Buried Alive by Data
May 1, 2012
This recent blog post on the Search Technologies’ Web site makes some amusing and thought provoking comparisons between the reality TV show “Hoarding, Buried Alive!”, and the state of unstructured data within some organizations.
This phrase—I am absolutely overwhelmed by this, I just don’t know where to start” – is attributed to both a hoarder on a TV show. The speaker is contemplating how to tackle a sink piled with dirty dishes. The phrase also applies to an enterprise search program manager contemplating how to begin a project.
The article, Buried Alive by Data is worth a read for the amusement value alone. However, it also makes some important points. Discipline and due process are key part of the success recipe. For enterprise search, the award-winning search assessment methodology is cited as a proven approach to project discipline. The comparison made between the lawlessness of a hoarder’s kitchen and the average corporate file share may seem somehow familiar to many readers.
Iain Fletcher, May 1, 2012
Sponsored by Search Technologies
Open Source Search Profiles Available
April 25, 2012
OpenSearchNews.com, the new information service from ArnoldIT, has rolled out a new profile service. The first profile describes the Basho Riak Search system. Although proprietary, the Basho team has made the Riak search system open source. You can request a copy of the Basho Riak profile, which is available without charge, from the Open Source Search Profiles link.
Stephen E Arnold, publisher of OpenSearchNews said:
Consulting firms specializing in open source search have been slow on the trigger when it comes to vendors who offer an alternative to proprietary, “closed” search systems. My team has completed analyses of a dozen open source search vendors and will post a fresh profile every seven to 10 days. The profiles follow the same type of format which we used in such monographs as The Google Legacy, Beyond Search (published by the “old” Gilbane Group), Enterprise Search Report, Successful Enterprise Search Management, and The New Landscape of Enterprise Search. Instead of paying hundreds, maybe thousands of dollars, ArnoldIT is making the information available without charge to facilitate greater understanding and discussion of open source search options.
Profiles contain:
- Background of the company
- Principal features and functions of the systems
- The upside and downside of the system
- An ArnoldIT “net net” which puts the system in context.
The content of the profiles is intended for individuals, students, and teachers. Libraries are free to use the content without seeking permission. Any other use requires written permission from Stephen E Arnold.
A complete collection of the 12 profiles, an introduction to the open source search, and a summary of where open source search is gaining traction, contact us by writing seaky2000 at yahoo dot com. The information is available in the form of an online or on site briefing. There is a charge for the complete set of information and/or the briefing.
For up-to-date information about open source search solutions built on Lucene, Solr, and Xapian, among others, check out OpenSearchNews.com. You can, of course, wait for one of the azure chip consultants, unemployed Webmasters, or newly minted search experts to recycle ArnoldIT content. However, the profiles are current and will be available without charge. Enjoy.
Donald C Anderson, April 24, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT, your source for strategic information services
Exclusive Interview: David B. Camarata, IKANOW
April 9, 2012
Analytics, data mining, and text mining are hot. Open source software is hot. What happens when the two are combined? One answer is, “IKANOW.”
IKANOW, founded in 2010, is focused on the intersection of analytics and big data. The company’s motto is “The power to act.” The company’s approach combines cutting-edge analytic methods and open source technology to produce innovative ways to distill meaning from digital data and information. Unlike traditional key word search, IKANOW delivers solutions which reveal insights.
We learned about IKANOW when we were ramping up our new open source analytics information service “TheTrendPoint.com”. As we were sifting through the companies offering open source analytics, IKANOW stood out.
David B. Camarata told me:
IKANOW was created from observations and lessons learned made by my colleagues and I after working hand in hand with Department of Defense and intelligence community over the past decades. What we learned from hundreds of projects was that new ways of thought were required to solve the problems and challenges, which were coming with increasing speed and from many different angles. After a very successful and rewarding career in building tightly woven integrated systems, I became aware of the value of next-generation analytics. I wanted to build a company around the core idea of “the power to act.” I don’t want to spend hours trying to think up key words that will unlock the information in a system. I don’t know what information is in the system so how can I know what there. That’s when I hit on the idea of “I can know.”
With university computer science departments and entrepreneurs around the world jumping into the analytics market, the question becomes, “What sets IKANOW apart?” Mr. Camarata said:
We have some breakthroughs, but I want to be careful in how I explain our approach. Our research activities have been focused on creating simple and scalable ways to harvest, unify and expose unstructured and structured information. The breakthroughs we have achieved yield what we call “enhanced reasoning.” The core of our approach pivots on our methods for addressing the three legs of the decision stool. There is the platform which must be scalable, extensible, and performant. Next, we have to be able to harvest and enrich data and information. In their raw form, data lacks context and may be meaningless. A range of numerical methods and semantic techniques are required to figure out what significance something has. Finally, we created a robust application programming interface so developers and our licensees can tap into the platform. At the heart of the technology is a flexible semi-structured NoSQL data model that can be easily tailored to specific business problems.
