R is becoming the third most popular statistical software behind SAS and SPSS due to its open source nature and syntax that uses actual mathematical nomenclature. SAS is most commonly used and has over 60 modules, with the most popular being SAS BASE for data extraction, macros, and graphs from multiple sources, SAS ETL for extracting data from different sources, and SAS Graph for generating intuitive graphs. SPSS was acquired by IBM in 2009 and allows many analytical functions not previously available in IBM Cognos, integrating the two products. R has generated significant interest in recent years for its mathematical syntax and ability to be configured with any system as open source, such as using it with Hadoop for big data analytics.