Exalead and Mobile Search
July 5, 2010
Podcast Interview with Paul Doscher, Part 4
Exalead’s Paul Doscher talks about Exalead and mobile search on the July 5, 2010 ArnoldIT Beyond Search podcast. Exalead, now part of the large French software and services company Dassault, continues to ramp up its search, content processing, and search enabled applications. (Now part of Dassault, one of the world’s leading software and services engineering firms acquired Exalead earlier this year. You can read about the acquisition in “Exalead Acquired by Dassault” and “Exalead and Dassault Tie Up, Users Benefit.”
In the July 2010 podcast, Mr. Doscher talks about Exalead and mobile search, one of the hottest sectors in information retrieval. Exalead has assisted one of its clients (Urbanizer.com) has developed an innovative method of locating information.
The Exalead user experience approach makes it possible to deliver access via a range of mobile devices for consumer and special purpose access.
You can listen to the podcast on the ArnoldIT.com Web site. More information about Exalead is available from www.exalead.com.
The ArnoldIT podcast series extends the Search Wizards Speak series of interview beyond text into rich media. Watch this blog for announcements about other rich media programs from the professionals who move information retrieval beyond search.
Stephen E Arnold, July 5, 2010
This one is a freebie
Hadoop de Loop in the Cloud
June 30, 2010
Navigate to “Cloudera Goes Enterprise with New Hadoop Offering.” Is this another cloud thing? Not in my little goose pond. Cloudera is positioning itself as a platform vendor. And a platform vendors offers lots of hand holding and neck rubbing services. My view is that Cloudera has made a smart move. For me, the most important point in the write up is:
For Cloudera’s part, Olson [Cloudera wiazard] said it believes companies want–and are willing to pay for–user and group authentication and roles, visual tools for managing large numbers of data feeds into a cluster, and other management tools that are important for conventional IT staff with critical applications who need easy-to-use dashboards. But Cloudera isn’t straying from its open-source roots.
Clever stuff and important because Cloudera can slap on other functions and features. The opportunity to disrupt high end vendors is a big one. That’s one reason why I am helping to organize the presentations at the Lucene Revolution conference which will focus on Lucene and Solr. I want to see what the momentum is and try to figure out where the shock waves will impact.
Stephen E Arnold, June 30, 2010
Freebie
Predicting the Weather: Risky at Picnics, Even Riskier for Cloud Computing
June 21, 2010
I am parked in Madrid, Spain, waiting to give my talk about real time content. I am catching up with the news from the “real journalists”. I just read “Why Microsoft’s Hybrid Cloud Threatens Google.” I flashed back to 1958. In the Midwest, the local weather person was Bill Houlihan. He explained the weather each evening on the 6 pm news, and he almost always got it wrong. He started a chicken restaurant with a 30 foot plastic chicken on the roof and he got that wrong too. The restaurant failed as quickly as his weather forecasts.
Predicting the weather is risky, particularly if you are planning a picnic. Predicting the climate for cloud computing is even riskier. Remember that giant plastic chicken. That artifact is probably still intact, resting in a junk yard somewhere outside of Dunlop, Illinois.
Risk in weather prediction and plastic chickens, the associations—the Forbes article triggered these. For me the most important passage was:
Cloud computing has become a key piece of an enterprise’s IT strategy, typically used in a hybrid (cloud plus on-premise) model of computing that offers customers the best of both worlds: the ability to keep their data on-premise, while leveraging the cloud’s accelerated software development speeds and lower costs by eliminating the need to invest in ongoing on-premise hardware and software. A common example of hybrid is being able to develop applications and test them in the cloud before releasing them onto internal networks. his scenario gives Microsoft (MSFT – news – people ) a major advantage over cloud-only hosted service providers Google ( GOOG– news – people ) and Amazon, one that creates great opportunities for Microsoft’s broader partner ecosystem. Developers can use the same development tools, frameworks and execution environment for either cloud or on-premise applications. Developers can build a single application that leverages the cloud’s scalability for transactional processing while supporting the security of on-premise data storage.
This addled goose is not going to dispute the interest organizations are showing in cutting costs, increasing reliability, and gaining some breathing room from the crazy hot fixes that flood from vendors. Timesharing in its many guises is not new. Today’s economics force organizations to find ways to keep systems up and running, manage available technical staff, and get back online when one of today’s bargain basement solutions crashes.
My concern is that cloud computing comes in different flavors. Most organizations are in scramble mode. There is experimentation, parallel testing, and trials. These include experiments with the Walmart of cloud computing, roll-your-own systems, half baked solutions from the math club, and arabesques on these methods. The idea is that a specific organization knows the one best way to deal with the untenable status quo of information technology is like a weather forecast—probably incorrect. There is one added benefit to this type of prognostication about the future. The observations become today’s big plastic chicken.