You can read the complete, exclusive interview at the ArnoldIT.com Web site in its Search Wizards Speak feature. The interview with Mr. Camarata is now available. For more information about IKANOW, navigate to the company’s Web site at www.ikanow.com. My view is that IKANOW is definitely “performant.”
Stephen E Arnold, April 9, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
SharePoint: Internal and External Functionality
March 29, 2012
When you hear the term “dark” these days it usually refers to the surge in vampire romance fiction or Stars Wars variants. In the world of web design, however, dark means that web developers use dark web templates on their pages. It takes a good eye for color and contrast to make a dark web site work and Top SharePoint found “50 Beautiful Dark Web Sites Built on SharePoint.”
As the article’s author explains:
“Personally I am very fond of dark websites even though clean light web design is the main choice, especially in the corporate world. It is true that dark designs have a tendency to feel a bit heavy and harder to read if lot of text is presented but I feel they look more elegant and creative. Besides, using dark backgrounds you can make the content stand out and be the main focus.”
Perusing through the list the web sites that catch my eye are “The City of Calgary,” “Hard Rock Casino Tulsa,” “Club Paradiso,” and “NSU.” Pick your own favorites and discover new ideas for SharePoint web design. No matter what graphic colors you use for your SharePoint site, take into account that if you want visitors to find information you will need an excellent search enterprise.
If you want to use SharePoint for more than internal document sharing, you can turn to Search Technologies to assist you in leveraging SharePoint. In addition to dynamic content and rich media, a Search Technologies’ implementation can integrate your public facing Web site with your internal SharePoint system. You will be able to establish immediate and direct interactions with your prospects and customers without losing the SharePoint functionality you need to run your business in a cost effective manner. To learn more, visit www.searchtechnologies.com.
Iain Fletcher, March 29, 2012
Ikea Italy Selects Autonomy
March 28, 2012
Ikea Italy is giving its business to Autonomy: Market Watch informs us that “Autonomy Powers Intelligent Document Management and Process Automation at IKEA Italy.” It seems the deal cincher was the system’s single platform to be deployed across the enterprise. The write up reveals:
IKEA Italy needed a single, centralized repository where employees could quickly and efficiently access relevant business documents and improve the automation of its internal and customer-facing business processes. Furthermore, it needed to improve collaboration between different departments. IKEA Italy selected Autonomy WorkSite and TeleForm to fulfill these requirements. Autonomy’s solutions, built on the Intelligent Data Operating Layer (IDOL), provide IKEA Italy with a single platform for document management and business process automation across the company’s multiple repositories.
Other benefits for Ikea Italy include robust document management functionality; adequate scalability; and multi-language search capabilities. That last facet should prove very valuable; the company’s internal documents are in several languages.
HP bought Autonomy in 2011. The company, originally founded in 1996, is a leader in meaning-based information technology. They take great pride building tools that efficiently extract meaning from unwieldy tangles of unstructured data.
Originally founded in Switzerland, Ikea’s quality, customer-assembled furniture business now spans the globe. It arrived in Italy in 1989. Ikea arrived at Autonomy in 2012. What took so long?
Cynthia Murrell, March 28, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
What Do Search Buy Outs Mean?
March 21, 2012
I worked through the 75 profiles I maintain on search and content processing vendors. Here’s a list of the Big Dogs in search in Year 2000 and what happened to these companies since this date.
| Original Name | Buyer | Comment |
| Autonomy | Hewlett Packard | “A baby tiger” |
| Blossom | Available | Hosted search |
| Brainware | Lexmark | Back office |
| Convera | Out of business | Parts sold off |
| dtSearch | Available | Low cost leader |
| Endeca | Oracle | Unclear |
| Exalead | Dassault Systèmes | Unclear |
| Fast Search | Microsoft | An add in for SharePoint |
| Innerprise | GoDaddy | Search |
| InQuira | Oracle | Unclear |
| Inxight Software | SAP property | Unclear |
| Isys Software | Lexmark | Unclear |
| Mindbreeze | Part of Fabasoft | Replacement for SharePoint search |
| Mondosoft | SurfRay | On shelf |
| Ontolica | SurfRay | Replacement for SharePoint search |
| Panoptic | Squiz | Now Funnelback |
| Recommind | Available | In and out of enterprise search |
| Stratify | Autonomy | Formerly Purple Yogi |
| Teratext | SAIC | Unclear |
| Thunderstone | Available | Enterprise search |
| TREX | SAP | Unclear |
| TripleHop | Oracle | Unclear |
| Vivisimo | Available | Customer support |
This is a selected list. These 22 companies provide a snapshot of what’s happened in enterprise search in the last 12 years. Some observations:
First, in the list of 22 entries, I have used the word “unclear” as a comment eight times. The reason is that I am not sure how the technology will be deployed or if the technology has been orphaned (TREX) or held in reserve (Mondosoft). How does one apply a “system” to a search system (Dassault Exalead)?
