Enterprise Search Giants Keep Focus on Cloud and Social Solutions
February 17, 2012
Sim Ahmed discusses IBM vs. Microsoft in enterprise search in his recent ComputerWorld article, “SharePoint is a ‘Document Coffin,’ says IBM.” The ‘document coffin’ comments from IBM happened at the Lotusphere 2012 conference where they announced a host of new features for their line of enterprise software in an effort to offer up some competitive edge against SharePoint and Google’s Apps for Businesses. IBM is no stranger to critiques for their lacking enterprise software as SharePoint adoption continues to increase.
So what does IBM have in store?
The theme of this year’s Lotusphere is business made social, and IBM has taken the opportunity to announce several social networking orientated changes to its line of enterprise software. IBM demoed new additions to its Connections community portal product, including the new Activity Stream feature which resembles status feeds on most popular social networks. The Activity Stream can pull in information from multiple apps and feeds, including third party applications by using the OpenSocial framework. Community managers can gain a better understanding of their users with built in metrics and sentiment tracking.
In addition, IBM showcased their much anticipated cloud-based document collaboration and editing software called IBM Docs. But critics have been quick to point out that any system can become a document graveyard without the right people and planning in place ahead of time.
No matter your system, you need the right solutions in place to facilitate findability and reusability of your business information. For an established Cloud solution, consider Fabasoft Mindbreeze. Here you can read and see the easy and powerful search features of Mindbreeze in Folio Cloud.
William Wallace explains,
Whether you need to find an e-mail, document, contact, team room or any other object, Mindbreeze searches your Cloud with speed and intelligence. Under Mindbreeze in Folio Cloud you can select the sources that you want to search quite simply via a menu box directly in the search screen. You can conveniently select the source(s) that are relevant for your search and also select restrictions based on the tick-box options.
Folio Cloud gives you search and collaboration capabilities and the most return for your enterprise search investments. Point your browser to Fabasoft Mindbreeze to find what works for you.
Philip West, February 17, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
PLM Must Change Warns Respected Blogger
February 17, 2012
There has been a lot of discussion about the future of PLM technologies. With the introduction of cloud technology in the last decade PLM has begun the first truly radical change since it began almost thirty years ago. In the blogpost titled, PLM, RDBMS and Future Data Management Challenges, on PLM Think Tank, author Oleg Shilovitsky points out the effect PLM’s out-of-date technology is having on data.
When PLM first started there was relatively little data floating around in the world. As computer use has increased, the internet explosion and now all systems within a company computerized data is growing at exponential rates. And yet, PLM is still being done basically the same.
As the post summarizes,
“I think, the weak point of existing RDBMS technologies in the context of PLM is a growing complexity of data – both from structural and unstructured aspects. The amount of data will raise lots of questions in front of enterprise IT in manufacturing companies and PLM vendors.”
For a company to stay competitive in this global economy that has really come to exist in the last two decades PLM strategies must be changed and companies must adopt new data management solutions to go along with those changes. Cloud technology now allows for PLM that keeps up with a growing company’s rapidly changing data management needs. The evidence of Shilovitsky’s admonishments can be seen in the growing number of PLM providers switching to the cloud and focusing more on data management in relation to enterprise search.
Catherine Lamsfuss, February 17, 2012
Protected: Free SharePoint Training Videos Teach the Basics
February 17, 2012
Oracle Presses for Bigger Payoff in SAP Suit
February 17, 2012
Oracle is a feisty outfit.
Not satisfied with its slashed settlement, “Oracle Wants New Trial Against SAP After Reduced Verdict,” reports Bloomberg Businessweek. Jurors had awarded the company $1.3 billion for now defunct SAP unit TomorrowNow’s illegal Oracle software downloads; SAP never disputed the charges.
