SAS is bringing the power of its data analytics and networking giant Cisco is utilizing its networking expertise to deliver almost instant analysis across devices linked to the Internet of Things.

The two firms disclosed their edge (device) to enterprise (network) solution known as “Cisco SAS Edge-to-Enterprise IoT Analytics Platform” on Monday at a SAS conference in Orlando. Cisco had earlier unveiled the solution at one of its events in Europe.

SAS, one of the world leaders in data analytics tools and solutions, also dropped hints a similar solution may be in the offing in partnership with Intel, according to IT World Canada.

“It’s impractical to send all the data to a data center for processing. It will have to happen on the edge.” said SAS Chief Technology Officer Oliver Schabenberger at the the SAS Global Forum. “We cannot afford to wait and activate data in IoT … Analytics needs to be ambient. If there is data at the edge, there needs to be analytics on the edge.”

Schabenberger added in a statement that the platform offered multiple solutions across a wide variety of industry customers. The solution “enhance[s] the value of streaming data for all kinds of applications including customer experience, asset performance and fraud scenarios. The combination gives our customers control and helps them remain agile.”

The partners say theirs is the first such IoT edge analytics on the market.

“Ultimately it allows for options,” reported IT World Canada. “Relevant data sets picked up on the edge can be sent to the data center or cloud to be added to already collected enterprise data. There it will update current analytic models with fresh ones based off of said data collected at the edge. From there it can be ‘deployed in the cloud or back to the edge.'”

The Cisco explanation

In a blog post, Cisco Chief Technology Officer Raghunath Nambiar pointed out:

“The Internet of Everything (IoE) will transform every industry, every person’s life in almost every aspect. It brings networking technology to places where it was once unavailable or impractical. The true power of smart, connected devices and the data and insights they generate will create the next era of opportunities.

“Cisco estimates 50 billion devices will be connected to the Internet by 2020 and 500 billion devices by 2030. These devices generate data that analytic applications need to collect, aggregate and analyze to deliver informed, actionable insight. The challenge is to build the right digital infrastructure and enable the right set of applications to harness this data. Traditional computing models send the data to the enterprise data center for analysis. This is impractical in many scenarios given the volume of data being produced and the requirement for real-time analysis and response times, often measured in milliseconds.

“As a result, a new model for analyzing data at the edge of the network has emerged. This model moves the analysis and response close to the devices generating the data minimizing latency and reducing the load on the network and the enterprise data center.”

Platform highlights

According to the companies, the platform offers:

  • Edge Computing: The combination of Cisco IoT Gateways and SAS® Event Stream Processing enables analytic models to run against data-in-motion with a sub-second response time, close to the devices and sensors creating the data. The analysis initiates alerts, and defines which data is pertinent to store and route forward.
  • Flexible Enterprise Computing: Relevant data sets identified at the edge are transported to the data center or cloud, then combined with additional enterprise data to add context. Advanced analytical techniques, such as visualization, data mining and machine learning, can be applied to find new insights and create fresh analytic models. The models can be deployed in the cloud or back to the edge as appropriate.
  • Management: Cisco provides a robust infrastructure to connect the edge to the data center/cloud and support the management of analytics at various network layers. This is especially relevant for deployments involving a large number of edge devices such as electric utilities with smart grids.

“Most importantly,” the companies said, “[the solution] allows organizations to focus on uncovering meaningful results instead of struggling to put together a homegrown IoT platform.”

SAS operates its global headquarters in Cary.

Cisco maintains one of its largest corporate campuses in RTP.

Read more at:

https://www.sas.com/en_us/news/press-releases/2017/april/iot-cisco-sgf17.html