Dear Reader,
As a parent of three young kids, Christmas is always a special time of year for the LaRussos. It starts right after Thanksgiving, when I spend the entire weekend on a teetering ladder framing our house with 3,000 twinkling lights (think Clark Griswold), and doesn't slow down until every Christmas show ever made has been watched (on a television outlined with garland) and every last crumb of Christmas cookie has been consumed.

This year, I'm sorry to report, it's not all sugarplums in the LaRusso household. You see, I suspect that my little girl may no longer believe in Santa Claus. This one took me by surprise. It was only last Christmas that she concluded a two-page epistle to Old Saint Nick with the P.S., "Please bring my friend Ethan presents even though he says you're not real." When I wrote back a response on Santa's behalf, (with my left hand lest she recognize my handwriting) she used his "sloppy" handwriting as proof of his existence. "It's definitely him," she explained. "That's as neat as he can write on account of those big black gloves he wears."

This year, however, there has been no mention of Santa, not even when she made out her wish list. When the Mall Santa didn't illicit a second glance, I really started to worry.

Thankfully any concern went away when we decided to take the kids on a traditional sleigh ride. As the sleigh began to pick up speed, my daughter turned to me and, with a mixture of excitement and worry in her voice, asked, "Hey, Dad, do you think we'll get off the ground?"

Whether she still believes in Santa or not, it warms my heart to know that she still feels the magic of the Christmas season. I think she believes, especially at this special time of year, that nearly anything is possible.

SAS users may experience a similar sense of wonder and endless possibility the first time they deploy SAS' Grid Manager. Almost like magic, SAS Grid Manager allows customers to accelerate processing speed or increase the scale (number of users, size of data sets, frequency of analysis, etc.) of a particular SAS application. A large US-based bank, for example, told us that SAS Grid Manager reduced its processing time more than 90 percent, cutting the time it took to score 400,000 loans from three hours to 10 minutes. That really is a gift that keeps on giving!

Early in 2012, SAS Education will offer three new courses to help more SAS users discover the magic of grid computing. SAS Grid Manager 9.2 Administration will introduce users to grid computing and guide them in using the SAS Grid Manager architecture to manage the grid environment. Using SAS Client Applications with SAS Grid Manager will show users how to submit SAS workload to the grid from a variety of different SAS products and user interfaces. SAS Enterprise Scheduling with Platform Suite for SAS will discuss job scheduling and teach users how to create and schedule SAS workflows. SAS programmers or administrators responsible for managing SAS workflows or anyone who wishes to learn more about grid computing with SAS, should add these courses to their Christmas wish list.

Wishing everyone a wonderful holiday season and a happy new year,

Larry LaRusso
Editor, SAS Training Report