Lucid Imagination Dives into the Cloud
February 9, 2012
Continuing to reap the benefits of investment in open source, Lucid Imagination has just launched its cloud contender. Marketwire reports, “Lucid Imagination ‘Search-as-a-Service’ Powers Flexible, Cost-Effective Enterprise-Wide Data Discovery.” Like the company’s enterprise version of LucidWorks 2.0, the cloud-based version builds on Apache Lucene/Solr. The write up explains:
“LucidWorks Cloud helps businesses of all sizes conquer even the most daunting data and business quandaries by rapidly firing up cost-effective, flexible, and scalable enterprise search applications that help users find the information they need, when they need it. More than 30 companies used the pre-release version of LucidWorks Cloud, shaping the new product to meet even the most rigorous demands of cloud-based enterprise search.”
Both versions of LucidWorks add a lot of features to their open source foundations, like an improved user interface, monitoring and reporting tools, and an open connector framework that bridges to alternative data sources.
Founded in 2007, Lucid Imagination focuses exclusively on Apache Lucene/Solr search technology. Eight out of the 30 core committers to that open source project work for Lucid. The company also offers free developer software. Many of its clients around the world are huge household names, like AT&T, Ford, and The Smithsonian, to name just a few.
Cynthia Murrell, February 9, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Amazon Embraces Flexibility
January 29, 2012
Amazon’s latest product Elastic Network Interface (ENI) seems to provide some additional options and flexibility to users and could prove especially beneficial for enterprise users. According to the ZDnet UK Blog article “Amazon Separates Servers From IP Addresses.” “
Amazon Web Services has released a product that separates its rentable servers — ‘instances’ — from their IP addresses. “ The new products will only work with instances that are in Amazon Web Services’ Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) product. A post by Amazon on its blog states:
Today we are adding additional flexibility to EC2 instances running in the Virtual Private Cloud. First, we are teasing apart the IP addresses (and important attributes associated with them) from the EC2 instances and calling the resulting entity an ENI… Second, we are giving you the ability to create additional ENIs, and to attach a second ENI to an instance.
Though this provides customers with some attractive options one can’t overlook the surging costs on Amazon. It will be interesting to see how long they control their bulging budget while continually to produce innovative products and keep their customers happy. Amazon continues to demonstrate that it poses a threat to Apple and Google. eBay? Already stung by Amazon.
April Holmes, Janaury 29, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Gartner Predicts a Volatile Year for the IT Industry
January 21, 2012
Technological innovation and the creation of media tablets and advances in mobile is having a disruptive impact on many industries. Taume recently reported on a predictive Gartner study for the IT industry in the article “Gartner Identifies Top Vertical Industry Predictions for IT Organizations 2012 and Beyond”
According to the article, Gartner’s annual Predicts research on industry trends features 15 strategic planning assumptions that CIOs, senior business executives and IT leaders should factor into their enterprise planning and strategy-setting initiatives.
Kimberly Harris-Ferrante, vice president and distinguished analyst at Gartner said:
“Many industry business models will be challenged through 2015 as customers continue to adopt an always-connected digital lifestyle and market competitors exploit emerging technologies to achieve business growth and success. Cloud computing and social media will continue to provide industries with new avenues for effective customer communication and engagement, facilitating increased revenue and sustainable interaction with key customers.”
It looks like 2012 is going to be a volatile year unless IT companies use the Gartner study predictions to effectively align their business practices with the needs of customer base and partner organizations.
Jasmine Ashton, January 21, 2012
The Heat in SharePoint Semantics January 6 – January 13
January 17, 2012
As we enter into the new year, I wanted to point readers to several informative SharePoint Semantics articles with tips on how to help end users navigate through the mine field that is often the SharePoint experience.
One handy tip that writer Ken Toth revealed, in “Free Conference: SharePoint Saturday in Austin, Texas on January 21” for Austin residents, is exactly that, a free one-day conference solely devoted to answering questions about Sharepoint.
Toth states:
“SharePoint Saturday is an educational, informative & lively day filled with sessions from respected SharePoint professionals & MVPs, covering a wide variety of SharePoint-orientated topics. SharePoint Saturday is FREE, open to the public and is your local chance to immerse yourself in SharePoint!”
Another noteworthy piece is the post “Lively Applications for Enriching Community and Collaboration in SharePoint.” Toth points readers to an article that suggests apps to acquire in the new year.
Toth states:
“The suggested apps include a news feed, a workplace concierge community, and launching an idea community with discussion, challenges, and contests. Perhaps some lively and engaging apps will help your employees jump back into the game after the holiday break.”