Source: http://www.springchickensale.com/images/sign_chicken_sm.jpg
The idea that Microsoft has a slam dunk is interesting as an example of a marketing pitch based on a cloud computing weather prediction. No computing solution has delivered pain free information technology in my experience. Methods have upsides and downsides. My hunch is that cloud solutions will become as tough to figure out as the solution to the BP oil spill.
Opinions are to be encouraged. Predicting the weather and putting up a big plastic chicken make it easy to spot enthusiastic marketing. Will the future unfold with Microsoft dominating the hybrid cloud? I don’t know. What is clear is that lots of predators are chasing this “next big thing”. I don’t need marketing to confuse me. Do you? I just learned it will be sunny and bright in Madrid today. It is now cloudy and it looks like rain.
Stephen E Arnold, June 21, 2010
Freebie
Some Microsoft Cloud Pricing
June 1, 2010
Search in the cloud has been available from Blossom.com for years. Other search and content processing vendors will or have already followed this trajectory. Amazon’s cloud service offers a broad range of services and what strikes me as quite aggressive price points—if you can locate them. Some of Amazon’s prices for EC2 are clearly stated. Others, like AWS, are more difficult to pin down.
A mystery to me was Microsoft’s pricing for its cloud services. Some information may appear in “Windows Azure Content Delivery Network Pricing Details.” Here’s the key passage:
“We’re announcing pricing for the Windows Azure CDN for all billing periods that begin after June 30, 2010. The following three billing meters and rates will apply for the CDN: $0.15 per GB for data transfers from European and North American locations. $0.20 per GB for data transfers from other locations. $0.01 per 10,000 transactions,” a member of the Windows Azure team revealed.
I am not sure how these prices compare to other vendors’. For example, what’s a “transaction”? And what is a “location”? Updates as we find information. The March 2010 information here may provide some context.
Stephen E Arnold, June 1, 2010
Freebie
Amazon Winning in the Cloud
May 18, 2010
Amazon is an unusual company. I find its use of open source technology fascinating. At one time – and maybe still – the very core of Amazon ran on commercial products. “Amazon Stealing the Cloud” suggests that Amazon is moving in directions I have not fully appreciated. The write up presents some facts and assertions about Amazon’s presence in the cloud. The sources range from a survey of developers to the MBAs and their Excel spreadsheets at an investment bank. Since the excitement about certain financial activities, I have to be upfront and say, “I am not so sure about those bank estimates.” Your view of what’s in the burgoo may vary, and that’s healthy. You might have a pet azure chip consultant in your corner like a highly paid cut man at boxing match. As long as you pay, you get that effective medical care.
Among the points in the write up I noted were these:
- Recovery.gov runs on Amazon
- Amazon hosts 365,000 Web sites
- Amazon is in the commodity business.
Let’s assume these assertions are accurate. Amazon may be out Googling Google. Many of Amazon’s services have been referenced in Google’s technical papers or its frequently dismissed patent applications. What Amazon is able to do is execute. This says a lot about Amazon and perhaps even more about Google.
Stephen E Arnold, May 18, 2010
Freebie
Netflix, Cloud, and Search
May 9, 2010
I read “Netflix’s Movie Cloud Is Moving into the Amazon Cloud” and learned a couple of things and was unable to find one item of information I sought. The news, of course, that Amazon will host a competitor’s business. Not too surprising in these days when AOL hires a Google manager and a Microsoft person to be chief technology officer and when Google is imitating Bing’s user interface.
The two things I learned in the article were:
- The move apparently was a result of open information sharing. That’s a positive. But I wonder if those confidentiality agreements that Booz, Allen & Hamilton made grunts like me sign have gone the way of the dodo.
- The Amazon-Netflix system works.
What I wanted to find out was the answer to this question, “Has the search function been moved to the Amazon cloud as well?” If so, how does that work. I heard that Netflix used open source search technology. A cloud based open source search implementation is very big news. I will keep hunting and stay on the tips of my webbed feet when colleagues ask questions.
Stephen E Arnold, May 9, 2010
Unsponsored post.
IBM and Its Meta Cloud Aspirations
May 5, 2010
IBM is big. One hundred billion in revenues and counting. For a company of its size, IBM has to aim high. The cloud is a potential gold mine for IBM’s consulting divisions. But once the clients have been studied up, IBM wants to sell technology in its many guises. Enter the idea to integrate disparate clouds. I call this a meta-cloud play.
