Microsoft Azure Machine Learning Studio vs SAS Visual Analytics comparison

Cancel
You must select at least 2 products to compare!
Comparison Buyer's Guide
Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Microsoft Azure Machine Learning Studio and SAS Visual Analytics based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out what your peers are saying about Databricks, Microsoft, Alteryx and others in Data Science Platforms.
To learn more, read our detailed Data Science Platforms Report (Updated: April 2024).
767,667 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Featured Review
Quotes From Members
We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use.
Here are some excerpts of what they said:
Pros
"The initial setup is very simple and straightforward.""The solution is scalable.""The solution is easy to use and has good automation capabilities in conjunction with Azure DevOps.""When you import the dataset you can see the data distribution easily with graphics and statistical measures.""It's a great option if you are fairly new and don't want to write too much code.""MLS allows me to set up data experiments by running through various regression and other machine learning algorithms, with different data cleaning and treatment tools. All of this can be achieved via drag and drop, and a few clicks of the mouse.""I like that it's totally easy to use. They have an AutoML solution, and their machine learning model is highly accurate. They also have a feature that can explain the machine learning model. This makes it easy for me to understand that model.""In terms of what I found most valuable in Microsoft Azure Machine Learning Studio, I especially love the designer because you can just drag and drop items there and apply the logic that's already available with the designer. I love that I can use the libraries in Microsoft Azure Machine Learning Studio, so I don't have to search for the algorithms and all the relevant libraries because I can see them directly on the designer just by dragging and dropping. Though there's a bit of work during data cleansing, that's normal and can't be avoided. At least it's easy to find the relevant algorithm, apply that algorithm to the data, then get the desired output through Microsoft Azure Machine Learning Studio. I also like the API feature of the solution which is readily available for me to expose the output to any consuming application, so that takes out a lot of headache. Otherwise, I have to have a developer who knows the API, and I have to have an API app, so all that is completely taken care of by the Microsoft Azure Machine Learning Studio designer. With the solution, I can concentrate on how to improve the data quality to get quality recommendations, so this lets me concentrate on my job rather than focusing on the regular development of APIs or the pipelines, in particular, the data pipelines pulling the data from other sources. All the data is taken care of and you can also concentrate on other required auxiliary activities rather than just concentrating on machine learning."

More Microsoft Azure Machine Learning Studio Pros →

"The technical support services are good.""Visual Analytics is very easy to use. I use Visual Analytics for all the typical use cases except text mining. I used it to analyze data and monitor statistics, not text mining. I also use it for data visualization as well as creating interactive dashboards and infographics.""What I really love about the software is that I have never struggled in implementing it for complex business requirements. It is good for highly sophisticated and specialized statistics in the areas that some people tend to call artificial intelligence. It is used for everything that involves visual presentation and analysis of highly sophisticated statistics for forecasting and other purposes.""It's relatively simple to create basic dashboards and reports.""I believe that the possibilities for exploring data and formulating visual results are quite good because it allows the business analyst to have different perspectives on the data.""The alert generation feature also helps in sending out ad hoc messages to the business users if business thresholds have been crossed.""Great for handling complex data models.""The flexibility of the configuration is valuable to me."

More SAS Visual Analytics Pros →

Cons
"The initial setup time of the containers to run the experiment is a bit long.""While ML Studio does give you the ability to run a lot of transformations, it struggles when the transformations are a bit more complex, when your entire process is transformation-heavy.""A problem that I encountered was that I had to pay for the model that I wanted to deploy and use on Azure Machine Learning, but there wasn't any option that that model can be used in the designer.""I would like to see modules to handle Deep Learning frameworks.""It is not easy. It is a complex solution. It takes some time to get exposed to all the concepts. We're trying to have a CI/CD pipeline to deploy a machine learning model using negative actions. It was not easy. The components that we're using might have something to do with this.""They should have a desktop version to work on the platform.""In terms of improvement, I'd like to have more ability to construct and understand the detailed impact of the variables on the model. Their algorithms are very powerful and they explain overall the net contribution of each of the variables to the solution. In terms of being able to say to people "If you did this, you'll get this much more improvement" it wasn't great.""The price could be improved."

