‘Top 100’ influential business survey bodes well for SAS

Raleigh, N.C. — Red Hat, SAS, and a host of high-tech companies with strong Triangle or North Carolina connections populate the latest Aberdeen Group’s “top 100” most influential technology companies .

And SAS, which ranks 30th, could move higher in future surveys due to expected growth in its area of focus – business intelligence and analytics.

According to the results of surveys from 4,645 firms, business intelligence and analytics are the technology capabilities having the greatest impact over the next 3-5 years,” Aberdeen, a consulting firm, said in its “annual state of the market report” released Tuesday. SAS is one of the “best of breed” picks in the business intelligence and analytics space.

Linux software developer and services provider Red Hat finished 21st in the survey.

Company respondents were asked to pick the “top three technology companies that had the most influence on their business performance over the course of the past year” by Aberdeen.

Also on the list were:

• IBM 4

• Cisco 5

• Dell 7

• EMC 9

• Google 11

• AT&T 15

• Nortel 19

• Sony Ericsson 26

• NetApp 57