Autonomy Sparks Arcpliance
November 1, 2009
Autonomy has been busy. After receiving a pat on the back from IDC, Autonomy introduced its digital archiving appliance. Appliances apply toaster think to complex software tasks. For example, if you want to crunch real time flows of financial information, Exegy has an appliance for you. If you want to index the data written by an enterprise back up system, give Index Engines a jingle. If you want to index an organization’s content, ring up Adhere Solutions and get a Google Search Appliance. You get the idea. Complex task encapsulated in a search toaster.
Autonomy’s appliance, described by CMSWire in “Autonomy Releases Arcpliance, IDOL-Based Digital Archiving Appliance”, is “a new tool to further enhance their established cloud-based and on-premise archiving solutions.” As I worked through the glowing write up, I noted this interesting passage:
While their Intelligent Digital Operating Layer (IDOL) automatically “understands” how to manage each piece of content, Arcpliance works to archive it without the headache. Developed as a response to shortcomings in Storage Area Networks, Arcpliance utilizes Autonomy’s special split-cell architecture. The grid-based design is reportedly “infinitely scalable” and also combines the power of Autonomy’s Digital Safe, making the tool enterprise friendly.
What I think this means is that Autonomy’s software is smart, a bit like an educated, context sensitive, intuitive human analyst. Autonomy’s approach eliminates the problems that other types of digital archiving systems bring to the table. The smart software uses a “split cell architecture”, an approach with which I have zero experience. The Autonomy solutions—which runs in an organization’s data center, on premises or from the cloud—uses a “grad based design”. Again I lack the expertise to comment on this approach. However, I understand that the method is “infinitely scalable.” I do recall learning in 8th grade math class that the notion of infinite is pretty big and thinking about infinity can drive some folks up a wall, an infinite wall I might add. So Autonomy’s ability to deploy a system that is infinitely scalable raises a bit of a logical pickle but I think that phrase is a bit of over enthusiastic purple prose. If not, the Arcpliance is brushing shoulders with the big 
. I would imagine the demo is interesting indeed.
More information is available from Autonomy.
Stephen Arnold, November 1, 2009
The Department of Agriculture needs to know I received no fodder for this article.
TNR and Cloud Based Enterprise Search
October 31, 2009
I received a story called “Enterprise Search & Cloud Computing – A Match Made in Heaven and Implemented on Earth by TNR Global”. I did a quick check of my Overflight search files and noted that earlier this year, TNR reported that it was a vendor offering the Fast ESP search solution. For me the key point in the write up was:
Organizations face managing terabytes, petabytes, even exabytes of both structured and unstructured data. The combination of cloud computing and enterprise search technologies provides viable solutions for companies looking to scale their intranets and public websites. To stay focused on their core business, companies often look for third party technology providers to guide them in the move to cloud based applications and storage. To meet this need, TNR Global, a cloud computing systems and enterprise search integrator, has launched a dynamic new website to help guide content intensive companies.
This is a bold assertion in my opinion. I don’t know enough about the company, so I visit the firm’s enterprise search Web log and note the following three stories:
- A better way to add or update MySQL rows
- MySQL error BLOB/TEXT used in key specification without a key length
- Fast ESP overview.
I zoom to Fast ESP overview and the entire write up is not particularly convincing, particularly in regard to the “cloud”, “heaven”, and “exabytes” words ringing in my ears. Here’s the company’s take on the downsides of Fast ESP:
Well, if the data you need to make searchable has a format that changes frequently, that might be a pain. ESP has something called an “Index Profile” which is basically a config file it uses to determine what document fields are important and should be used for indexing. Everything fed into ESP is a “document”, even if your loading database table rows into it. Each document has several fields, typical fields being: title, body, keywords, headers, document vectors, processing time, etc. You can specify as many of your own custom fields as you wish.
Yep. In the three editions of the Enterprise Search Report that I wrote (2004 to 2006) and my Beyond Search study for the Gilbane Group (2008), I noted some other hitches in the Fast ESP git along.
I will keep my eye on TNR because I am insufficiently informed to offer much of a goosely observation about this company’s exabyte capable, cloud based enterprise search solution. Exabytes. That’s a lot of data to shove around even within an organization. Distributing this stuff is non trivial in my opinion. Maybe TNR has a solution?
