not, then you can download the paper here.

Writing Code in SAS Enterprise Guide

With the Western Users of SAS Software 2013 conference coming soon, I am looking forward to being part of three presentations.  One of those presentations is

Writing Code in SAS Enterprise Guide

This is based on a paper written several years ago for SAS Enterprise Guide 4.1.  That paper became obsolete almost immediately.  So I’ve been wanting to update it for quite some time.  This new paper applies to Enterprise Guide 4.2, 4.3, 5.1 and 6.1.

Here’s an excerpt:

Using SAS Enterprise Guide, you can manipulate data and run reports without ever writing a single line of SAS code.  So it’s not surprising that many SAS programmers believe that SAS Enterprise Guide is only useful to non-programmers.  If you love the SAS language, why would you ever want to use SAS Enterprise Guide?

It turns out that there are several reasons why you might want to do just that.  SAS Enterprise Guide offers programmers a variety of ways to run code.  You can type a program like you do in Display Manager, but you can also use the point-and-click features of SAS Enterprise Guide to generate programs  that you can then modify.  In addition, SAS Enterprise Guide organizes your work into projects making it easy to find your programs, logs, and results; and the process flow diagrams show at a glance how everything in your project fits together.

However, writing programs in SAS Enterprise Guide does require learning a new environment with new windows and a new system for organizing your work.  As with any new skill, there is a learning curve.  The goal of this paper is to ease that transition by explaining SAS Enterprise Guide from a programmer’s perspective.

If you are at the conference, I hope you will attend my presentation Wednesday November 13, 2013 3:30-4:20pm. If not, then you can download the paper here.

And if you can’t attend my presentation, you may want to watch this video about coding with SAS Enterprise Guide.