iPad and Enterprise IT
July 26, 2010
CIO Magazine ran a story that evoked the irony of a sophomore world literature class’s discussion of “Death in Venice”. On the surface, the old dude is trying to ease into the coffin. Below the surface, the tensions of northern and southern Europe create a flurry of post pubescent analyses.
Navigate to “Global CIO: Top 10 Reasons Steve Jobs & Apple Are The Future Of IT”. You can zip through the 10 reasons and understand that Apple’s iPad is not a toy for lean back content consumption. Nope. The iPad is the future of information technology. CIO Magazine has spoken.
A moment’s reflection reveals that *if* CIO Magazine is correct, CIO Magazine an its readers will be out of a job. No pun intended. The iPad limits the damage a user can do. Crashes are rare. Even a clueless tyro can locate content. The notion of docking to the big Apple itself reduces the likelihood of losing data. Installing software does not require a degree from MIT. Even the most conceptually challenged MBA can figure out how to work most of the device’s functions. What’s the argument for an expensive, often cranky information technology specialist. For that matter, why is a magazine needed to explain why information technology is so important to an organization. Most CEOs whom I know see IT as one big reason the company is not making headway in tough economic seas.
Consider these reasons offered up by CIO Magazine and its editorial engine sitting around struggling for a feature:
- Virtualization in general and VMWare specifically. Wow. I never would have thought of the iPad’s importance gated by VMWare. Fresh idea and one that underscores why CEOs want to be rid of information technology pundits.
- The iPad is a hot product. Yep, but what’s that say about the hostility to the clunky information technology solutions foisted on BMW crazed MBAs for many years? I think it says that complexity has made a toaster style computer the next big thing.
- The Apple desktop computers are selling. No kidding. The systems generally work as advertised. I don’t have space to explain the craziness of the Windows 7 desktop. Let me say that USB support is less than outstanding.But what’s the iPad and the CIO list mean for search.
Four points in my opinion:
First, search vendors have to come to grips with complexity and quick. Push back regarding the Rube Goldbeg systems can do them in
Second, the price point becomes an issue. When complexity is kicked to the curb, commoditization may grab the brass ring. Google had this idea years ago but has not been able to capitalize. Now it may be Lucene/Solr that gets the prize.
Third, users go their own way just as they did when bootlegging PCs into companies in the 1980s. I heard on a conference call that Google’s success is due to its opening Pandora’s Box, not from its brilliant marketing efforts.
Fourth, management becomes impotent. I have examples of senior managers who can no longer manage. The evidence is everywhere. Can you name a big company that has lost its sense of direction and the confidence of its shareholders. Need a hint?
Will CIO Magazine survive as a gadget publication? Probably not. Will traditional IT survive? In some outfits, the deck chairs floated when the Titanic sank. Outlook for those with buoyancy is good. Ah, irony of death in Venice digital style.
Stephen E Arnold, July 24, 2010
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Now That Is a System Failure
July 26, 2010
The addled goose knows about floating in a pond filled with mine drainage. He does not know about oil leaks like the infamous BP Gulf “dead sea” play. I also don’t know if “Tech Worker Testifies of ‘Blue Screen of Death’ on Oil Rig’s Computer” is accurate. I know it is tagged as “testimony”, but there are some interesting swizzles with legal methods.
Heck. Let’s assume that the Computerworld story is rock solid. Here’s the key passage in my opinion:
A computer that monitored drilling operations on the Deepwater Horizon had been freezing with a “blue screen of death” prior to the explosion that sank the oil rig last April, the chief electronics technician aboard testified Friday at a federal hearing.
And the fix is pretty much what I do when XP and USB devices get wacky:
In his testimony Friday, Michael Williams, the chief electronics technician aboard the Transocean-owned Deepwater Horizon, said that the rig’s safety alarm had been habitually switched to a bypass mode to avoid waking up the crew with middle-of-the-night warnings.
If accurate, that is one heck of a crash. I wonder if Dot Net or SharePoint were involved. Probably not. Rock solid as I said.
Stephen E Arnold, July 26, 2010
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JustSystems Expresses Its Love for XML
July 26, 2010
JustSystems, now a unit of Keyence Corporation, posted “Beyond PDFs – Reach Your Audience with Multiple Output Formats” to pump up excitement for XML. The goslings and I love XML. We even have one or two clients who think XML is the way to handle content, not a “bohica”. The hitch seems to be getting legacy content into well formed XML without plunging the information technology department’s budget into the red inkwell.
According to one of my correspondents, the main point is:
XML, and particularly the Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA) XML language, enables you to optimize content for different media. Because an XML-based system handles formatting and content separately, it lets you create one set of source files and then generate PDF files for print and HTML files for the web” Background: “PDF is a print-oriented format, and what works for print often doesn’t work for the web, for mobile devices, or for other electronic media. PDF is not the answer to every content delivery question.