Stephen Arnold, October 31, 2009
Educational Publishers, The Google Is Here
October 30, 2009
Google has been making baby steps into the education market. Its enterprise group has been landing sales in universities and in public schools in New South Wales. The Google has a tie up with IBM to goose (no pun intended) computer science majors into coding for massively parallel, distributed systems. Wave is splashing against some educational rocks. Google’s neighbor (NASA) is in the university business with Google and some other interesting partners. If you are not familiar with Singularity University, you may want to read the Wikipedia write up. Finally, for those really behind the curve, watch the videos on Google Video.
Now with some context, you can appreciate the story in the Los Angeles Times on October 28, 2009. “Google Co Founder Sergey Brin Wants More Computers in Schools”. The article included a passage I found interesting:
He [Brin] advocated putting all textbooks on computers, to make for easier access, and for putting high school students to work — writing Wikipedia articles, and teaching technology to senior citizens and middle school students. In teaching, they will learn. Brin spoke today at a conference on Google’s campus, Breakthrough Learning in the Digital Age, which the tech company is co-hosting with Common Sense Media and the Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop. By and large, speakers passionately spoke of the advantages of equipping schools with the latest in digital technology, and of engaging students on their home turf — computers. Google has been relatively quiet in the field of education, but the company is starting to make a splash.
In my Google: The Digital Gutenberg I describe some use cases for Google as an educational ecosystem. What I find interesting is that if I were teaching a class in computer science, I would require no other resources than those available from Google. If I were a publisher of computer science textbooks, I would be asking, “Hmm, what’s my Plan B?” I discuss the business implications in my monograph.
Google’s method is to seep and surround. Once the ground is watered and fertile, new businesses grow. If you think Google’s end game is to scan library books and sell ads with some Web search functions, you are misreading the rather clear writing on the Googleplex’s big white board.
Stephen Arnold, October 30, 2009
The Google once gave me a mouse pad. Does that count as a pay off for explaining how Google will reshape education? I think not but the Railway Retirement Board may, hence the disclosure.
The Cloud Computing Bandwagon and Open Source
October 26, 2009
I don’t think too much about open source software unless a client prods me. There are three reasons:
First, I have some clients who think they are smarter than any other outfit on earth. These folks prefer to “roll their own” even if the technology folks don’t know enough to realize that a financial swamp awaits them.
Second, there are rules and regulations that make it impossible for anyone but the most motivated procurement manager to figure out how to swizzle open source software into certain security obsessed and tightly regulated environments.
Third, quite a few information technology professionals are not up to speed on what’s available. Examples range from the KoolAid drinkers who imbibe IBM, Microsoft, and Oracle flavors. Open source is a not synonymous with job security. Forget technology. The paycheck and health benefits argue for the commercial solutions even if the information technology folks know these solutions don’t work very well. Lousy commercial software is a warrant for job security.
I read the Linux Journal article “Cloud Computing: Good or Bad for Open Source” against the background of these three ideas. The article jumps on the cloud computing bandwagon and then backs into the open source issue. For me the key passage was:
Ideally, what we need is a completely open source cloud computing infrastructure on which applications providing people with things like (doubly) free email and word processing services could be offered. Now, it’s clearly not possible to create the kind of huge facilities that Amazon, Google and Microsoft are building around the world. Not even Mr Shuttleworth, with all his millions, could sustain that for long without charging somewhere along the line. So simply running open source programs like Eucalyptus is not going to work. The trick here is not to fight the battle on the opponents’ terms, but to come up with something completely different. For example, how about creating an open source, *distributed* cloud? By downloading and running some free code on your computer, you could contribute processing power and disc space that collectively creates a global, distributed cloud computing system. You would benefit by being able to use services that run on it, and at the same time you would help to sustain the entire open source cloud ecosystem in a scalable fashion. Collateral benefits would be resilience – it would be almost impossible to take down such a cloud – plus integral privacy if data is scattered across thousands of machines in the right way.
In my opinion, open source vendors are not much different from commercial software vendors. The idea is to hook a customer and then charge for services or extra code ornaments.
