There's interesting news coming out of IBM this afternoon with their announcement that they are to acquire Platform Computing. This is of relevance to SAS customers because Platform Computing supplies key parts of some SAS solutions (such as the LSF for scheduling and RTM for grid monitoring).
IBM would like to see themselves as competitors for SAS. Their disparate portfolio of products includes SPSS, Cognos and DataStage. All have been acquired (rather than developed in-house) and all provide various levels of integration with each other. IBM may be reluctant to share their soon-to-be-acquired technology with competitors such as SAS. On the other hand, SAS may have a firm, long-term supply contract with Platform.
If we assume that SAS were aware of IBM's interest in Platform, one wonders whether they considered out-bidding IBM. Or do SAS have an in-house set of solutions that they might roll-out soon?...
Clearly, nothing's going to suddenly stop working, and nothing's going to change in the near future, so this acquisition isn't a concern for SAS customers. However, it's a matter of interest for SAS customers, and I for one am intrigued to see what the longer-term outcome of this acquisition turns-out to be.