Cloud Data Protection Offerings for eDiscovery
July 24, 2012
I would have thought that eDiscovery vendors would have stayed away from cloud based storage due to cybercriminals vamping up their attacks, but if you can make the cloud secure enough to protect client data it could work. MarketWatch reports “Lighthouse eDiscovery Deploys Riverbed Whitewater to Improve Cloud-Based Data Protection.” Lighthouse eDiscovey has selected Riverbed Technology and their Whitewater cloud storage gateway to replace its very old tape-based backup disaster recovery system. The change will allow Lighthouse to improve their eDiscovery practices, securely accelerate backup, and recovery options to the public data for better data protection.
As I guessed Lighthouse was a little weary of the cloud, until they could verify its security:
“`While cloud storage was an attractive option for us due to its immediate availability, Riverbed was a critical component of making disaster recovery in the cloud a reality. We were able to configure the Whitewater gateway in about an hour without having to replace our existing backup tool, Symantec Backup Exec,’ said Marc Larkin, System Administrator at Lighthouse. ‘Our data protection strategy is much more reliable than with tape and our backups feel local!’”
Secure data protection is one the most important aspects when researching eDiscovery and litigation support software. If data are not protected and backed-up, clients rights could be violated and evidence could possibly be lost. The fancy math and predictive outputs may be for nought, if the source is compromised.
Stephen E Arnold, July 24, 2012
Sponsored by Ikanow
Quote to Note: Manage the Decline
July 23, 2012
I snipped a quotation from the Wall Street Journal, dead tree edition, this morning (July 23, 2012). On page B-6 the “Idol Auditions New Judges” write up included this gem:
American Idol is a juggernaut franchise that still has many season left but once a program starts to fall from its pear, you are working to minimize the decline, said Kris Magel, director of national broadcast at Initiative, a media buying firm…
I highlighted the phrase which I think is a keeper. I want to use this idea to characterize a number of search and content processing vendors’ actions in the closing months of 2012. With the shift to open source technologies beginning to gain momentum, many information retrieval companies, regardless of the spin in their marketing collateral, are likely to be working to maintain revenues. Growth may be tough. With funds in short supply for some firms, the white knight notion of an acquisition to get talented people (an acq-hire) may be galloping into the sunset. Trigger words for me now include predictive anything (analytics, tagging, coding, what have you), customer support or customer relationship management, and big data. Words do not equate with revenue in the tough months ahead.
Love that phrase, “minimize the decline.”
Stephen E Arnold, July 23, 2012
Sponsored by Ikanow
Attivio Casts Light on SQL Shadow
July 23, 2012
It is no longer structured versus unstructured data. It is now SQL versus NoSQL, and some are advising companies to stick with SQL. The good news is… you do not have to. There is a company that says we can do it all.
That company is Attivio, and they cover the basics in their article, “SQL versus NoSQL – Why Not Have the Best of Both Worlds?” Attivio can work with SQL, NoSQL, prototypes, and they have a patented JOIN operator. They can search and utilize relationships between records of any type, and can do so spontaneously.
The piece le resistance is their AIE. This is where Attivio says they really look good, and:
“Underneath Attivio’s support for SQL is an index structure that supports massive, linear scalability. We recently helped a customer index 300 million documents; its 1.7 TB of data, sharded across three servers. The entire set is replicated to three additional machines to provide fault tolerance and additional query capacity. Our support for non-collocated JOINs means that you can STILL query the entire data set. You don’t have to manage the content on each shard, either. AIE takes care of all of that for you.”
NoSQL users were lost in the shadows of multi-media doubt, but Attivio cast some light in their direction. There you go. Attivio offers a definitive solution.
Jennifer Shockley, July 23, 2012
Claims Based Authentication in SharePoint 2013
July 23, 2012
The Web is buzzing with the release of SharePoint 2013 Preview, which was recently announced. Wictor Wilen, a SharePoint certified architect, takes on analysis of the new product with special attention being given to Claims-based authentication mode in his blog entry, “SharePoint 2013: Claims is the New Black.”
Wilen explains how the authentication mode has become less flexible:
Now in SharePoint 2013, Claims-based authentication mode is the default authentication method. You cannot from the web interface create content web applications using Classic mode. If you need to create a Classic web application you need use PowerShell – but you should not do that (unless you have some specific requirement) since Classic mode is now considered deprecated, and will likely be removed in future releases of SharePoint.
