Search Engine Plumbing: The Autonomy IDOL Diagram
August 2, 2013
Short honk: Documentation for enterprise search systems can be tough to get even when one is a licensee. Public information about the way the inner gears turn is often
as rare as hen’s teeth or in my case, geese’s teeth.
For anyone wondering what Autonomy IDOL’s help system looks like, the Hamilton IT Blog supplies an example titled simply, “IDOL Online Help.” The example sports functional tabs (“Action commands”, “Config params”, “Index commands”, and “Service commands”) with expandable category lists. If you are curious, check out the post.
Hurry, before it goes dark. Posting this type of information can lead to some interesting actions on the part of the vendor whose plumbing secrets are made evident.
Cynthia Murrell, August 2, 2013
Sponsored by Xenky
Sentiment Analysis in Search Bolsters Collaboration and More
August 1, 2013
We are seeing a lot of information published in regards to the ties between search and collaboration. As collaboration inherently relies on search, it is no wonder that these two are consistently discussed in tandem — “How Search Amplifies Enterprise Collaboration” from Business2Community points this out too.
This article discusses how social features and metadata make information more findable and thus more likely to be used in collaborative projects between users.
The author, Christian Buckley, explains his evolving perspective on sentiment analysis:
I questioned the ability of this technology to adequately interpret and intelligently map end user sentiment to content and metadata, or “data about data,” improving the overall search experience. Sentiment analysis is an incredibly difficult thing to automate, much less deliver within mainstream platforms. Thankfully, we have a method for providing a robust sentiment-based layer to our structured collaboration platforms: social collaboration. Even the search leaders recognize that they cannot completely replace human interaction (at least not yet) as the ultimate semantic classification mechanism.
Collaboration is one key reason companies are seeking out enterprise search vendors utilizing semantic technologies. Expert System is one such company whose solutions offer precise analytics using their core semantic search technologies. Their linguistic analysis capabilities enhance the extraction and application of data in the natural language interface. Collaboration is only the beginning, Expert System also has semantically enriched tools for social media monitoring, customer service and more.
Megan Feil, August 1, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Beyond Search
PeopleSoft Offers Advice on Deploying Secure Enterprise Search
July 31, 2013
Oracle’s human resource management division, PeopleSoft, has wrapped the corporation’s Secure Enterprise Search into its PeopleTools platform. Now, their PeopleSoft Technology Blog offers “A Few Tips on Deploying Secure Enterprise Search with PeopleSoft.” The helpful write-up tells us:
“Oracle’s Secure Enterprise Search is part of PeopleSoft now. It is provided as part of the PeopleTools platform as an appliance, and is used with applications starting with release 9.2. Secure Enterprise Search is a rich and powerful search product that can enhance search and navigation in PeopleSoft applications. It also provides useful features like facets and filtering that are common in consumer search engines.
“Several questions have arisen about the deployment of SES and how to administer it and insure optimum performance. People have also asked about what versions are supported on various platforms. To address the most common of these questions, we are posting this list of tips.”
In what promises to be the first in a series of informative posts, writer Matthew Haavisto offers tips on platform support and architecture. The article says a comprehensive red paper on PeopleSoft/SES administration is on its way. In the meantime, check back with the blog for more tips as they emerge.
Launched in 1987, PeopleSoft offered human resource, financial, supply chain, and customer relationship management solutions and other software. The firm counted large corporations, governments, and other organizations among its clients when Oracle snapped it up in 2005.
Cynthia Murrell, July 31, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Global Enterprise Search Market Survey Released
July 30, 2013
Industry experts have performed an in-depth market analysis to define the global enterprise search market landscape. It is an enterprise “state of the union” if you will. Read all about it in the SBWire press release, “Industrial Survey: Global Enterprise Search Market 2012-2016.”
The article explains the scope of the report and the general state of the enterprise search market:
“Global Enterprise Search market to grow at a CAGR of 12.98 percent over the period 2012-2016. One of the key factors contributing to this market growth is the increased demand for rapid and easy data access. The Global Enterprise Search market has also been witnessing the emergence of software-as-a-service based solutions. However, the high cost of implementation could pose a challenge to the growth of this market.”
The full report can be purchased and downloaded through ResearchMoz.
It does seem valid that some organizations are concerned about the cost of implementing software as a service (SaaS). However, there are many affordable and intuitive solutions that are meeting the needs of even small organizations through their usage of open source infrastructure. For instance, LucidWorks offers both LucidWorks Big Data and LucidWorks Search, which are each flexible enough to be both affordable and highly effective.