The article has a number of useful links, including the pointer to DITA on Wikipedia, which I can never remember. The run down of output features may be useful if you don’t think of information objects assembled into “documents.”
Worth a look.
Stephen E Arnold, July 26, 2010
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Endeca and Agile Business Intelligence
July 26, 2010
If you have not read the interview about Fetch Technologies, you might want to take a look. Fetch is a company that sucks in content and makes it available for analysis. Among its features is an innovative programming method. The idea is that the old style business intelligence approach is too slow for today’s business and operational environment. Fetch is an information platform, and it has a number of advocates. Also, in the same sector are equally accomplished outfits such as Kapow Tech and JackBe, among others. Vendors like Exalead have made significant headway in business intelligence, challenging some of the old line outfits to up their game. IBM bought SPSS but I am waiting for significant innovation. SAS acquired Teragram and Memex, so I expect big things from these firms. Autonomy has a Hummer filled with business intelligence clients, and that firm continues to chew into the old line firms cut off from the fast moving client herd. In short, business intelligence is a big deal.
Endeca has been in the business intelligence business for many years. I did a report that pegged the date in the 2002 to 2003 period, maybe even earlier. I was, therefore, not surprised with the information revealed in “New Study Details Top Questions Effective CIOs Must Ask to Determine Agile BI Readiness.” With the stampede to business intelligence, it is obvious even to a first year business school student at an academic backwater like the one I attended that something is causing the corporate antelope to take off.
The cause of the shift, in my experience, boils down to four factors:
First, traditional business intelligence is complicated and requires dedicated headcount to get up and running and create the reports managers require.
Second, the managers are usually clueless about what constitutes “good data.” In fact, with lousy data, the business intelligence systems produce outputs that may mislead the clueless MBA from my alma mater. The reports often baffle me, but I am an addled goose and don’t really have corporate grade bloodlines.
Third, the time windows in which decisions must be taken continue to get smaller. Whether real or induced by iPhone attention deficit disorder is irrelevant. Crunching data from the dinosaur systems takes too long. Most of the azure chip consultants seem okay with the idea that systems their firms recommend make guessing a standard business practice.
Fourth, disparate data are very expensive to normalize. That’s why outfits like Fetch and Palantir are doing pretty well. Palantir, as you may know, is now valued at $1.0 billion and sucks in disparate data, outputs reports, and pretty much leapfrogs the more traditional outfits.
What did the Endeca study reveal?
Here are the points that jumped out at me:
- Analysts have to create reports for more than 70 percent of those in the survey sample
- Time is short, deadlines vary.
- About half of those in the sample found business intelligence systems too hard.
No surprises for me.
What interested me is that a company with a strong foundation in eCommerce is pushing business intelligence. My view is that Endeca, like other vendors in search and content processing, want to generate more revenues from their technology, content connectors, and partnerships with value added resellers.
The challenge for Endeca will be to deal with the inertia within many large companies. Endeca is not alone in chasing business intelligence. In fact, Endeca has been pushing business intelligence to some degree for a number of years. So far the high performers have been companies with a combination of technology, content processing capabilities, and the ability to solve specific business problems.
My hunch is that general purpose business intelligence systems are going to face a long slog uphill. The newer players have to contend with one another, price cuts, the economy, and the marketing challenge.
Perhaps a bespoke survey will do the trick? My view is that Endeca like other search vendors is looking for a way to generate revenue. Like eDiscovery, the realities of the marketplace are going to make it tough for the many business intelligence vendors to find a pot of gold at the end of the BI rainbow.
Furthermore, I think that the business intelligence push is one more indication that “pure search” has been disrupted significantly. Furthermore, can some search vendors deliver actionable business intelligence or just results list with lipstick and mascara?
Stephen E Arnold, July 26, 2010
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Google Flop Round Up
July 25, 2010
If you want a list of Google flops, point your browser to “For All Its Might, Google is No ‘Product-Killer‘”. The assumption is that Google is a product company. My view is that Google is in the plumbing business. The product part is not really in Google’s paws. Developers and motivated power users have the burden of creating killer apps. The Google does utility type work quite well. When was the last time your water company wowed you with a great innovation.
The list of flops is interesting. The author highlights the Nexus One phone and Google’s online shopping service, among others. Here’s the passage I noted:
Google certainly has the engineering talent, money, brand and user base to make social networking work, in theory. But in practice, it appears that “social” just isn’t in Google’s DNA — it can’t seem to make a service that’s fun or useful enough for everyone to want to hang out there.
Like much of the punditry swirling around Google, the darned write up sounds logical, but it is 14 degrees out of kilter. Google is not perfect and it is not a product outfit.
