Innovations in integrating SAS in reporting functions

When SAS was initially designed, network environments had to be enclosed. All functions – storage, ETL, and reporting – had to be done within the environment. Therefore, even though SAS was primarily focused on data management, it developed tools for reporting that could work within the SAS environment. However, those tools were not sophisticated, because SAS's objective was focused on data management, not data reporting.

As time went on, connectivity between systems became possible – and then standard – through the internet. This provided the opportunity for SAS to be used for exactly what it is good at – which is data storage and management – while having other products that are optimized for reporting be used to report SAS data. The next chapter, Chapter 12, Using the ODS for Visualization in SAS, will focus on modern uses of SAS tools for reporting and visualization.