ER/Studio Data Architect vs. SAS Data Management

ER/Studio is great for providing data model images for teammates to use when they are not data modelers.

Incentivized

SAS/Access is well suited for companies who need to manipulate and analyze large databases and data-sets. It does the same thing as SQL, and if you already know basic SAS coding it is easier to pick up. SAS/Access works well with analyzing data from multiple data-sources at once, including large databases stored in external and virtual environments like Hadoop. Data can be easily reassembled from relational databases for use by the user. SAS/Access is not necessary if you are only pulling data from one database that you have the physical file for.

Incentivized

• ER/Studio is great for dividing logical and physical design. A logical model can be used with different physical platforms.
• Studio can a useful macro capability that allows me to apply the naming standards across the model with ease and consistency.
• ER/Studio does a very good job at comparing the model with the actual database and generating DDL scripts for production deployments.
• ER/Studio has an excellent reporting and model publishing capabilities allowing me to produce models in the HTML format and publish them for the team as needed.

Incentivized

• SAS supports the main database connection options that allow you to optimize the performance of your extracts and loads.
• Simplicity of the syntax for a basic connection.
• Ability to configure by an administrator in a BI environment so that all users can benefit from the connection without having to establish it by themselves.

Incentivized

• Relationships are a bit on the weaker side. Many times I found orphaned relationships that I could not get rid of, or additional columns that were automatically created during the push to the physical model that appear to be due to key constraint bugs
• There are a lot of bugs introduced when merging keys. I tend to model 2 tables for example logically, establish the relationship, and then merge the additional key column that is automatically created when establishing the relationship. This sometimes causes downstream issues with the physical model (creating duplicate columns with _1 appended)
• Meta-data could be improved. I find it hard to keep descriptions and other meta information clean when copying and pasting from other sources due to formatting tags being introduced on each object (font, size, color, etc.). The attachment feature comes in handy, however I am looking for the ability to cleanly document and map multiple sources to a single target while providing searchability and traceability

Incentivized

• It is a versatile product but sometimes difficult to use due to the very close link with the proprietary programming language where specific knowledge is required.
• Compared to competitors on the market that offer the same functions for the integration perimeter, it is certainly very expensive.
• It is very simple to use when combined with products from the SAS suite, less so it is being used stand-alone or integrated with other well-known brands.

Incentivized

We are happy with the software and its functionality. As a SAS-shop, DataFlux is a logical choice for complex data integration.

The main negative point is the use of a non-standard language for customizations, as well as the poor integration with non-SAS systems. However, there is no doubt that it is a high-performance and powerful product capable of responding optimally to certain requirements.

Incentivized

It worked as expected.

Incentivized

I can call or email support and both get quick turn around. The only issue is they are on the west coast (US) and have a west coast work schedule and I'm on the East coast.

Incentivized

With SAS, you pay a license fee annually to use this product. Support is incredible. You get what you pay for, whether it's SAS forums on the SAS support site, technical support tickets via email or phone calls, or example documentation. It's not open source. It's documented thoroughly, and it works.

Incentivized

ER Studio Data Architect is a global leader in the data modelling space and most other solutions that have support for third party data models include support for ER Studio Data Architect file formats. Many of the features are a bit more intuitive than the competitors and several of our vendors were already using Data Architect themselves which helped solidify the choice.

Incentivized

Because SAS Data Integration Studio is the third party it seems to work equally well with all our systems. That is to say that it doesn't really work better with Microsoft or Oracle but really just seems to work equally well with all of them. It has a very powerful back-end that allows us to transform and load our data quickly and efficiently programmer time wise.

Incentivized

• Using ER\Studio to create models and eventually the actual database schema allows for a picture that is understandable to the customer and saves significant time writing DDL to create the database objects (tables, indexes, relationships, constraints...)
• A nice customer interface tool so you can create a web based interface to the metadata for a particular design.
• The tool also supports sub-models so you can break a large project into smaller parts, I find this feature very helpful.

Incentivized

• The platform enabled us to have a single repository of customers to run campaigns on.
• Feedback from various campaigns is stored in a single database, which makes running A/B analysis easier.
• Helped improve data quality due to SAS Dataflux being a part of the SAS Data Management Platform.

Incentivized