More Microsoft Azure Machine Learning Studio Cons →

"There is a need for coding when it comes to digital reporting which can be intimidating.""A bit more flexibility in the temperatization will be helpful.""Better connectivity with other data origins, better visualization, and the ability to create KPIs directly would all help.""I haven't come across any missing features.""SAS Visual Analytics could be more user-friendly.""The product is expensive and needs the integration of more languages.""The licensing ends up being more expensive than other options.""Colours used on report objects"

More SAS Visual Analytics Cons →

Pricing and Cost Advice
  • "To use MLS is fairly cheap. Even the paid account is something like $20/month, unless you are provisioning large numbers of VMs for a Hadoop cluster. The main MS makes money with this solution is forcing the user to deploy their model on REST API, and being charged each time the API is accessed. There are several pricing tiers for the API. If you do not use the API, then value of MLS is to create rapid experiments ($20/month). The resulting model is not exportable to use, thus you’ll have to recreate the algorithms in either R or Python, which is what I did. MLS results gave me a direction to work with, the actual work is mostly done in R and Python outside of MLS."
  • "When we got our first models and were ready for the user acceptance testing, our licensing fees were between €2,500 ($2,750 USD) and €3,000 ($3,300 USD) monthly."
  • "From a developer's perspective, I find the price of this solution high."
  • "The licensing cost is very cheap. It's less than $50 a month."
  • "There is a license required for this solution."
  • "I am paying for it following a pay-as-you-go. So, the more I use it, the more it costs."
  • "In terms of pricing, for any cloud solution, you should know the tricks of the trade and how to use it, otherwise, you'll end up paying a lot of money irrespective of the cloud provider, so at least for Microsoft Azure Machine Learning Studio pricing versus AWS, I would rate it three out of five, with one being the most expensive, and five being the cheapest. It could be cheaper, but you also have to be careful when choosing the plans, for example, consider the architecture and a lot of other factors before choosing your plan, if you don't want to end up paying more. If your cloud provider has an optimizer that seems to be available in every provider, that would keep alerting you in terms of resources not being used as much, then that would help you with budgeting."
  • "My team didn't deal with the licensing for Microsoft Azure Machine Learning Studio, so I'm unable to comment on pricing, but the money that was spent on the tool was worth it."
  • More Microsoft Azure Machine Learning Studio Pricing and Cost Advice →

  • "Licensing is simple."
  • "$10,000 per annum for an enterprise license."
  • "The cost of the solution can be expensive. There is an additional cost for users."
  • "Visual Analytics is expensive for a small company like mine. You also need to deploy it on a server or cloud, so you pay for the license as well as the cost of the cloud or the server that you will deploy on."
  • "SAS Visual Analytics is expensive, as is the rest of the platform."
  • "It's approximately $114,000 US dollars per year."
  • "It was licensed for corporate use, and its licensing was on a yearly basis."
  • "The product is expensive."
  • More SAS Visual Analytics Pricing and Cost Advice →

    report
    Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Data Science Platforms solutions are best for your needs.
    767,667 professionals have used our research since 2012.
    Questions from the Community
    Top Answer:Databricks gives you the option of working with several different languages, such as SQL, R, Scala, Apache Spark, or Python. It offers many different cluster choices and excellent integration with… more »
    Top Answer:The most solution's notable aspect, in my view, is the ability to integrate various data sources and harness advanced technologies such as machine learning and artificial intelligence. This helps with… more »
    Top Answer:The product is expensive and needs the integration of more languages.
    Ranking
    2nd
    Views
    15,029
    Comparisons
    12,209
    Reviews
    23
    Average Words per Review
    513
    Rating
    7.7
    7th
    out of 70 in Data Visualization
    Views
    3,388
    Comparisons
    2,758
    Reviews
    8
    Average Words per Review
    393
    Rating
    8.5
    Comparisons
    Also Known As
    Azure Machine Learning, MS Azure Machine Learning Studio
    SAS BI
    Learn More
    Overview

    Azure Machine Learning is a cloud predictive analytics service that makes it possible to quickly create and deploy predictive models as analytics solutions.