Emily Rae Aldridge, July 30, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Beyond Search
Searchdaimon Goes Open Source
July 8, 2013
We learned this morning that Searchdaimon, an innovative developer in Trondheim, Norway, has released its flagship search product as open source. According to “Searchdaimon Enterprise Search Now Open Source Under GPL V2”:
Searchdaimon today announced its flagship enterprise search product is now available as open source software. The Searchdaimon solution, highlighted at http://www.searchdaimon.com, is the only enterprise-grade alternative to Solr available. Searchdaimon offers comprehensive for-fee engineering and consulting services to licensees wanting carrier-class support at highly competitive prices. The software will be released under the free GPL v2 license. For more information about this open source license, visit http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-2.0.html.
In October 2012, Runar Buvik, one of the senior executives at Searchdaimon told Search Wizards Speak:
The functions are comparable to the features and functions available from HP Autonomy, Endeca, Exalead, and other aggressively marketed systems. For example, Searchdaimon offers filtering, sorting, content federation, search suggestions, spell checking of user queries, stemming and lemmatization, a graphic interface for the administrative services, logs, statistics, and the other components of a modern enterprise information retrieval system. The ES is a fully featured enterprise search solution that can index different content types scattered across multiple servers and storage devices. The system offers full text search to end users.
In the story which appeared this morning said that Searchdaimon is the result of an evolution of academic research at the same university that developed the original Fast Search & Transfer search system. The company goes beyond Fast Search, delivering high-speed content processing and concept identification in an innovative package. There is no practical limit to the number of Searchdaimon virtual servers that can be clustered together. Therefore, Big Data presents no particular problems. The system, whether for a few users or thousands, provides site search and search in internal corporate data.
Searchdaimon is a leading provider of enterprise search solutions, that aims to transforming the way organizations tap their knowledge and access their information. Their cornerstone product, the Searchdaimon Enterprise Search, is one of the best solution for conducting search and getting information from inside the business. For specific contact information, visit http://www.searchdaimon.com/about_us/. Details about the company’s for-fee support options are available at on the commercial support page.
Worth a look in our opinion. Open source options continue to put pressure on many commercial vendors. Some of these firms are like Oracle Endeca showing more flexibility in pricing.
Donald Anderson, July 8, 2013
Sponsored by Xenky
01Business and Search
July 4, 2013
Take a look at the article about Sinequa. Just run a query in the next few days at www.01net.com. The story presents some interesting information.
Stephen E Arnold, July 5, 2013
Stephen E Arnold, July 4, 2013
Sponsored by Xenky, the portal to ArnoldIT where you can find the world’s largest collection of first-person explanations of enterprise search
MaxxCAT Enhances Enterprise Search Applications
June 28, 2013
Specialized-hardware firm MaxxCAT has upgraded their enterprise search appliances while remaining one of the most cost-effective options in the field, we learn from “MaxxCAT EX-Series of Enterprise Search Appliances Enhanced with Upgraded Storage and Performance” at PRWeb. Mirrored index storage is one of the most welcome features. The write-up tells us:
“The EX-5000 and EX-6000, competitors of the Google Search Appliance, now start at 2 x 1TB of Index Storage. The improved hardware combines the appliances’ existing performance and reasonable cost with the security of redundancy for customers’ Index Storage.
“‘When you buy a search appliance, you want to get it started and then not worry about it anymore.’ said Zach Reinhardt, MaxxCAT hardware support engineer. ‘Knowing that in the event of a hard drive failure, their appliance will still perform gives our customers the peace of mind so they can concentrate on other projects.'”
Ah, stress reduction! All of MaxxCAT’s search appliances can index a wide variety of file formats with no document limits. The EX-Series perform 12,500 to 25,000 queries per minute for a very reasonable starting price that’s under $9,000. One year of email support and software updates are included, as is a one-year hardware warranty.
MaxxCAT sweetens the pot for any Google Search Appliance owners tempted to switch with its Google Search Appliance Replacement Program. This incentive combines either the EX-5000 or EX-6000 with access to MaxxCAT’s excellent Integration Services Group.
Founded in 2007 and based in Pittsburgh, MaxxCAT produces two high-quality product lines, search appliances and cloud-integrated storage, at some of the lowest price points around. The company also offers integration services and managed data hosting. A focus on performance, simplicity, and ease of integration keeps MaxxCAT at the fore of the high-performance field.
Cynthia Murrell, June 28, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Hewlett Packard Versus IBM: The Poobah Viewpoint
June 18, 2013
I read “Hewlett Packard Can’t Afford to Let Competition Keep Winning.” I thought the title should be, “HP Is a Loser and Lunch for IBM” or “HP: The Deer in IBM’s Headlights.” I found the write up more about the wonderfulness of IBM and its prescient executives than about the proud owner of Autonomy and marketer of Haven.
