4709mark@ucsbuxa.ucsb.edu (Mark Schildhauer) (02/14/91)
I like SAS, and so do a lot of other people here at the University of California, Santa Barbara. That is why I am extremely concerned with the MASSIVE price increases dropped on a lot of Unix machines, effective Jan. 1991. Machines such as the SUN4/370 (390, 470, etc.), will be experiencing price increases of between 300-500% !! Needless to say, this is going to be nearly impossible to justify before my budget committee... and we might be forced to move to other stat packages. I have talked with several of the people at SI, and they were generally sympathetic. There seem to be two major issues. First, how reasonable is SI's new pricing structure? They claim their classification is for multi- user machines, but users here perceive performance decreases when 2-3 people are running modest GLM's. The old '3 workunit' classification seemed a lot more in line with realistic usage. Second, I have checked on two major competing packages and they are priced at less than half what SAS hopes to collect from us...and this is without even considering that those competitors are willing to consider further discounting for multiple servers. The new Multi-user license fee from SAS has no discounting built in. If you want to bring up say, 4 SUN4/370's with Base and Stat, expect to pay $3500 apiece for the first year. It doesn't matter that you may already be a major customer on the identical platform. I think it is grossly unfair for S.I. to do this to the growing base of minicomputers which are becoming the instructional workhorses, at least at this campus. In addition, doesn't SAS realize that their academic market effectively provides training for the future analytical workforce? On University budgets in times of fiscal constraint, I fear that SAS will no longer expand at our campus, but could (perish the thought) be phased out by budget-minded administrators. If you share this concern, please express your feelings directly to the director of marketing at S.I.: Barrett Joyner, Director of Marketing SAS Institute, Inc. SAS Campus Dr. Cary, N.C. 27513-2414 Attn: Marketing It would probably be particularly effective if SAS heard from disgruntled faculty and administrators. I understand that there has been a fair amount of debate recently over the new licensing structure, so let's get in those cards and letters. Thanks for your help. Mark Schildhauer Technical Coordinator Social Science Computing Facility University of California, Santa Barbara 93106 schild@alishaw.ucsb.edu