    It has everything you need to create complete predictive analytics solutions in the cloud, from a large algorithm library, to a studio for building models, to an easy way to deploy your model as a web service. Quickly create, test, operationalize, and manage predictive models.

    Microsoft Azure Machine Learning Will Help You:

    • Rapidly build and train models
    • Operationalize at scale
    • Deliver responsible solutions
    • Innovate on a more secure hybrid platform

    With Microsoft Azure Machine Learning You Can:

    • Prepare data: Microsoft Azure Machine Learning Studio offers data labeling, data preparation, and datasets.
    • Build and train models: Includes notebooks, Visual Studio Code and Github, Automated ML, Compute instance, a drag-and-drop designer, open-source libraries and frameworks, customizable dashboards, and experiments
    • Validate and deploy: Manage endpoints, automate machine learning workflows (pipeline CI/CD), optimize models, access pre-built container images, share and track models and data, train and deploy models across multi-cloud and on-premises.
    • Manage and monitor: Track, log, and analyze data, models, and resources; Detect drift and maintain model accuracy; Trace ML artifacts for compliance; Apply quota management and automatic shutdown; Leverage built-in and custom policies for compliance management; Utilize continuous monitoring with Azure Security Center.

    Microsoft Azure Machine Learning Features:

    • Easy & flexible building interface: Execute your machine learning development through the Microsoft Azure Machine Learning Studio using drag-and-drop components that minimize the code development and straightforward configuration of properties. By being so flexible, the solution also helps build, test ,and generate advanced analytics based on the data.
    • Wide range of supported algorithms: Configuration is simple and easy because Microsoft Azure ML offers readily available well-known algorithms. There is also no limit in importing training data, and the solution enables you to fine-tune your data easily, saving money and time and helping you generate more revenue.
    • Easy implementation of web services: Simply drag and drop your data sets and algorithms, and link them together to implement web services. It only requires one click to create and publish the web service, which can be used from any device by passing valid credentials.
    • Great documentation: Microsoft Azure provides full stacks of documentation, such as tutorials, quick starts, references, and many other resources that help you understand how to easily build, manage, deploy, and access machine learning solutions effectively.

    Microsoft Azure Machine Learning Benefits:

    • It is fully integrated with Python and R SDKs.
    • It has an updated drag-and-drop interface, generally known as Azure Machine Learning Designer.
    • It supports MLPipelines, where you can build flexible and modular pipelines to automate workflows.
    • It supports multiple model formats depending upon the job type.
    • It has automated model training and hyperparameter tuning with code-first and no-code options.
    • It supports data labeling projects.

    Reviews from Real Users:

    "The ability to do the templating and be able to transfer it so that I can easily do multiple types of models and data mining is a valuable aspect of this solution. You only have to set up the flows, the templates, and the data once and then you can make modifications and test different segmentations throughout.” - Channing S.l, Owner at Channing Stowell Associates

    "The most valuable feature is the knowledge bank, which allows us to ask questions and the AI will automatically pull the pre-prescribed responses.” - Chris P., Tech Lead at a tech services company

    "The UI is very user-friendly and the AI is easy to use.” - Mikayil B., CRM Consultant at a computer software company

    "The solution is very fast and simple for a data science solution.” - Omar A., Big Data & Cloud Manager at a tech services company

    SAS Visual Analytics is a data visualization tool that is used for reporting, data exploration, and analytics. The solution enables users - even those without advanced analytical skills - to understand and examine patterns, trends, and relationships in data. SAS Visual Analytics makes it easy to create and share reports and dashboards that monitor business performance. By using the solution, users can handle, understand, and analyze their data in both past and present fields, as well as influence vital factors for future changes. SAS Visual Analytics is most suitable for larger companies with complex needs.