The IBM of today is a cloud in formation. The meta-cloud play is on the horizon. To speed the formation of the meta cloud, IBM acquired Cast Iron Systems. You can get the details in “IBM to Boost Cloud Services with Cast Iron Buy.” Cast iron will add technology and expertise to the IBM arsenal. The play is to put in place a service that hooks different clouds together; hence, a meta play. Integration can be lucrative. Look at Microsoft’s revenues from rolling up word processing and a spreadsheet. IBM wants to follow this type of model. For me the key passage in the write up was:
Cast Iron uses prebuilt software templates for integration rather than writing custom code. This allows cloud integrations to be carried out in days, as opposed to weeks, whether using physical appliances, virtual appliances or a cloud service, according to IBM.
IBM and its meta cloud play. A view from orbit. Source: http://ultraorange.net/media/2008/03/science-earth-from-space-clouds.jpg
My take away is that IBM wants to change the way it deploys cloud services and create an opportunity to build on the hybrid clouds. IBM will sell consulting, software licenses, and custom services. In short, if the plan works, IBM outflanks some pesky competitors and Google, instead of being a near equal, becomes one service provider. Neat.
The challenge will be to make the meta cloud work. In the good old days, clients were rolling in dough and no one ever got fired for buying IBM. Today, cash can be tricky. Sometimes it’s available. Sometimes it’s not. And customers are looking for ways to tap into the promise of the cloud without losing sales, momentum, and data.
The challenge to IBM may come from some unlikely competitors. For example, “do it on a shoestring” Amazon is flexing its cloud muscles in the US Federal market. IBM considers the Federal sector its stomping grounds. There have been some open source wizards poking around cloud solutions that challenge the commercial software model. And there are folks at Google and Microsoft and Oracle who are in the clouds as well.
What about search? If IBM pushes into the meta cloud, my hunch is that IBM may drag Lucene/Solr along and then open the pearly gates to third party vendors who are IBM partners in search and content processing. Will IBM win? It won’t lose.
Stephen E Arnold, May 5, 2010
Unsponsored post.
Google Client Stumbles, Not the Google
May 1, 2010
The Los Angeles shift from on premises software to Google Apps has hit some choppy water. The story I read was “L.A. Stumbles In Deployment Of Google Apps.” Note that Google did not stumble. The client stumbled. Here’s the key passage in my opinion:
Santana [an LA administrative officer] explained, “Performance concerns focused on the slowness with which e-mails were sent, received, and accessed in the new system. Functionality concerns focused on features currently available in GroupWise that are unavailable, or significantly different, in Google’s system. Further, the Los Angeles Police Department indicated that several security issues have yet to be resolved, and that a pilot of its technical support staff must be successfully completed before it can be expanded to the rest of the LAPD.”
I wonder if the integrator is responsible for addressing these issues or will the client have to be Googley and figure it out.
Stephen E Arnold, May 1, 2010
Unsponsored post.
Quintura Releases New Site Search Version
April 23, 2010
Quintura Inc. has released a new version of its Quintura Site Search, a hosted Web site search, statistics, and advertising solution for online content publishers. The search program is interactive and integrated into your site, and it indexes your pages to create a weighted keyword cloud of search results. The service includes search statistics and options to display banner ads and links in search results, including your own. The update includes a new control panel for setting up a site search and customizing the appearance of the results in the cloud tag. The key advantages are that it is easily accessible, eye-catching, and works as an interactive widget to encourage page counts. It’s free, too, so if you’d like to add a site search to your web site that’s not Google’s, you might give Qunitura a chance. You can see an example of their “minicloud” on their Web site at http://www.quintura.com.
Jessica W. Bratcher, April 23, 2010
Unsponsored post.
Google Aims for Average
April 14, 2010
“Google CEO Eric Schmidt Talks Up Web-Based Enterprise Apps” in Datamation includes a comment that I found startling. According to the article,
“Our applications aren’t full replacements to the incumbents,” he said. “Our goal is 80 percent because then we provide value and the features most users want.” The “value” Google offers over traditional PC-bound apps includes a fast iteration of new features, an emphasis on collaboration, low cost and Web-based access.
My interpretation of this comment, if it is accurate, is that Google is implementing a “good enough” strategy. The company sees its sweet spot as a C average vendor. Perhaps I am off base? Google has made much of its hiring the best people. Now Google is using its talent pool to deliver 80 percent. That may be the way to generate revenue which is the name of the game in the US. Will the C average approach apply outside of Google´s enterprise initiative?
Stephen E Arnold, April 14, 2010
Unsponsored post
-
- Subscribe to Beyond Search
Feature archive
News archive
-