The “real” open source folks often have a different motivation factor. But once the market driven forces blow, the ideals of open source may be blown away unless anchored to firmer stuff. The cloud is going to become a proprietary “space” if the present trend set by Amazon and Google continues. Sure, some technology is open source and released to the community. But in my opinion, these companies will use whatever techniques are available to deliver to their shareholders. When money is involved, the ideals of open source are like a fried egg on a Teflon pan. Some bits will stick, but the goal is to move the omelet so it can be consumed. That consumption drive is more powerful in some sectors than others. But money trumps ideals in some organizations and in today’s economic climate, the cloud will not be exempt from proprietary plays from very big, competitive organizations whose agendas are set by the stakeholders, not a group working for the benefit of everyone.
Cloud computing will move forward with or without open source in my opinion.
Stephen Arnold, October 26, 2009
You can bet your socks that no open source outfit paid me for this essay. In fact, no one did.
Google Wave Has Modest Amplitude
October 19, 2009
A happy quack to the reader who sent me a link to “Google Wave: Mark Status As Undefined”. The author takes a critical look at Google Wave and makes some pointed observations about how Google Wave stacks up against a former Microsoft employee’s experience and offers some food for thought when that Microsoft executive joined Google. This write up is interesting, but I think it pegs its argument on the wrong wizard. Google Wave is a subset of a larger tech initiative at Google. The person responsible for this initiative is not the former Microsoft executive. Nevertheless, I found the write up a refreshing change from the run-of-the-mill commentary about Wave.
Stephen Arnold, October 19, 2009
No money and not even an invitation from the Google to test Wave. Sniff. Sniff. Goose discrimination.
IBM Has Cloudy Day with Air New Zealand
October 17, 2009
With cloud computing getting attention, the SiliconValley.com story “Air New Zealand Boss Lands Hard on IBM” provides one view of what a customer perceives when service goes out. The quote below is attributed to Air New Zealand CEO Rob Fyfe:
In my 30-year working career, I am struggling to recall a time where I have seen a supplier so slow to react to a catastrophic system failure such as this and so unwilling to accept responsibility and apologize to its client and its client’s customers… We were left high and dry and this is simply unacceptable. My expectations of IBM were far higher than the amateur results that were delivered yesterday, and I have been left with no option but to ask the IT team to review the full range of options available to us to ensure we have an IT supplier whom we have confidence in and one who understands and is fully committed to our business and the needs of our customers.
IBM is expanding its cloud services. Most recently it announced a low-cost alternative for email positioned to compete with such services from Google.
Stephen Arnold, October 17, 2009
Google and Cloud Security
October 17, 2009
Google has a pretty good track record regarding its own security. The system is tough to hack. I know of a handful of events where outsiders have been able to finagle Google’s safeguards to see directory listings. My own tests of Gmail from public terminals revealed some oddities when the service first became available. Since those early days, we have found the Google’s engineers have done a good job. When it comes to Google’s approach to some products and services, security strikes the ArnoldIT.com engineers as a work in progress. The Google Search Appliance has, with each version upgrade, added security features. Some work remains to be done, but the company is moving forward.
I read with interest the story “Google Using ‘Double Talk’ on Cloud Security, Says L.A. Consumer Group.” If this line of inquiry gains momentum, security could become another problem that Google will have to address. In the last six months, Google has found itself in the spotlight on such contentious issues as copyright and Board of Director interlocks with Apple for instance. Although the Apple issue has been resolved, now government regulators are asking questions about some of Google’s telephony-related products and services. More problems Google does not need in my view.
The guts of the Network World article was, in my opinion:
The letter, by Consumer Watchdog advocate John Simpson, faulted Google for “blandly assuring” customers about the security of its cloud-based services while at the same time warning of multiple security risks in federally required 10-Q financial statements. “Google says one thing when trying to sell its products, but something else in federally required filings aimed at shareholders,” Simpson said in the letter.
The issue may not be of security itself. The issue may boil down to the potential for conflicting messages. These can be confusing and act like catnip when legal panthers prowl.
Stephen Arnold, October 17, 2009
Google Probes the Underbelly of AutoCAD
October 15, 2009
Remember those college engineering wizards who wanted to build real things? Auto fenders, toasters, and buildings in Dubai. Changes are the weapon of choice was a software product from Autodesk. Over the years, Autodesk added features and functions to its core product and branched out into other graphic areas. In the end, Autodesk was held captive by the gravitational pull of AutoCAD.
