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
Customizing the SharePoint Search Box
April 24, 2012
Customization of SharePoint is almost a necessity in order to extract the full benefit from such a large and broad enterprise implementation. Christian Stahl addresses customization of one very important component, the search box, in his piece, “Brand the Search Box in SharePoint 2010.”
Stahl begins:
I have written some blog posts, in the past, about branding the global navigation which is an important part of the SharePoint user interface. The search box is another part of the user interface that often needs a bit of branding especially if it concerns a public faced web site where the search box could be one of the most important elements in the user interface.
Stahl has a good point; the search box is an important branding piece, especially when used in a public facing web site. However, the complications of customization can be daunting, especially if designated staff is not available. Third-party solutions can be a smart add-on solution to an existing SharePoint implementation.
Fabasoft Mindbreeze has an especially attractive web site search feature in Fabasoft Mindbreeze InSite. Read what Dr. Manfred Weiss of Computerwelt had to say about customized web site search with Fabasoft Mindbreeze Insite:
We want to stand out from the crowd with a top internet presence. Fabasoft Mindbreeze InSite is part of this strategy. Our readers value the service of a perfect search. Regardless of which of our portals the information is on, Mindbreeze finds it. Since the search function is operated as a Cloud service, we save time and money.
Put your best public foot forward with a customized web site search, made possible by the intuitive solutions at Fabasoft Mindbreeze.
Emily Rae Aldridge, April 24, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
PLM as a Survival Tool
April 24, 2012
In the recent book Great by Choice (HarperBusiness, 2011), co-author Jim Collins contends that forward-thinking enterprises require discipline and organization as well as innovation in order to succeed in today’s uncertain global economic climate. Consequently, by making use of such technological solutions as product lifecycle management (PLM), companies can corral their often fragmented product information and correspondingly enhance their responsiveness to customer demands and market conditions.
Supporting Collins’ contention is Stephen Porter, who, in an article entitled “The PLM State: How Fast Can You Turn Your Ship?” that discusses Collins’ book and that recently appeared in the blog Zero Wait-State, The PLM Experts, explains how the implementation of PLM solutions for organizing data is integral to corporate success:
“Having your product record captured in a single system and fully defined gives a company enormous control over their product development process. Controlling all of the information that defines a product and having the ability to capture process as well allows discipline to be applied and to measure and quantify the time it takes to develop these products. If you do not have PLM in place doing this can be almost impossible unless you are an extremely small organization or developing very simple products.”
Given the pace of change in today’s business climate, PLM technology that is cloud-based, scalable, and intuitive will provide the most immediate as well as the most sustained benefit to progressive companies seeking to implement a data management solution that will enable them to easily find, reuse, and share product data throughout the enterprise.
Tonya Weikel, April 24, 2012
Inteltrax: Top Stories, April 16 to April 20
April 23, 2012
Inteltrax, the data fusion and business intelligence information service, captured three key stories germane to search this week, specifically, how three of the biggest supporters of analytics are fairing.
Surprisingly, transportation has taken a shine to analytics, as we discovered in “Transportation Analytics Grows Crucial to Success”.
Not so surprisingly, government spending is leaning heavy on analytics. “Intelligence Community Leads Public Sector Analytics” showed how spy agencies love analytics.
Unfortunately, the one-time titan of analytic love, the medical field, is falling behind, as we learned in “Healthcare Analytics Needs a Boost”.
While there are thousands of industries that utilize big data analytics, these three are probably the most visible. Their successes and failures are important elements of the analytic story and ones we’ll be monitoring daily.
Follow the Inteltrax news stream by visiting www.inteltrax.com
Patrick Roland, Editor, Inteltrax.
April 23, 2012
Mindbreeze Holds its Own in Forrester Assessment
April 23, 2012
Fabasoft Mindbreeze was included in a recent Forrester assessment of enterprise search offerings. Twelve vendor/products were analyzed, grouped into three categories: specialized, integrated, or detached. The official assessment will require an account to access, but CMS Wire does a good job of giving us the overview in, “Forrester Evaluates Enterprise Search Landscape, None Open Source.”
Today, the impetus for search enterprise search is much the same as it was decades ago: Finding information quickly. We just have exponentially more information and often have to find it more quickly. Despite the age of search, according to Forrester, many organizations don’t see enterprise search as a fundamental service like email. However, as content sizes continue to grow, become more diverse and the workplace is filled with a generation of web-savvy workers who just expect search to work, enterprise search solutions that help staff quickly locate information in disparate and diverse sources is becoming more of a necessity.
Here are a few of our initial observations:
First, we are just as shocked as the author at the lack of open source coverage. Open source is a growing force in the enterprise search market, driving innovation. Many of the successful commercial vendors are incorporating features pioneered in open source.
Secondly, Microsoft’s SharePoint offering, particularly its FAST search received no “excellent” ratings in any category. However, SharePoint is still seen as an obligatory tool for a broad enterprise infrastructure.
