SAS Institute (or SAS, pronounced "sass")-- the proper name is Statistical Analysis System-- is an American multinational developer of analytics software based in Cary, North Carolina. It started as a project at North Carolina State University to create a statistical analysis system that was originally used primarily by agricultural departments at universities in the late 1960s.
It became an independent, private business led by current CEO James Goodnight and three other project leaders from the university in 1976.
SAS develops and markets a suite of analytics software (also called SAS), which helps access, manage, analyze and report on data to aid in decision-making.