Types of Data Accessed with the SAS ODBC Driver

In the previous figure and throughout this document, the term SAS data sources is used to describe data sources that you have defined in the SAS ODBC Driver. These can include SAS data sets, flat files, and VSAM files, as well as data from many database management systems (DBMSs) through the use of SAS/ACCESS software. (For more information, see SAS Data Sets.)
If your PC is connected to a TCP/IP network, you can access both local data sources and remote data sources. (For more information about software requirements, see What Software Do I Need?.) Local data is data that you access through a SAS server on your local machine. The data can be stored either on your computer's hard drive or on a network file system, such as a NetWare Windows NT file server, or a Windows shared folder, that makes the physical location of the data transparent to applications. Remote data is data that you access through a SAS/SHARE server that runs on another (remote) machine.
The ability to use the SAS ODBC Driver with SAS/ACCESS software as a gateway to DBMS data is particularly useful in the following situations:
  • When the DBMS vendor does not offer an ODBC driver. In this situation, you can use the SAS ODBC Driver with SAS/ACCESS software on the SAS server to connect to the DBMS. SAS/ACCESS software to the DBMS must be licensed.
  • You do not have a software license for the necessary software (either an ODBC driver for the DBMS or DBMS network access software) on your client machine.
  • You want to merge DBMS data with other data.
Currently, SAS/ACCESS software is available for the following systems:
  • ADABAS
  • CA-IDMS
  • DB2 under UNIX, Windows, and z/OS
  • HP Neoview
  • IMS
  • Informix
  • SQL Server
  • MySQL
  • Netezza
  • ODBC
  • OLE-DB
  • Oracle
  • PC Files
  • Sybase
  • SYSTEM 2000
  • Teradata
For more information about the individual SAS/ACCESS interfaces, see SAS/ACCESS for Relational Databases: Reference.