[R] R in the NY Times

[Louis Bajuk-Yorgan]

As the product manager for S+, I'd like to comment as well. I think the
burgeoning interest in R demonstrates that there's demand for analytics
to solve real, business-critical problems in a broad spectrum of
companies and roles, and that some of the incumbent analytics offerings,
in particular SAS and SPSS, don't sufficiently meet the growing need for
analytics in many major companies. 

S+ (now TIBCO Spotfire S+) is of course a commercial software package
based on the S language, which was a forerunner of R as mentioned in the
article, and has been widely adopted. It is currently used in a wide
variety of areas, including Life Sciences, Financial Services, and
Utilities, for applications such as speeding the analysis of clinical
trial data, optimizing portfolios, and assessing potential sites for
building wind farms. 

I welcome, respect, and appreciate the vitality, creativity, and sheer
productivity of the R community, and the high quality of statistical
methods the community creates. And, because of the close historical ties
between the two products, it is generally easy to port most R statistics
into the commercial S+ environment, and we have worked to make that
easier in recent releases.  

Once in S+, these analytic methods can be incorporated into intuitive
tools for business decision makers and deployed to automated
environments, using visual workflows, web-based applications (using
standard web services), Spotfire Guided Applications for dynamic visual
analysis, and scalable, event-driven architectures using TIBCO's IT
infrastructure. S+ also provides some unique offerings, such as the
ability to flexibly and efficiently analyze very large data sets. 

In this way, I feel companies can maximize the value of their analytic
investments to make rapid business decisions, whether those analytics
are developed in R or S+. 

Regards,
Lou Bajuk-Yorgan
Sr. Director, Product Management
TIBCO Spotfire Division
lbajuk at tibco.com

-----Original Message-----
From: r-help-bounces at r-project.org [mailto:r-help-bounces at r-project.org]
On Behalf Of Douglas Bates
Sent: Wednesday, January 07, 2009 12:58 PM
To: marc_schwartz at comcast.net
Cc: r-help at r-project.org
Subject: Re: [R] R in the NY Times

On Wed, Jan 7, 2009 at 8:50 AM, Marc Schwartz
<marc_schwartz at comcast.net> wrote:
> on 01/07/2009 08:44 AM Kevin E. Thorpe wrote:
>> Zaslavsky, Alan M. wrote:
>>> This article is accompanied by nice pictures of Robert and Ross.
>>>
>>> Data Analysts Captivated by Power of R 
>>> http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/07/technology/business-computing/07pr
>>> ogram.html
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> January 7, 2009 Data Analysts Captivated by R's Power By ASHLEE 
>>> VANCE
>>>
>>>
>>> SAS says it has noticed R's rising popularity at universities, 
>>> despite educational discounts on its own software, but it dismisses 
>>> the technology as being of interest to a limited set of people 
>>> working on very hard tasks.
>>>
>>> "I think it addresses a niche market for high-end data analysts that

>>> want free, readily available code," said Anne H. Milley, director of

>>> technology product marketing at SAS. She adds, "We have customers 
>>> who build engines for aircraft. I am happy they are not using 
>>> freeware when I get on a jet."
>>>
>>
>> Thanks for posting.  Does anyone else find the statement by SAS to be

>> humourous yet arrogant and short-sighted?
>>
>> Kevin

> It is an ignorant comment by a marketing person who has been spoon fed

> her lines...it is also a comment being made from a very defensive and 
> insecure posture.