Lastly, Fabasoft Mindbreeze holds its own as a relatively small and young company amidst many big players such as IBM and Microsoft. Fabasoft Mindbreeze shines as a specialized tool, flexible and intuitive in meeting the specific needs of a fast moving market that are often overlooked by big infrastructures like SharePoint. In fact, many organizations use Mindbreeze as an add-on to an existing SharePoint infrastructure to increase efficiency and user satisfaction without costly customization.
Fabasoft Mindbreeze continues to win recognition, including an inclusion in KM World’s 100 Companies that Matter in Knowledge Management for four years running.
Mindbreeze, a Fabasoft subsidiary and a leading provider of software for enterprise search and information access, is again listed among the 100 companies in knowledge management. Fabasoft Mindbreeze has thus made the grade for the fourth time.
Keep an eye on the fast moving world of enterprise search, and check out the offerings of Fabasoft Mindbreeze to see if they might be a good fit for your enterprise.
Emily Rae Aldridge, April 23, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
PLM Cloud Based Future Is Here
April 23, 2012
Forward-looking organizations are increasingly realizing that implementing product lifecycle management (PLM) technology as an enterprise-wide data management tool can empower them to administer their often complex and fragmented product-related information with more efficiency in terms of cost, access, and applicability. Such gains can ultimately translate into increased product visibility and revenue in the targeted market.
In addition to seeking out PLM solutions that offer utility to the entire enterprise, cutting edge organizations in a variety of industries are frequently demanding cloud-based PLM products as discussed in the article entitled, “Increased Investments in Product Research to Drive Gains in the Global Product Lifecycle Management Market, According to New Report by Global Industry Analysts, Inc.”, that recently appeared on MaxFax.org,
“Another interesting trend worthy of note is the growing popularity of cloud-based on-demand PLM services/solutions and the initial impetus extended by the 2007-2009 recession to push cloud-based PLM out of its orbit. The bad economy has been feeding the market for cloud computing as cash- and revenue-starved companies prowl for IT solutions that are cost-effective and require minimum to zero investments and low management of computing resources. Technically, the feature of multi-tenancy, or the ability to scale up or scale down services on demand, makes fiscal sense in taut economic conditions. Simplicity in implementation and low costs are prime factors driving adoption of clouds by large and small enterprises alike. The rise in the number and variety of vendor products/offerings in this space will additionally drive acceptance.”
Considering this trend, Inforbix, whose scalable and affordable PLM products are already cloud-based, is strategically poised to partner with those progressive organizations seeking to implement an innovative, state-of-the-art data management application that enables their whole enterprise to find, reuse, and share product information easily.
Tonya Weikel, April 23, 2012
SharePoint Development Tutorial Within 85 Pages
April 21, 2012
Although the SharePoint Fast search option is under assault from many quarters, many organizations want to “run what Microsoft brung.”
No longer do you have to scour the Web for basic tutorials on how to start SharePoint development? You can waste a lot of working hours researching sources, when you can save yourself time and money by heading over to SharePoint Tutorial and reading about their book, “Learn SharePoint Development.”
Pulling from six years of experience, the author pours his knowledge into a short eighty-five guidebook. It was written with the absolute beginner in mind, it includes step-by-step instructions, focused viewpoint with pictures for explanation, concepts and practices for training with source code to start.
“This document shows you basic concepts of SharePoint regarding development and deployment of solutions as well as customizations like Web Parts. It helps you to understand the basic development and deployment process and what elements are involved since the process differs from the ASP.NET process although SharePoint is based on ASP.NET.”
You are also treated to the tools for data organization, SharePoint environmental development, deployment, and Visual Studio 2010 basics. You can either purchase the book for $24, but for an additional $10 you can get the source code as well. One of the problems I have with these SharePoint start up books is that they hardly ever address SharePoint search. If you do not understand search enterprise concepts, then it is good to rely on SurfRay Ontolica—a search enterprise platform that requires zero to little extra programming for adoption.
Whitney Grace, April 21, 2012
Sponsored by OpenSearchNews.com
A Discussion on Private versus Public Cloud in SharePoint
April 20, 2012
In “Private SharePoint Cloud Beats Other Cloud Hosting Options for Enterprises on Price, Practicability,” Jay Atkinson, CEO of AIS Network, discusses public versus private in the Cloud hosting environment. Atkinson suggests that Private SharePoint Cloud “is in.”
He explains,
A private SharePoint cloud is simply more economical and easier to manage for a large organization with security and compliance concerns, Atkinson said. An enterprise SharePoint Server 2010 platform implemented wholly in a private cloud, including the online storage components, exceeds core compliance requirements and surpasses the benefits of a public cloud or hybrid cloud.
With SharePoint 2010 deployed entirely in a private cloud, Atkinson said the customer gets:
- a hosted environment that is exclusively internal to the organization,
- complete control of its servers, security, permissions, policies and customization,
- seamless federation between line-of-business systems and various data sources,
- quick scalability for system resources, and
- the ability to move other core applications and platforms to the same private cloud.
