SAS Buys Intelligence Analytics Provider

Business intelligence company SAS has signaled its intention to pursue the federal intelligence community, announcing Friday that it was purchasing IT services company Vision Systems and Technology Inc. for an undisclosed sum.

Among other customers, the 13-year-old VSTI counts the Central Intelligence Agency, Defense Intelligence Agency, National Geospatial Intelligence Agency, Department of Defense, U.S. Navy and Air Force.

VSTI's core competencies are in processing and analyzing large data volumes to find relevant nuggets of information and then disseminating that data to proper parties. As the intelligence community collects more and more information, it will need more and more sophisticated tools to analyze that information.

"The explosion of information has driven a tremendous need for advanced analytics, and as the technology expands and evolves, the problem expands even further," VSTI CEO Dwayne Robinson said in an interview.

According to information on VSTI's Website, the company's Streaming Analytics Framework can identify "actionable intelligence hidden in billions of structured or unstructured data records" within minutes.

SAS has recently been pushing heavily into the federal marketplace, two year ago creating a wholly-owned subsidiary, SAS Federal. SAS Federal general manager Karen Knowles said in an interview that the acquisition of VSTI represents not only a "step change" in SAS' ability to compete for intelligence community business, but brings SAS experience and intellectual property that's relevant outside the intelligence community as well.