    SAS Visual Analytics Features

    SAS Visual Analytics has many valuable key features. Some of the most useful ones include:

    • Data
    • Interactive data discovery
    • Augmented analytics
    • Chat-enabled analytics
    • Sharing and collaboration
    • Visual analytics apps
    • Embedded insights
    • Location analytics
    • Security and administration
    • In-memory engine

    SAS Visual Analytics Benefits

    There are many benefits to implementing SAS Visual Analytics. Some of the biggest advantages the solution offers include:

    • Machine learning and natural language: SAS Visual Analytics uses machine learning and natural language explanations to find, visualize, and narrate stories and insights that are easy to understand and explain. This enables you to find out why something happened, examine all options, and uncover opportunities hidden deep in your data.
    • Easy and efficient reporting: With SAS Visual Analytics, you can create interactive reports and dashboards so you can quickly summarize key performance metrics and share them via the web and mobile devices.
    • Easy to use: SAS Visual Analytics was designed to be easy to use. Its easy-to-use predictive analytics enables even business analysts to assess possible outcomes, which also helps organizations make smarter, data-driven decisions.
    • Self-service data: Self-service data preparation gives users the ability to import their own data, join tables, create calculated columns, apply data quality functions, and more. In turn, the solution empowers users to access, combine, clean, and prepare their own data in an agile way, which helps facilitate faster, broader adoption of analytics for your entire organization.

    Reviews from Real Users

    Below are some reviews and helpful feedback written by PeerSpot users currently using the SAS Visual Analytics solution.

    A Senior Manager at a consultancy says, “The solution is very stable. The scalability is good. The usability is quite good. It's quite easy to learn and to progress with SAS from an end-user perspective.

    PeerSpot user Robert H., Co-owner at Hecht und Heck GmbH, comments, “What I really love about the software is that I have never struggled in implementing it for complex business requirements. It is good for highly sophisticated and specialized statistics in the areas that some people tend to call artificial intelligence. It is used for everything that involves visual presentation and analysis of highly sophisticated statistics for forecasting and other purposes.

    Andrea D., Chief Technical Officer at Value Partners, explains, “The best feature is that SAS is not a single BI tool. Rather, it is part of an ecosystem of tools, such as tools that help a user to develop artificial intelligence, algorithms, and so on. SAS is an ecosystem. It's an ecosystem of products. We've found the product to be stable and reliable. The scalability is good.”

    Sample Customers
    Walgreens Boots Alliance, Schneider Electric, BP
    Staples, Ausgrid, Scotiabank, the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, the Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina, Oklahoma Gas & Electric, Xcel Energy, and Triad Analytics Solutions.
    Top Industries
    REVIEWERS
    Financial Services Firm17%
    Energy/Utilities Company13%
    Comms Service Provider9%
    Retailer9%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Financial Services Firm12%
    Computer Software Company10%
    Manufacturing Company8%
    Healthcare Company7%
    REVIEWERS
    Government21%
    Insurance Company16%
    Financial Services Firm16%
    Educational Organization5%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Financial Services Firm18%
    Government13%
    Computer Software Company12%
    University7%
    Company Size
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business30%
    Midsize Enterprise11%
    Large Enterprise59%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business17%
    Midsize Enterprise11%
    Large Enterprise71%
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business31%
    Midsize Enterprise20%
    Large Enterprise49%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business17%
    Midsize Enterprise11%
    Large Enterprise72%
    Buyer's Guide
    Data Science Platforms
    April 2024
    Find out what your peers are saying about Databricks, Microsoft, Alteryx and others in Data Science Platforms. Updated: April 2024.
    767,667 professionals have used our research since 2012.

    Microsoft Azure Machine Learning Studio is ranked 2nd in Data Science Platforms with 48 reviews while SAS Visual Analytics is ranked 7th in Data Visualization with 35 reviews. Microsoft Azure Machine Learning Studio is rated 7.6, while SAS Visual Analytics is rated 8.0. The top reviewer of Microsoft Azure Machine Learning Studio writes "Good support for Azure services in pipelines, but deploying outside of Azure is difficult". On the other hand, the top reviewer of SAS Visual Analytics writes "Single environment for multiple phases saves us time, and has good visualizations". Microsoft Azure Machine Learning Studio is most compared with Databricks, Google Vertex AI, Azure OpenAI, TensorFlow and Alteryx, whereas SAS Visual Analytics is most compared with Tableau, Microsoft Power BI, Databricks, Dataiku Data Science Studio and SAS Enterprise Miner.

    We monitor all Data Science Platforms reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.