Second, of this set of 22 companies which I have written about in Enterprise Search Report (2004 to 2006), Beyond Search (Gilbane), and The New Landscape of Search (Pandia in Oslo), five have not been acquired to my knowledge. One wonders if and when these search vendors will be taken off the table.
Third, the list begs the questions, “What are the next wave of search and content processing companies to be purchased, merged, or integrated into a larger entity?” Great question and one which I will not answer in a free blog post.
My thoughts, before they slip away, are:
- With the interest in open source search, what will be the long term revenue and cost picture for proprietary search solutions?
- Will content analytics vendors become the “new search vendors”? IBM’s use of Lucene for its various search solutions provides a suggestion of this shift in its Content Analytics product.
- How will the companies which have acquired search technology make money from these purchases AND be able to invest in the research and development necessary to keep the systems in step with licensee requirements? Frankly, I don’t know. There is only so much money available to pump into the black hole of information retrieval for technology, which is some cases is almost 25 years young.
Net net: Okay, lots of company have acquired search and retrieval systems. Now what? Not my problem.
Stephen E Arnold, March 21, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Google and the Enterprise: The Point? Money
March 19, 2012
You must read “Google Enterprise chief Girouard Heads to Startup Upstart.com.” I wondered if a simple executive shuffle many months after a de facto demotion was news. Apparently the poobahs and “real” journalists find a Xoogler worthy of a headline. I have a different view about Google and the enterprise. I write about Google’s latest adventures in my Enterprise Technology Management column, published in the UK, each month.
Google pumped quite a bit of time, effort, money, and Google mouse pads into its enterprise initiative. In the salad days, Google could not learn enough about the companies dominating the enterprise search space. As I researched my Google monographs, I was picking up from interview subjects anecdotal information about the paucity of knowledge Googlers had about what enterprise procurement teams required.
In one memorable, yet still confidential interaction, Google allegedly informed a procurement manager that Google disagreed with a requirement. Now, if that were true, that is something one hears about a kindergarten teacher scolding a recalcitrant five year old. Well, that may have been a fantasy, but there were enough rumblings about a lack of customer support, a “fluid” approach to partners, and a belief that whatever Google professionals did was the “one true path.” I never confused Google and Buddha, but for some pundits, Google was going to revolutionize the enterprise. Search was just the pointy end of the spear. The problem, of course, is that organizations are not Googley. In fact, Googley-type actions make some top dogs uncomfortable.
What happened?
Based on my research, which I shifted to the back burner, I learned:
- Google was unable to put on an IBM type suit. The Googley stuff opened doors, but the old Wendy’s hamburger ad sums up what happened after the mouse pads and sparkle pins were distributed: “Where’s the beef?”
- The products and services were not industrial strength and ready for prime time. The notion of an endless beta and taxi meter pricing, no matter how “interesting”, communicated a lack of commitment.
- The enterprise market likes the idea of paying money to be able to talk to a person who in most cases semi-cares about a problem. AT&T makes tons of dough making clients pay four times an engineer’s salary to get a human on the phone any time. Google delegated support down to partners. Won’t work. A Fortune 100 company wants to call Google, not send an email.
- Pricing. If you are not sure what the ballpark cost for indexing 100 million documents using a search appliance, ensuring 24×7 uptime, and backing up—navigate to www.gsaadvantage.com and look up the price of a Google Search Appliance. Now figure out how much it will cost to process an additional one million documents. How’s that price grab you?
When Larry Page assumed control of the company, I wrote about the wizards who were reporting directly to him. The head of the enterprise unit was not one of those folks. My conclusion: game over.
Like AOL, the notion of having a Google person on staff is darned appealing to some, but as the AOL experience makes clear, a Xoogler is not a sure fire money maker.
Here’s the quote I jotted down from the GigaOM story:
Still, market share and revenue may never have been Google’s goal. By offering a lower-cost option to the Office/Exchange tandem, Google forced the market leader to respond, and that may have been the point all along.