In addition to providing information about upcoming SharePoint trainings and suggested apps to make your SharePoint experience more social, “Comparison of Cloud Services for Collaboration, General Business, Messaging, and Multimedia” shares an article that compares the hottest contenders for software as a service in the previously stated areas.
After summarizing each service, Toth concludes:
“for the enterprise SharePoint is the logical choice for enterprise collaboration but has a steep learning curve. To flatten out this difficulty, look to the Semaphore Content Intelligence Platform from Smartlogic with enhanced search and navigation and the findability advantage.”
As always, while these articles provide helpful tips for users to efficiently overcome the lack of out-of-the box help that SharePoint provides, It is important that users recognize the web application platform’s limitations and utilize other products like Smartlogic’s Semaphore Content Intelligence Platform. Smartlogic fills in the gaps by using semantic technology to deliver information quickly and in context.
Jasmine Ashton, January 17, 2012
Inteltrax: Top Stories, December 26 to December 30
January 2, 2012
Inteltrax, the data fusion and business intelligence information service, captured three key stories germane to search this week, specifically, ways in which some are misusing big data analytics in the market today.
One story, our feature this week, “Real Estate Market Missing Out on Analytic Help” detailed the many ways in which the housing market could be aided by analytics, but is not taking advantage of.
One of the most important stories we’ve written was “Consumer Analytics Not a Strong Investment” which helps analytic software buyers avoid limited programs that will be no help to them.
Finally, we focused on how a lot of cloud analytic offerings don’t make security and customer service a priority in our story: “Accountability Should Be Top Priority for Cloud Analytics.”
Usually, we focus on the uplifting, exciting side of this growing market. However, big data analytics also has its downside, which deserves some light. We try and keep our coverage balanced, in order to give our readers the best overview.
Follow the Inteltrax news stream by visiting www.inteltrax.com
Patrick Roland, Editor, Inteltrax.
January 02, 2012
ZyLAB on Disorganization
January 2, 2012
We look at the enterprise search forum on LinkedIn.com occasionally. We have noticed that “problems” are a big part of the discussion. If you are struggling with search challenges, you may want to consider that disorganization is an issue.
The ZyLAB blog CodeZED’s new piece about “Legacy Data Clean-up for Email, SharePoint, Audio and More” is making it very clear that most organizations are ignoring records management, policy, and governance until the last minute when it is often too late. But to what end? We learned:
Exchange server mailboxes and PST repositories are not designed for, and should not be used as, document archives—but they often are. . It is very easy for users to retain their emails, resulting in e-mail archives (PSTs) that rapidly swell to GBs of information. Problems fester because the information in these PST folders is often completely unstructured. For example, potentially sensitive human resources-related e-mails (such as performance reviews or confidential financial or medical information) are frequently in the same collection (i.e. Sent Mail) as other, unrelated messages.
It’s important to create folders and subfolders and make sure that your business utilizes software that relegates where an email is to go from the start. Keep everything organized, backup is key. When using SharePoint governance and organization is the key to a healthy happy system.
The same problems email faces are prevalent elsewhere. Always archive projects and individual documents based on your companies set of policies. Don’t deviate too often or it creates a jumbled mess that is more costly to untangle than it would have been to just do it correctly the first time.
Organization is the key.
Leslie Radcliff, January 2, 2011
Sponsored by Pandia.com
The Cloud Competition Storms between Google and Microsoft?
December 2, 2011
I recently read two articles discussing the competition that’s heating up between Google’s cloud services app and Microsoft.
According to a Wired Enterprise story “Google Vs. Microsoft: Not All Clouds are Created Equal” Google’s cloud technology has caused companies like Oracle and Microsoft, that have historically been on-premise companies to begin to change their ways. This is due to the fact that some of their chief officers have left to join Google and the company spent two days pitching its ever-growing collection of enterprise services to 350 businesses that were interested in adopting their business model.
According to the article Google is amping up customer support too:
“Google is now offering round-the-clock phone support for all issues involving the core services in its Google Apps suite, and then David Girouard — the man who essentially founded Google’s enterprise operation — unveiled some new tools for managing smartphones that use Google Apps. But these additions served Google’s larger message: that its web-based services are more flexible and reliable than traditional “on-premise” software — or even the cloud services now offered by the likes of Microsoft and Oracle.”
While this article makes Google’s cloud technology look like it’s on the cutting edge, Microsoft is trying its darndest to compete with the search giant.
According to “Microsoft Take a Fight to Google Over Cloud App Defections” Microsoft has come out with a team called “Google Compete” to try and convince people to stay with office and not deflect to Google cloud apps.
