The goal is to enable you to deliver your business cases faster, and to empower your business to become data-driven and agile in the face of changing market conditions, while keeping costs under control.

SBI Consulting, part of the Cronos Group, is a Belgian based business and data analytics company with 16+ years of experience with the modernization of SAS applications. We are a recognized trusted SAS partner whereby our 55+ consultants support our clients on corporate, governmental and EU level.

Next to SAS, we are Microsoft Partner, being part of Micronos, which is the ecosystem of Microsoft competences within De Cronos Group. In 2022 Micronos received the “Microsoft Country Partner of the Year” award.

How?

Our aim is to identify the optimal solution for your business needs, based on the current situation and the desired future state of your data platform on Azure. We will collaborate with you to design the bespoke architecture for your migration, exploring all possible options such as:

lift and shift: Lift applicative landscape and move to the cloud, including minimal revision.
refactoring: Restructuring the existing SAS code to make it more efficient and optimized for the new SAS Viya system, without changing its behavior and interaction with external consumers.
replacement: Full redevelopment of the SAS data processing and models by using Azure data service alternatives.
hybrid approach: Lift and Shift for selected SAS data products/pipelines/models + replace others with Azure data services.

Why modernize?

Modernizing legacy SAS applications can help improve performance, efficiency, security, and integration. It also reduces maintenance costs and risks associated with outdated code and used libraries.

Typical drivers for a migration to the cloud:

Need for more business agility.
Data or Application Integration Challenges
Increasing Regulatory constraints
Security concerns
Performance and Scalability Requirements to adapt with the organization’s needs.
Cost reduction
The need for an up-to-date platform with minimal effort

Why Azure?

Azure cloud migration offers many benefits that can help make your business more agile in today’s competitive market:

Optimized costs: With Azure cloud migration, you can save on compute and storage costs by paying only for the cloud resources that you use. This is particularly true for workloads that require short bursts of computing power (see also ‘Flexibility and scalability’ below), or by automatically moving data to other storage tiers to reduce storage costs. In addition, you can leverage the hybrid cloud model to keep getting value from your existing IT investments while moving some of your workloads to the cloud.
Flexibility and scalability: An Azure cloud migration allows you to adjust your computing- or storage resources up and down as required by your business needs and workload. The cloud service orientated architecture also allows you to choose ‘the right tool for the job’, benefiting from the service optimization it offers, and reducing computing requirements compared with some other general-purpose solutions. It also resolved the typical delays that occur when adding hardware to your on-premises infrastructure.
Enhanced security and compliance: Azure cloud has built-in security features and specialized cloud security tools to help ensure that your data is protected from cyber threats. Azure cloud also has specialized offerings to seamlessly meet compliance requirements for highly regulated industries like finance, healthcare, and government. In case of SAS Viya 4 the effort required to upgrade to a new version is significantly reduced compared to SAS 9, making it easier to benefit of all new features and security patches.
Backup, recovery, and failover: Azure cloud helps to improve your business continuity by offering built-in, one-click backup and recovery capabilities, and store your backups in different geographic regions for extra protection.
Simplified management and monitoring: Azure cloud allows you to manage and monitor your on-premises datacenter and cloud resources from a single screen using a central management tool. Infrastructure-As-Code frameworks like Terraform or Azure Bicep improve the management efficiency of your organization’s infrastructure.

If you are interested in learning more about how to migrate your SAS environment to Azure cloud, please contact us today. We are happy to assist you with any questions or concerns you may have.

NL: De Cronos Groep wint ‘Microsoft Country Partner of the Year 2022’-award https://cronos-public-services.be/portfolio/de-cronos-groep-wint-microsoft-country-partner-of-the-year-2022-award/

FR: De Cronos Groep remporte l'award « Microsoft Country Partner of the Year 2022 » https://cronos-public-services.be/fr/portfolio/de-cronos-groep-remporte-laward-microsoft-country-partner-of-the-year-2022/

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