Baloney. Google expected to have big outfits roll over and wag their tail. The US government did not roll over. Most big IBM, Microsoft, and Oracle customers did not roll over. More important, the new wave of enterprise service and solutions providers did not roll over. Why? A lack of focus and a dependence on online advertising, legal hassles, privacy chatter, and a failure to deliver competitive products and services made the enterprise initiative a tough sell. Betas may be great for market tests. For the enterprise, a beta may be a hindrance.
Stephen E Arnold, March 19, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Protected: AvePoint Takes SharePoint to Japan
March 16, 2012
PR Push for Azaleos and Fast Search
March 14, 2012
My email overflowed this morning with descriptions of Azaleos, its expertise in Microsofty stuff, and Fast Search. I am on the ball with regard to Fast Search, its legal back story, and the issues associated with getting the system to deliver useful results to users on time and on budget. You will find the Azaleos blog quite interesting. I noted no recent postings about Fast Search. For some current information about the search system, you may want to check out this Beyond Search write up. I ran a query using the Azaleos search system and got three hits about Fast Search. The coverage of search suggests that Azaleos may be succumbing to a communications expert’s inputs about how to sell search services.
What was new was the statement in MSPmentor’s “Azaleos Cloud Gets Microsoft Fast Search Server 2010”. How does a Microsoft partner “get” Fast Search? I don’t know. Maybe pay a fee? Here’s the passage I noted:
…the company’s Managed Enterprise Search solution addresses a different need. It gives enterprises the ability to remotely design, configure, monitor and manage FAST Search Server 2010. According to Azaleos, the development is big news for its customers because the Microsoft FAST Search Server 2010 can perform searches in “an interactive and visual format,” in addition to the basic search functions that the Microsoft SharePoint Server provides. The FAST Search Server is a high-visibility solution, which brings its own set of complex issues to the table for enterprise IT departments. But Azaleos claims its Managed Enterprise Search solution eliminates the challenges associated with high visibility applications and can keep the FAST Search Server available and running at top speed.
My thoughts after reading this included:
- There is an implicit assumption that Microsoft’s cloud search will be Fast centric. My own view of this is that the assumption may be out of kilter. The reasons include performance, extensibility, and customization. Fast Search can be turned into a capable performer, but the “cloud” angle implies a certain standardization of features. So of Fast Search’s vast capabilities what will the core service do? Keywords, clustering, linguistic analysis, entity extraction, sentiment analysis, relationship mapping, etc. My point is that customers may want all of these functions and that suggests the Fast Search from Azaleos may be very different from the Fast Search marketing collateral’s assertions.
- Can Azaleos maintain an “interactive and visual format” when the content throughput increases. The challenge of keeping indexes fresh equates to resources. Resources, in my experience, cost money. The fix may be to gate how much data are processed in order to keep the fees acceptable to customers. Price spikes are not encouraging to some licensees in my experience.
- The assertion of “available and running at top speed” is an interesting one. My thought was, “Relative to what?” Are we comparing a small corpus with weekly index refreshes or are we talking about 100 million documents refreshed in near real time? I am not sure Fast in an on premises installation with original Fast engineers babysitting the hugely complex system with often unexpected dependencies can be a challenge to keep perking along at optimum performance levels.
I want to watch how this business unfolds. After all, a PR blitz which puts several stories in front of me signals some real enthusiasm on the part of the Azaleos stakeholders.
Stephen E Arnold, March 14, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Texis 6 from Thunderstone
March 9, 2012
A new version of the time-tested Thuderstone search software Texis has been announced in the news release “Thunderstone Releases Texis Version 6” on its Web site. Nearly every feature has been overhauled or altered for this new version, with much care put into updating the presentation and functionality .
From the article:
“New features available in Texis 6 include:
- More intuitive searches, including Unicode support and accent-insensitive queries:
This improves non-English searches; e.g. “cœur” will also match “coeur”, “resume” will match “resumé”.- Improved XML/XSLT support, including a new API for building XML based applications more easily.
- HTTP/1.1 support including gzip compression to reduce crawl times and bandwidth utilization:
Reduces load on targeted servers, and potentially allows access to more content.- Enhanced options for showing search results, including multiple snippets and styled highlighting:
Shows more query-relevant text in results, and allows full customization of query term presentation.”
Also updated were the Webinator tools, which now allow for faster category searches, expanded language usage (including Chinese, Japanese, and Korean characters), and a customizable thesaurus, to name a few key features. It should be noted that some of these changes are for the Texis program only, and not the main Thunderstone product. A full rundown of the changes is available here.
Stephen E Arnold, February 9, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
- Subscribe to Beyond Search
Feature archive
News archive
-