U.S. District Judge Phyllis Hamilton disagreed with the logic of the jury, which determined the generous amount while contemplating a hypothetical license Oracle might have granted to SAP in a different reality. Writer Karen Gullo reports:
Hamilton said there was no evidence that Oracle had ever granted a license that would permit a competitor to use its software to compete for Oracle customers. Oracle can’t recover lost license fees because, without such evidence, any award would be subjective and speculative and not based on objective evidence, she said.
Good point.
Oracle’s pursuit of a new trial suggests that Oracle will keep on with legal proceedings regardless of the outcomes. What does this mean for the Oracle vs Google trial? Our prediction: big paydays for lawyers.
If I were a Google attorney (which I am most assuredly not), I would tuck away the notion that Oracle just keeps suing and suing and suing, just like an Energizer Bunny with a law degree.
Cynthia Murrell, February 17, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Interview with John Wang: Creator of Sensei
February 17, 2012
Back in October we wrote a Beyond Search story about Q-Sensei, a multi-dimensional information management company that seemed more versatile than Autonomy, Exalead, and Apache Lucene combined. Now, several months later, the company has once again crossed our radar. This time, they are advocating for the new open-source search software called Sensei.
The Sematext blog post “Sensei: Distributed, Realtime, Semi-Structured Database” shares an interview with LinkedIn’s John Wang, search architect and Sensei project lead.
Wang states:
Sensei is an open-source, elastic, real time, distributed database with native support for searching and navigating both unstructured text and structured data. Sensei is designed to handle complex semi-structured queries on very large, and rapidly changing datasets. It was created to support LinkedIn Homepage and Signal. The core engine is also used for LinkedIn search properties, e.g. people search, recruiter system, job and company search pages.
After describing the Sensei system, Wang goes into great depth answering questions regarding his reasoning for writing Sensei, what types of companies it would benefit, and its potential pitfalls.
It is exciting to see the growth of open source search software like Sensei to help meet the needs of an increasingly diverse customer base.
Jasmine Ashton, February 17, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Multicore: No Silver Bullet for Lousy Code
February 17, 2012
At one time engineers thought that throwing more cores at a bottleneck would solve the problem. They were wrong. ExtremeTech examines “The Death of CPU Scaling: from One Core to Many—and Why We’re Still Stuck.”
The very informative article traces computer processor development from the time CPU scaling ceased to be feasible and manufacturers began multiplying their cores in 2004. Writer Joel Hruska does a good job explaining Moore’s law, Dennard scaling, and Amdahl’s law and how each impacts the growth of processing power. It also details the reasons multiple cores cannot revive the exponential improvements processors enjoyed during the 1990s. (I like the term “dark silicon.” Sounds like a super villain.)
The write up quotes a recent report on dark silicon and multi-core devices:
Regardless of chip organization and topology, multicore scaling is power limited to a degree not widely appreciated by the computing community…. Given the low performance returns…adding more cores will not provide sufficient benefit to justify continued process scaling…. A new driver of transistor utility must be found, or the economics of process scaling will break and Moore’s Law will end well before we hit final manufacturing limits.
That sounds pretty dire, though Hruska predicts some slow scaling progress will continue for several years. After that, who knows? To run fast, do we now think assembler?
Cynthia Murrell, February 17, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Google Plus Wants the Social Pie
February 17, 2012
According to the Pandia Search and Social article “How to Benefit From Google’s Search Plus” Google is creating some waves with the release of its new Search Plus Your World (SPYW or Search+). “Google has previously said that gaining +1s can help improve your ranking for those who have directly +1ed your content, as well as for those they are connected to.”
Search+ works by only factoring in an individual’s Google+ social graph. We learned:
The key implication here is that a company’s presence on Twitter and Facebook won’t produce the same return as a presence on Google+.
Users that put a share button on their Google+ website can help gain more attention for their website which is especially important for businesses. Google+ pages need to be an integral part of the marketing scheme especially SEO marketing plans. Looks like users will have to fight their way, kicking and screaming, through another social network to reach the Google top.
April Holmes, February 17, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Apps Replacing Middleware for Many Companies
February 17, 2012
Here’s the progression for information access. Ask someone. Use Dialog’s or SDC’s command line interface. Surf the Web. Use an app.