Wilen goes on to explain how the SharePoint team has made a number of improvements in Claims-based authentication since it has become the default. Lastly, he lists the next steps that users need to make to keep up with the changes from 2010 to 2013 SharePoint offerings.
For users who need efficient and intuitive enterprise search, but do not have the time to navigate SharePoint’s infrequent and upsetting changes, a third party solution may be a better fit. Check out the award winning Fabasoft Mindbreeze Enterprise. With quarterly seamless updates and a more intuitive interface, Fabasoft Mindbreeze might be a more time and cost efficient solution for your organization.
Emily Rae Aldridge, July 23, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Amazon Creates A Stir on Twitter and in the Blogosphere
July 23, 2012
Benjamin Coe spent a recent Friday night dealing with the AWS outage. Based on the article he wrote on his blog entitled “My Friday Night with AWS,” it seems he may have spent quite a bit of time on Twitter checking the pulse of AWS users as well.
He chalked up his experience as a testament to the infrastructure of Attachments.me. However, those on the twittersphere either complained about how awful AWS is or they complained about how no one builds appropriately redundant infrastructure. His thoughts are that redundancy comes with a cost.
He states:
“The only way to ensure close to 100% up time is replicating your entire infrastructure. Ultimately it’s a trade off. Are the risks associated with parts of a system not having redundancy offset by reduced infrastructure costs and complexity? It’s obvious that Pinterest, Instagram, Heroku, and many other sites (cough, attachments.me), had parts of their sites that were not redundant. I can almost guarantee that in many cases this was a conscious choice. From my perspective, a lack of total redundancy can sometimes be an acceptable risk if approached responsibly.”
We have to hand it to cloud technologies to keep things exciting. No local data? no problem. Uptime, reliability, and great communication are characteristics of some of the new cloud services. The problem is, “Which service? and when?”
Megan Feil, July 23, 2012
Sponsored by IKANOW
NC Software Market and PLM Growing Together
July 23, 2012
With most of the world’s economy in a state of descent it is refreshing to report on an industry setting records in growth and revenue every year with even more growth predicted. The American Machinist article, “More Growth Forecast for Global NC Software Market”, is just one more testimony to the incredible demand for product lifecycle management solutions (PLM) across industries around the world.
The article describes how PLM is affecting the NC software market:
“Since 2002, the NC software market has shown modest but steady growth as global economies generally improved, CIMdata noted. Although the world market has seen significant growth in the sale of machine tools, and in manufacturing output, manufacturers have put greater emphasis on the efficient operation of machine tools —a consequence of strategies that have emphasized competitiveness. Thus, the overall PLM market (of which CAM is one part) has continued to grow.”
This article backs up what those in the industry already know and what several industry journals and reports have announced – PLM is alive and growing! With anticipated growth in 2012 to be in the double digits it is no surprise that more companies are turning to PLM to help manage costs, streamline processes and eliminate waste. Inforbix, a leader in the PLM field, offers PLM solutions that work with any industry because they focus on data management, the essential key to PLM. Their software provides “integrated cloud solutions for manufacturing companies that tackle everyday tasks such as finding, reusing, and sharing product data without the overhead of traditional data management systems” making them the natural choice for many companies.
Catherine Lamsfuss, July 23, 2012
SEO World Reacts to Google Knowledge Graph
July 23, 2012
Yikes, it’s a semantic invasion! Search Engine Watch declares, “Semantic Search: The Eagle Has Landed.” This article takes a look at Google’s newest Web search incarnation, the Knowledge Graph; the shift to the new system is already in progress.
Writer Jiyan Wei’s intended audience is made up of SEO pros, so most of the article focuses on what the development means for those who game results page rankings for a living. He does, however, give a good description of the service, using a search for “The Dark Knight Rises” as an example. He writes:
“Google’s goal is to infer that ‘The Dark Knight Rises’ is a specific entity type (a movie). Once this inference is made, they are then able to relate the entity with a set of associated entities (directors, actors, theatres, etc.). This relational understanding lays the foundation for a search experience that is far more consumer friendly, far more like ‘how humans understand the world.’. . .
“The right-column is almost entirely composed of content derived from semantic inference: it displays a list of people who have contributed to the movie as well as information about the movie pulled from Wikipedia.
“Semantic search is also currently influencing the organic search results by displaying people related to the movie, dates associated with the movie, and once the movie has been released and reviewed, ratings associated with the movie.”
Wei notes that the schema Google is using is publically available at Schema.org, a collaborative project shepherded by Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo. If you’re interested in keeping up with the changing rules behind the search engine optimization game, see the second half of the article.