Atkinson is quick to point out, though, that public cloud services are okay and often economical for small to mid-size businesses. Atkinson’s comments may be worth a look to keep in the loop on Cloud trends. But the article is just an introduction and you may want to do a little more research before choosing a Cloud service.
While SharePoint is a powerful and complex system, we know there are limitations when the Cloud is introduced, especially when it comes to search and security. For a Cloud solution in your SharePoint environment, check out Fabasoft Mindbreeze.
Here you can read about the power of information pairing:
Fabasoft Mindbreeze Enterprise and the Cloud fit perfectly together. The Cloud makes you and your business mobile – Mindbreeze makes itself at home in the Cloud. The intelligent search is available as a Cloud service. This means that you, if you so desire, Mindbreeze can run without any installation whatsoever – we operate the search machine for you. All the data that you manage in the Cloud are made searchable by Fabasoft Mindbreeze. Fabasoft Mindbreeze Enterprise is therefore also your center of excellence for your knowledge in the Cloud.
Add in certified security with regular audits for security standards compliance, and Mindbreeze connects users to their needed information without compromising information security. Check out the full suite of solutions at Mindbreeze to see what works for you.
More on AIS Network: AIS Network takes businesses to the cloud. Hosting pioneer AISN is a leader in cloud-based hosting for Microsoft SharePoint, SharePoint FIS, SaaS and other mission-critical applications for organizations with demanding security and compliance requirements.
Philip West, April 20, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
PLM in the Auto Industry
April 20, 2012
In recently naming Siemens PLM Software as the recipient of its 2011 Supplier of the Year Award, General Motors (GM) cited the significant role that Siemens’ technology has played in the automaker’s design, manufacturing, and marketing efforts.
This represents the fourth time that this global supplier of product lifecycle management (PLM) software has been honored with this award, Chuck Grindstaff, the president and chief executive officer of Siemens PLM Software, thanked GM for the recognition and emphasized, in remarks published in an article entitled “Siemens PLM Software Receives GM Supplier of the Year Award” that recently appeared in Industrial Distribution, the importance of PLM solutions to the auto industry:
“After working so closely with the incredible team at GM to thoroughly understand their requirements and deliver the solutions they need to build some of the world’s best cars and trucks, it is particularly gratifying to be named a 2011 General Motors Supplier of the Year. We know that understanding our customers and the industries they serve has helped us formulate a unique and practical vision for PLM that has contributed to the unmatched growth and momentum we are experiencing in the global automotive industry.”
Inforbix, with its affordable, intuitive, and scalable PLM products, also offers automakers and a host of other manufacturers data management solutions that will enable them to easily find, reuse, and share product data, which will in turn streamline their design, production, and sales efforts.
Tonya Weikel, April 20, 2012
A Book Review of Managing Records in SharePoint 2010
April 19, 2012
Mimi Dionne, a records and information management project manager and Consultant/Owner of Mimi Dionne Consulting, reviews a recent Bruce Miller publication in, “Managing Records in SharePoint 2010: An ARMA Report Review.” Bruce Miller’s 93 page book, “Managing Records in SharePoint 2010,” examines the capabilities and limitations of recordkeeping with out-of-the-box SharePoint 2010.
Miller’s report is divided into sections, starting with the use case, assessing record keeping requirements, and key underlying record keeping principles for SharePoint. Then the report shifts to implementing a file plan, folder structure and management, declaration and classification, classification accuracy, disposition, and concludes with recommended best practices and project implementation. Dionne’s review takes a look at all of these sections.
Dionne shares her overall summary:
This is a deeply-considered report that has useful, practical gems of advice scattered throughout. For example, if you’ve never fully considered metadata (beyond Dublin Core), you will find some listed in Appendix B quite valuable. However, blink and you miss them. I wish he had highlighted them better. Investing in Mr. Miller’s report is a wise move by ARMA International. The reader does get very useful advice — his hints on records management in MySites are worth the price of the publication alone — but if you seek a cookbook to teach you how to assemble a SharePoint 2010 Records Center, this is not it.
If you’ve been considering purchasing Bruce Miller’s book, Dionne’s comprehensive review may be worth a look. If you’re looking to save time and resources spent on training materials, consider a third party solution, like Fabasoft Mindbreeze, to round out your SharePoint system.
Mindbreeze can also help you connect the dots in your SharePoint adoption. The Fabasoft Folio Connector integrates all your business information from the intranet, Cloud, internet, and knowledge portals in the corporate-wide search, while maintaining your strict access rights by integrating all information objects, including metadata. The Microsoft SharePoint Connector connects the Microsoft Office SharePoint Server to Fabasoft Mindbreeze Enterprise and enables the search for documents stored in that application. With Mindbreeze, users can easily search and reuse information from documents, contacts, projects, Wiki articles, conference agendas, and more.
Philip West, April 19, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
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