Stephen E Arnold, July 25, 2010
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SharePoint Search Migration Tool
July 25, 2010
Lucky you. You now have a Microsoft tool to make migration as easy as snapping one’s fingers. The tool is available to help you with the following migrations. No, I did not make a mistake when reporting that you need the tool to migrate from SharePoint Server 2010 to SharePoint Server 2010. I don’t really want to know.
First, navigate to http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/odcsp2010searchmigra to the get the run down on the components which include these components:
- Common
- Search Migration
- O12Layer
- O14Layer
- FS14Layer.
Job security as long at the budget supports this sort of stuff. My approach would be quite different, use a third party tool, and focus on keeping the cost down, the system up, and the users happy. I am not sure some folks share these simple ideas.
Stephen E Arnold, July 25, 2010
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Is Google Your Next Online Store?
July 25, 2010
Maybe?
One of the more senior search experts at Google is predicting that in the near future searching without searching will become the way that we organize our lives. Google’s
Amit Singhal is keen on pointing out the fact that search is progressing although there is a need for transparency and the ability for people to control the flow of information as it pertains to their privacy in Google expert outlines future of search.
Singhal has stressed that all the components are there to offer the information that people want without the need for them to search for it. The premise of this seems simple enough once you break it down as it involves both cloud computing and the calendars that are ubiquitous today.
Singhal uses the example of a do to list that can work together with a calendar and a GPS enabled phone to tell you when you have a bit of free time and where you need to go to get rid of one of the things on your do to list.
This premise is about the technologies working together to help people manage their time. As the article progresses , Singhal’s additional examples point to what he envisions as a kind of electronic butler that can tell you where to go ,what you need and when you need it based on your input.
There are a few issues here that need to be addressed. For example, hasn’t Google fallen behind in this due to their interest in the social network approach? It’s also important to remember that talking about search is different than driving search….’talking’ is today, ‘driving’ was ten years ago.
It all begs the question as to the fates of names like Brin and Page. All of a sudden mobile and ‘now’ search have been delegated it appears.
Beyond Search wants to see the old faces with the eyes squinting into the wind and their hands on the technology tiller.
Stephen E Arnold, July 25, 2010
White House Tech Chiefs Set Strategy?
July 24, 2010
The title, Bringing Government Up to Data, might sound promising but we’re not convinced that the technology that drove Barak Obama’s campaign will translate well into the White House.
Vivek Kundra, Jeffrey Zients and Aneesh Chopra, have been tasked with making the presidents vision of a data driven White House a reality and making government websites that look as cool and appealing as a Apple apps store, but job is larger than it looks and not all that easy. Still they believe that technology may be the answer when it comes to the trail of paper work that the new health care system and other things will bring.
Good luck. The government can’t even budget or control costs offline. Computers cannot help bad management techniques. In fact, computerizing flawed processes produces more errors more quickly. With the tech strategy shifts coming fast and furious, one wonders how the silos of technology within the US government will do much more than boost costs and increase inefficiency.
Rob Starr, July 24, 2010
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Endeca Channels Ecommerce
July 24, 2010
It’s always good to see a company that’s blazing a trail into e-commerce and that’s exactly what Endeca is up to with the recent announcement titled, Endeca Unveils Endeca Multichannel Commerce with Hybris.
This will bring together their industry leading user experience and capabilities in contextual merchandising to bolster the path they’re clearly working on in ecommerce. These people have been able to bring their years of experience to the Endeca Multichannel Commerce with Hybris and offer a product that has a lower cost and caters to both customer and company needs.
Established in 1997, Hybris has a proven track record of profitability and growth and Endeca is a leading provider of search applications. This next generation commerce application is clearly indicative of Endeca putting more wood behind its ecommerce opportunities.
Rob Starr, July 24, 2010
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Is Buzz a Buzz Saw?
July 24, 2010
Buzz came out of the starting gate and stumbled. Google regrouped, but the goslings in the mine run off pond remain confused about Buzz, Wave, and the forthcoming social service from Google.
Confusion aside Google Buzz seems to be moving forward again and at least according to ZDnet.com and picking up some momentum. (See Google Buzz Firehose now available.) The reason? Google is opening up Buzz to developers; they really warmed to the Buzz API that was introduced. So the question is, is this what was needed to put the real buzz in Buzz?
With a free Firehose API that’s being offered it’s possible the Google Buzz people can start making some interesting apps here. There can’t be any mistake about what Google is really trying to do with Buzz and after a slow start they might just be set to get the social traction they are looking for.
When they first pulled the plug on the Google Search API, they opened the door for Twitter, but now that trend just might be reversing.
Rob Starr, July 24, 2010
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