In my opinion, here’s the key passage from the write up:
HP was overmatched because it didn’t see IBM’s move for what it was and accordingly adjust its event to appear competitive. This is the second time this year I’ve seen HP choose to ignore what IBM said to an influential audience and, as a result, appear out of step. Marketing, not individual product groups or the office of the CEO, drove the message at IBM Edge. IBM came to Las Vegas to do battle, while HP came to give executives face time. This was like bringing a knife to a gun fight.
One quite remarkable revelation in the analysis of the seemingly hapless HP was a discussion of Watson. Watson, as I like to point out, won a game show. After cracking problems in health care, Watson is working in food service. Fascinating résumé for a smart search engine.
The write up makes this point about “taking Watson to the next level”:
Each Watson use case has significant global implications that could improve quality of life and prevent a variety of significant problems.
Use cases? The write up does not mention Jeopardy. But the write up points out that Wellpoint can save lives with Watson. No facts were offered to support this point, but I am sure there is ample evidence available. Also, Watson can improve cyber security. Again, not much detail was available, but the assertion seems possible. The Pew Charitable Trusts are using Watson with “other IBM technologies” to reduce maybe/possibly election fraud. I presume IBM’s Big Data technologies would help deliver the bacon.
I find this type of analysis fascinating. On one hand, the arguments sound so darned reasonable. On the other, the facts are in short supply.
HP and IBM, in my opinion, are worthy competitors. A consulting firm which is downsizing and a struggling ink vendor make an interesting enterprise dust up.
Stephen E Arnold, June 18, 2013
Sponsored by Xenky, the portal to ArnoldIT
SharePoint and SharePoint Search: End of Life?
June 16, 2013
I had a chat with a former IBM executive. At lunch, an interesting emerged as we talked about the trials and tribulations large enterprise software vendors are facing. In addition to the embarrassing layoffs at IBM, there are signals that the financial screws are being turned at Hewlett Packard, Oracle, SAP and elsewhere. Part of the pressure is normal because the April May June quarter is an important one before the world goes on vacation in July and August. September, obviously, will be another flat out period for sales and marketing professionals. But there was one t hought which we kicked around in a post-prandial stupor.
A dilemma now exists in the enterprise software sector.
Stick with what works and has worked
Go in a new direction and improvise.
What happens if Microsoft does the Adobe thing and forces SharePoint licensees to embrace the cloud? What happens to the resellers? What happens to the integrators? What happens to the in house staff who know the intricacies of on premises installations of SharePoint but not the secrets of Azure?
Microsoft has a significant dependence on on premises sales. This is the client access license, the enterprise license, and the special set ups which make Microsoft the de facto choice for desktop computing workers worldwide.
Is an end of life play for SharePoint possible without making Microsoft even more vulnerable to the enticements of Google and others who want to supplant Microsoft as the “king of the desktop enter” and “baron of the back office”?
On one hand, the idea that SharePoint and its okay search solution, administrator employing mail and database systems, and its quirky collaboration and document management solutions could shift to the cloud is silly. Why give up those license fees? Why alienate service firms dependent on sales and support to hundreds of millions of SharePoint users? Why assume that a cloud business model will work for on site license customers? Organizations are conservative. Change comes slowly or not at all. Stick with the status quo.
National Instruments Selects Attivio
June 14, 2013
Increasingly major national and international companies are turning to open source solutions to solve their information storage and retrieval needs. These companies need enterprise solutions that are agile, efficient, affordable, and secure. The latest to join the ranks of open source adoption is National Instruments. KM World covers the news in their story, “Powering Information Discovery and Search Needs.”
The article begins:
“National Instruments has chosen a unified information access platform to enable more efficient knowledge discovery and analysis into the future. After evaluating a number of solutions, National Instruments decided that Attivio’s Active Intelligence Engine (AIE) would best handle its requirements, particularly related to ontology-driven query completion, auto categorization, sentiment analysis, dictionary management, recommendations, language support and improved relevancy boosting, according to Attivio.”
Attivio’s Active Intelligence model strives to integrate business intelligence, enterprise search, and Big Data into one scalable model. This type of consolidation seems to be driving the value-added open source market. For instance, LucidWorks offers two solutions: LucidWorks Search and LucidWorks Big Data. Both have distinct functions, but are designed to serve the all-encompassing enterprise needs of an organization. Small and medium sized organizations even find that they can benefit from the scalability of LucidWorks, and rest on their trusted support and security. Explore both options and see how they will fit into your enterprise.
Emily Rae Aldridge, June 14, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Beyond Search
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