Information Management’s Jim Ericson recently reported on Middleware vendors moving into app development in the article “Apps Overtaking Middleware.”
According to the article, the predicted “suites of heterogeneous software assembling like Transformer robots to tackle the big adversaries of enterprise processing,” have not proven themselves to be accurate. Rather, modern day apps and analytics are beginning to court the data, rather than the other way around.
Vendors are beginning to snatch up the analytics apps like hot cakes. Andrew Bartels of Forrester Research elaborates:
IBM is a poster child for the classic Middleware vendor moving aggressively and heavily into applications because they see that is where the action is. Specifically, that means “analytical solutions” with a tighter focus on marketing, buying, selling and servicing activities.
While this is an interesting take on the issue, we believe that Ericson does not consider the issue of app fatigue or the inefficiency of providing limited functionality to professionals who have changing information requirements.
Are online customers making more informed decisions? I prefer not to comment on that.
Jasmine Ashton, February 12, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Another Take on Visual SharePoint
February 16, 2012
We noted the excellent article “How to Do Visual Best Bets for Built In SharePoint Search”. Mikael Svenson has done a very good job of explaining the details of an earlier article about best bets (content which may of interest to a user) enhancements to SharePoint FS4SP.
Users find useful suggestions and content flagged as having particular relevance to a query. The suggestions in many systems are in the form of “facets” or highlighted results. Busy users can scan the results list and note the suggestions. A visual component can make it even easier for a SharePoint user to spot potentially useful content.
We learned from Mr. Svenson:
Visual Best Bets is a feature of FAST Search for SharePoint which lets you point to a file with html content to be displayed above your search results. For example an image, Silverlight or flash content can be used to graphically enhance what is linked to the keyword term. The Visual Web Part uses an iframe to accomplish this and loads up your content inside the iframe. This is useful as you can easily edit the html file at will. But why go the extra mile for a separate file, or opt in for FS4SP for this feature? The Best Bet web part support the showing of keywords and keyword definitions. Keyword definitions are formatted as html. And a definition with html formatting is in effect a Visual Best Bet. (If you have more than one Visual Best Bet you want to assign to the keyword you would have to add them all to the same html for this to work.)
We agree, and we want to add that there are numerous other options available to a SharePoint licensee. These range from the integration of visual displays from Microsoft-certified third party developers to custom code. One company with some interesting technologies is Nevron. The firm’s components can convert a SharePoint page into an advanced dashboard or a report. The user no longer looks at a results list. With Nevron-type technology, the user sees a report which answers a specific business question.
At Search Technologies, the technical team can implement FS4SP via PowerShell or other system, integrate third party components, or develop a customized solution to meet a SharePoint licensee’s specific needs. To learn more about Search Technologies’ customization and FS4SP services, navigate to the Search Technologies’ Web site.
Iain Fletcher, February 16, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Apple and the US General Services Administration
February 16, 2012
Short honk: I read “RIM’s BlackBerry loses General Services Administration business to iPhone.” I am assuming that the information in the write up is reasonably accurate. The point of the news story was to tell me that Research in Motion now has to deal with Apple iPhones and iPads in the juicy US government market. One of the more interesting statements in the story was:
The GSA also plans to allow federal purchases of Android devices, although the enterprise in general has avoided enthusiastic adoption of devices running Google’s platform due to a lack of robust support for a variety of features that are important to corporate users, including IPSec VPNs, Microsoft’s Exchange Server and device administration tools to monitor, manage and police the enforcement of desired policies.
Why this paragraph? Easy. Google which has long coveted the US government as a customer now finds that Apple is pushing its cute little nose into the big spending, mostly confused government procurement process. Forget Research in Motion. This news story indicates that Apple can make life tough for Google in more than online music and mobile devices in the consumer market.
How will Google respond? No clue, probably in a Googley way.
Stephen E Arnold, February 16, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
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