Tony Tai, a senior program manager at Microsoft said:
“In the case of Google, we find it quite common that their consumer-oriented approach falls short of meeting enterprise customers’ needs, thus providing an opportunity for us to win the customer. The wise words of Benjamin Franklin often apply: ‘The bitterness of poor quality remains long after the sweetness of low price is forgotten.”
Ouch! when did things get so ugly? and where has the civility gone?
Jasmine Ashton, December 2, 2011
Sponsored by Pandia.com
The Cloud Competition Gets Ugly Between Google and Microsoft
November 30, 2011
I recently read two articles discussing the competition that’s heating up between Google’s cloud services app and Microsoft.
According to a Wired Enterprise story “Google Vs. Microsoft: Not All Clouds are Created Equal” Google’s cloud technology has caused companies like Oracle and Microsoft, that have historically been on-premise companies to begin to change their ways. This is due to the fact that some of their chief officers have left to join Google and the company spent two days pitching its ever-growing collection of enterprise services to 350 businesses that were interested in adopting their business model.
In addition to this, the article states:
“Google is now offering round-the-clock phone support for all issues involving the core services in its Google Apps suite, and then David Girouard — the man who essentially founded Google’s enterprise operation — unveiled some new tools for managing smartphones that use Google Apps. But these additions served Google’s larger message: that its web-based services are more flexible and reliable than traditional “on-premise” software — or even the cloud services now offered by the likes of Microsoft and Oracle.”??
While this article makes Google’s cloud technology look like it’s on the cutting edge, Microsoft is trying its darndest to compete with the search giant. ??
According to “Microsoft Take a Fight to Google Over Cloud App Defections” Microsoft has come out with a team called “Google Compete” to try and convince people to stay with office and not deflect to Google cloud apps.??
Tony Tai, a senior program manager at Microsoft said:??
“In the case of Google, we find it quite common that their consumer-oriented approach falls short of meeting enterprise customers’ needs, thus providing an opportunity for us to win the customer. The wise words of Benjamin Franklin often apply: ‘The bitterness of poor quality remains long after the sweetness of low price is forgotten.”??
Ouch! when did things get so ugly? and where has the civility gone?
Jasmine Ashton, November 30, 2011
Thanks Be For A Guide to SharePoint Server 2010 Search
November 24, 2011
To understand SharePoint’s FAST Search Server, it’s smart to work your way up by first understanding SharePoint Server 2010 Search. “Configuring Enterprise Search in SharePoint 2010” is a useful guide that covers search features and has lots of screen shots. A handy flow chart visualizes the following:
“SharePoint 2010 search architecture is made up of the Crawler, Indexing Engine, Query Engine and the User Interface and Query Object Model. We now have greater flexibility and expandability with our search design in 2010 and can setup not only multiple Query Servers but can now scale out our Index server and add multiple instances.”
Savvy businesses know the benefits of collaborative content management with integrated search – add access to the constantly growing information in the Cloud, and company knowledge gets a big boost. For those needing a deeper solution that has the ability to answer enterprise search needs in the cloud, you may want to explore Mindbreeze.
Their information pairing technology results in a complete overview of a company’s knowledge, merging enterprise information with Cloud information.
Sara Wood, November 24, 2011
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Learn about the New SharePoint 2010 Online for Office 365
November 8, 2011
Our colleagues at SurfRay are sponges for information about SharePoint and so are we.
The reason?
SharePoint 2010 is a popular tool in corporate enterprise. It advances communication by sharing content and acting as a venue for employees network. Microsoft has deployed a new enterprise tool to boost SharePoint’s already strong technology. SharePoint Online is part of Office 365 suite for online productivity solutions. Microsoft’s official TechNet Magazine published a detailed rundown on the augmentation: “SharePoint 2010: Microsoft SharePoint Online: An Overview for Enterprise IT Professionals.”
It tells us that SharePoint Online provides a single solution for collaborating with team members and external parties, finding organizational resources, looking up corporate information, and gleaning business insights for better-informed decisions. SharePoint Online is a cloud-based service and requires little additional cost because there isn’t any on-site software to install. It also fits easily into any Microsoft based infrastructure.
SharePoint Online can serve a wide range of enterprise use cases. For example, organizations could extend an existing intranet to remote locations, such as branch or retail outlets. Other use cases include creating an external Web site for events or limited-time projects, or sites that provide partners or suppliers with carefully controlled access to corporate information, such as product specifications or inventory supplies.
After the specs about SharePoint Online, the article describes specific features and troubleshooting questions that developers may have. Microsoft makes a good case to add SharePoint Cloud to your business enterprise solutions, but how well did it perform in the field tests? We’ll be on the lookout for more information on that.
In my opinion, SurfRay Ontolica has outperformed Microsoft built solutions for SharePoint search.
Whitney Grace, November 8, 2011
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