In one of my Google monographs, I wrote about Google’s SketchUp program. I recall several people telling me that SketchUp was unknown to them. These folks, I must point out, were real, live Google experts. SketchUp was a blip on a handful of users’ radar screen. I took another angle of view, and I saw that the Google coveted the engineering wizards when they were in primary school and had a method for keeping these individuals in the Google camp until they designed their last, low-cost fastener for a green skyscraper in Shanghai.
No one really believed that this was possible.
My suggestion is that some effort may be prudently applied to rethinking what the Google is doing with engineering software that makes pictures and performs other interesting Googley tricks. The first step could be reading the Introducing Google Building Maker article on the “official” Google Web log. I would gently suggest that the readers of this Web log buy a copy of the Google trilogy, consisting of my three monographs about Google technology. Either path will give you some food for thought.
For me, the most interesting comment in the Google blog post was:
Some of us here at Google spend almost all of our time thinking about one thing: How do we create a three-dimensional model of every built structure on Earth? How do we make sure it’s accurate, that it stays current and that it’s useful to everyone who might want to use it? One of the best ways to get a big project done — and done well — is to open it up to the world. As such, today we’re announcing the launch of Google Building Maker, a fun and simple (and crazy addictive, it turns out) tool for creating buildings for Google Earth.
The operative phrase is “every built structure on early”. How is that for scale?
What about Autodesk? My view is that the company is going to find itself in the same position that Microsoft and Yahoo now occupy with regard to Google. Catch up is impossible. Leap frogging is the solution. I don’t think the company can make this type of leap. Just my opinion.
Stephen Arnold, October 15, 2009
Another freebie. Not even a lousy Google mouse pad for my efforts.
Google Wave Made Simple
October 15, 2009
Short honk: A happy quack to the reader who sent me a link to “Google Wave – A Complete Guide”. You get screenshots and a run down of the principal components of Google Wave. Wave, like Google Squared, is a subset of a larger Google technology initiative. Most analysts focus on the specific demos and betas, not the big Google technology initiatives. If you want a useful intro to Wave, this document eliminates chasing down Google’s dribs and dabs of information.
If you want info about Wave extensions, you can get a run down here.
Stephen Arnold, October 15, 2009, written for free because we love Google
IBM and Its Deep Understanding of Google
October 5, 2009
In May 2008, I wrote “IBM and Google: Replay of IBM and Microsoft?” When I wrote that article I had learned that IBM had responded to an inquiry about IBM’s knowledge of Google’s next generation database system. IBM’s response was, in effect, “We have these Google guys right where we want them.” My view in May 2008 was then and is today that IBM does not have a very good idea of what Google’s technical thrust is. IBM points to its working with Google to foster better university instruction in programming distributed systems and other buddy buddy activities.
Imagine my delight when I read “IBM Undercuts Google with Discount E-Mail Service.” IBM has been in the email game for years. The company tried its hand at Internet services and ended up dumping the business on the “old” AT&T, which still offers a variant of that IBM service. And, as most professionals, know, IBM offers the wonderful Lotus Notes system, the Domino server, and quite remarkable collaboration features. The fact that dedicated engineers are required to keep the system up and running is a feature of the ancient technology that underpins these systems. Have you tried to recover a Lotus Notes mail store? Pretty exciting and definitely a reason to get pizza and Jolt cola at 3 am on a Sunday morning.
The Associated Press reported that IBM is back. I can’t quote from the AP story. The addled goose is unable to buy stale bread to feed the goslings, let alone compensate a legal eagle to protect the flock. Read the original story. For me the key points boils down to one sequence of word associations:
Discount. Price war. Desperation.
What’s this mean? Simple. Google is a growing force in the enterprise sector. IBM, in my opinion, may want to pay attention to its DB2 business, not Google’s email challenge. When DB2 gets clipped, IBM is going to have to boost its consultants’ billing rates to make up for the revenue loss. Google’s next generation data management system is coming and based on my research, Google will offer better performance and more features with its Googley business model.
Yep, IBM has those guys right where it wants them. Great phrase. I would flip it around. Google has IBM right where Google wants IBM – in the discount email business and ignoring the DB2 killer headed IBM’s way.
Stephen Arnold, October 5, 2009
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