Cynthia Murrell, July 23, 2012
Sponsored by PolySpot
Google Offers Concessions to EU Regulators
July 23, 2012
It seems that Google is becoming more like Henry Clay, the great compromiser. ITProPortal reports, “Google Makes New Settlement Offer to Appease EU Regulators.” This is just the latest step in a drawn out process, of course. Writer Rawiya Kameir explains:
“EU Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia earlier this year pointed out four concerns related to Google’s business practices that needed to be addressed, including whether its search engine promotes its own services over those of competitors and whether the company re-uses content, like restaurant and business reviews, from other sites without authorisation.
“In May, Almunia gave the company a July deadline to defend itself in the investigation or face charges and, likely, a hefty fine. Google tendered its official response early in July, in the form of a letter written by chairman Eric Schmidt.”
Almunia requested certain clarifications regarding that letter, and this latest settlement offer is said to be in response to that request. Specifics of the proposals are not available. Regulators are reportedly to decide whether to accept the terms within two weeks. At stake, the article says, is a penalty of up to ten percent of Google’s annual income. That’s a lot of euros!
Cynthia Murrell, July 23, 2012
Sponsored by PolySpot
New Oracle Solution Could Be Online Retail Game Changer
July 23, 2012
CMS Wire recently reported on a new solution called Oracle Commerce in the article, “Oracle Combines ATG, Endeca Products Into Oracle Commerce.”
According to the article, this new solution is a combination of two of Oracle’s products, Oracle ATG Commerce and Oracle Endeca. This single solution, known as Commerce, uses a data integration model to centrally manage customer engagement strategies by providing a personalized user experience.
The article states:
“Oracle Commerce provides pre-built components for quick launches of websites via a site creation wizard, which allows for integration of channels. A cross-channel strategy can be centrally managed, and granular control is offered over guided navigation, search, merchandising, content-targeting and personalization. The company said that Commerce can utilize existing customer experience technology that a business might have, integrating such tools as analytics, CRM or a recommendations engine.”
Commerce brings the best of ATG and Endeca, including Oracle’s Web Commerce Customer Service, Live Help On Demand, and Recommendation on Demand. With all of these added features Commerce could very well be a game changer for online retail. Endeca has tried a number of business segments over the last decade. Perhaps this one will allow the firm to boost its revenues in a significant manner?
Jasmine Ashton, July 23, 2012
Sponsored by IKANOW
IDC Open Source Search Reports Announced
July 23, 2012
IDC has released the first of a series of analyses of open source search vendors. The subject of the report is LucidWords Platform. Lucid Imagination has become one of the key open source search vendors. Data for the IDC “situation overview, future outlook, and essential guidance” is a result of a painstaking process. The IDC research team interviewed principals of Lucid Imagination, conducted a technical analysis of the Lucid technology platform, and used a range of data analysis methods to pinpoint key information from open source content. In addition to detailed, jargon-free information about the Lucid Lucene/Solr approach, the report provides an unvarnished analysis of the firm’s business model.
Order the full report at tp://www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=236086.
One of the important facts uncovered in the course of the research is the strong uptake of Lucid technology in specific market sectors. Also, Lucid, unlike some proprietary and other open source search vendors, has strong venture backing, revenue growth, and a full-time professional open source search technology team. Each of these issues is explored in the IDC report number 236086. You can get additional information about the for-fee report from IDC’s “Get Doc” online service.
The team working on this project included Sue Feldman, who specializes in research on information access technologies including, including search engines, text analytics, categorization, unified access to structured and unstructured information, Big Data, visualization, and rich media search. Her research analyzes the trends and dynamics of the search and discovery software market and also quantifies the costs of information work to the organization. Ms. Feldman won IDC’s James Peacock Research award for her work on modeling and forecasting the search and retrieval technology markets, and an Innovation Award from IDC in 2007 for developing a new research program on the digital marketplace. She is a frequent speaker at industry events, and has won several national and international awards for her writing. She wrote the chapter on search engines for the 1999 volume of the Encyclopedia of Library and Information Science and was the first editor of the IEEE Computer Society’s Digital Library News. She is currently writing a book, The Answer Machine concerning the future of technology for information access. Before coming to IDC in 2000, Ms. Feldman was President for twenty years of Datasearch, an independent technology consulting firm, where she consulted on new retrieval technologies such as natural language processing, search engines, usability of online systems, and digital libraries.
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