Exclusive Interview: Erik Arnold, Adhere Solutions
August 9, 2010
How does one consultant interview another? Cautiously. How does a father interview a son? Buy the Diet Coke and provide the questions before flipping on the digital recorder. I spoke with Erik Arnold, managing director of Adhere Solutions in a charming eatery in Chicago with a buzzing neon sign advertising “Free Refills” on Sunday. Today is Monday. Now some readers wonder if I write about my son and get paid for that work. Anyone who has a successful son knows that fathers get to pay. What’s my compensation? When you have a gosling flying circles around your goose pond, you will figure it out.
Erik Arnold, managing director of Adhere Solutions, will be giving a talk about the use of open source search technology for the White House’s USA.gov Web site.
Erik Arnold has over 15 years of experience in the search industry, divided uniquely between both Web and enterprise search. Adhere Solutions is a consulting firm that advises companies on improving their search systems. Prior to Adhere, Erik served as a subject matter expert for a government consulting company where he primarily worked with the House of Representatives and the USA.gov web portal. He started his career at Lycos, one of the first Internet search engines, where he was a product marketing manager. Erik then moved to NBCi search engine (Snap.com) where he served as business development manager.
He will be giving a talk about the impact of open source search on certain US government initiatives at the October 2010 Lucene Revolution Conference.
The full text of the interview appears below:
Here we are again talking about search technology.
That’s right.
For readers who may not know about your company, what’s an Adhere Solutions?
Adhere Solutions offers products and services that help organizations with their of search systems. We focus on Google and open source technologies. Adhere Solutions has been a trusted Google Enterprise Partner since 2007, with a client roster of Wal-Mart, Lexis-Nexis, and the Federal Trade Commission among others.
You have worked on the USA.gov and related Federal projects. When did you get into this type of work?
A decade ago. I think I did my first Federal consulting job in 2000 for the Clinton Administration.
You used to work at both Lycos and Vivisimo. These are commercial vendors of search. Is open source really gaining traction in Federal agencies?
Open source is gaining traction. The Obama Administration’s technology leadership team of Vivek Kundra and Macon Phillips have led the charge based on two primary drivers. One, there is a focus to reduce the $70 billion that federal agencies spend on IT on a yearly basis for the pleasure of being behind in just about every aspect of technology. Two, the revamping of the White House web site and other Administration web sites have showed that agencies can open source and social media, while adhering to strict security standards.
If the software is free to download under various open source licenses, what’s your firm’s business model?
We earn our money by charging support services for the systems that we implement. Search systems, regardless of technology, require “TLC” even in most organizations, it is “set it and forget it.” We have a process that leverages log files and implementing industry best practices on a quarterly basis. If people are not interested in investing in their search systems, we would rather find out sooner rather than later. Implementing a good search system should be a long term commitment that constantly evolves.
What types of projects do you think are suitable for open source search like Lucene/Solr?
The improvements of Lucene and Solr are coming at a rapid clip. We actually try to not push our clients into certain technology. We try and help them figure out what they really want to achieve based on business needs. That is why we really just focus on Google and open source. Between those two, we can cover just about every use case that we hear. When vendors lead the discussion, the focus shifts to technology that may not be needed.
There is concern that software has to be hardened, not have back doors, and have a “brand name” behind it. What is the perception of open source search when these security topics are discussed?
Security has always been the deal breaker, especially in certain agencies. Security issues are at the top of the list of any government meeting, and some will not because of fear. However, that is where the efforts of the White House web sites have helped, certainly for federal agencies. There are many open source initiatives on the intelligence side of government, but since no one is allowed to talk about the applications, ironically, federal agencies probably have more fear in using open source software.
Can you give me an example of open source search in the US government?
We are using it to power the GSA’s Search.USA.gov and the White House is using it to power the White House web site. Additionally, more people are experimenting with it to index intranet applications as well. I think that it is safe to say that open source is now always in the conversation of how someone should be doing an application.
While it still may be safer to buy enterprise software, budget pressures are forcing people to ask if open source is the better approach.
What do you see the impact of open source search having on the Big Boys in search and content processing?
I think that people are already seeing an impact. A look at the marketing of leading enterprise search software vendors, and it is really hard to find the word search. Lucene/Solr embrace the simple labeling of “open source search engine.” The Google Search Appliance is also clear on what it is does.
“Enterprise Search” vendors, though, have to present more value than just indexing content, so there are a wide array of business problems that they solve which may or may not be search related.
I think that this is mix of the complexity of business problems while also acknowledging that if you have a straight forward “search” problem, people will gravitate to Lucene.
What are the benefits of open source search for Federal agencies?
I see two benefits. It finally makes them focus on the problems that they are trying to solve versus being wowed by marketing language of a vendor.
Two, is simply the cost. The federal government spends $70 billion on IT and yet the systems are so far out of date, that the model is obviously broken.
Open source presents a clean break from vendor lock in over decades.
And the downside of open source?
As long as organizations focus on the end results and not now they are achieved, there are very few. I think that the biggest thing is that burden of owning the application shift in-house. There is not a specific software provider to call if there an issues.
While there are service companies that exist, I think most open source projects have internal owners who are responsible for the application, updating of the patches, etc. In some, open source software tends to come with more responsibility.
What are you talking about at the upcoming Lucene Revolution?
The talk will focus on the Search.USA.gov application that after years of being powered and managed by enterprise software companies is now an internally managed application. It is powered by Solr and leveraging commercially available APIs. I will talk about the approach as well as the creation of new apps and APIs that the general public will be able to use. Accessing government data through APIs is something that is very important for us to showcase as we believe that is how government should expose information
How can a reader get in touch with you?
Email is best at erik at adheresolutions dot com
Stephen E Arnold, August 14, 2010
Freebie. No, wait. I paid for the Diet Cokes.
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