I read “Database Vendor MarkLogic Joins Billion Dollar Club with New Funding.” The main point for me is that MarkLogic is described as a “database vendor.” MarkLogic has been working hard to explain that it is an enterprise search vendor, a business intelligence vendor, and an XML publishing system appropriate for finance, health care, and publishing. There is MarkLogic DNA in Autonomy.
The headline brushes these assertions away, clearing the path for the unicorn to charge directly in the face of Oracle and maybe IBM.
According to the write up:
MarkLogic in the last few years has gained several new database rivals–including Cloudera Inc., last valued at $4.1 billion; MongoDB Inc., last valued at $1.6 billion; MapR Technologies Inc.; and Datastax Inc.–in addition to traditional competitors Oracle, Microsoft Corp. and International Business Machines Corp. MarkLogic customers include Dow Jones & Co., which publishes VentureWire and The Wall Street Journal. The company said the new money would be used to expand globally across Europe, Japan and Asia and invested in MarkLogic partners and in research and development.
Is this what MarkLogic will do with the money? I thought some of it would be allocated to purchase other firms; for example, companies which allegedly shore up MarkLogic’s content processing gaps. Concept Searching, Content Analyst, Smartlogic? Also, there may be some long suffering investors who want a payback for the millions pumped into the company. I noticed that the lead investor was Wellington Management with some help from Arrowpoint Partners.
Before the current president, I was working for some of the nifty outfits in Sillycon Valley. I learned that MarkLogic had missed some important financial targets. A spin of the revolving door put some new faces in familiar positions.
If one looks for MarkLogic today, the company is findable, but it maintains a comparatively low profile. I dropped the blog from my useful source list. I can’t recall the last time I saw a substantive link to the company in Twitter. I don’t see the company at some of the conferences I attend, but, hey, I attend some very specialized information centric hoe downs.
Several observations:
Oracle may expand on its”we’re a better XML database white paper which you can find here. An earlier paper called “Mark Logic XML Server 4.1” points out some issues which Oracle perceived in the MarkLogic approach. In a shoot out with Oracle, the bullets will fly. Does MarkLogic have the arsenal to deal with Oracle’s cache of armaments?
Will proprietary NoSQL data management systems be able to generate a billion in revenue in the next six or eight quarters? Outfits like Lucid Imagination (Really?) have been running into headwinds, and I think a similar weather system may turn MarkLogic’s sunny skies into a cloudy day. I understand that the Wall Street Journal is a MarkLogic believer? How many more can MarkLogic bring to its picnic? The assumption, I assume, is a lot.
MarkLogic’s core technology dates from 2001. Like many companies from this time period, MarkLogic has to find a way to get that old time start up excitement back. Companies which are 14 years old often continue along the same trajectory in my experience.
This will be interesting and maybe a big payday for the increasingly strapped owners of companies with technology which can caulk some leaks in the MarkLogic lake raft.
Stephen E Arnold, May 12, 2015
Some details about the rollout of SharePoint Server 2016 were revealed at the much-anticipated Ignite event in Chicago last week. Microsoft now commits to being on track with the project, making a public beta available in fourth quarter of this year, and “release candidate” and “general availability” versions to follow. Read more in the Redmond Magazine article, “SharePoint Server 2016 Roadmap Highlighted at Ignite Event.”
The article addresses the tension between cloud and on-premises versions:
“While Microsoft has been developing the product based on its cloud learnings, namely SharePoint Online as part of its Office 365 services, those cloud-inspired features eventually will make their way back into the server product. The capabilities that don’t make it into the server will be offered as Office 365 services that can be leveraged by premises-based systems.”
It appears that the delayed timeline may be a “worst case scenario” measure, and that the release could happen earlier. After all, it is better for customers to be prepared for the worst and be pleasantly surprised. To stay in touch with the latest news regarding features and timeline, keep an eye on ArnoldIT.com, specifically the SharePoint feed. Stephen E. Arnold is a longtime leader in search and serves as a great resource for individuals who need access to the latest SharePoint news at a glance.
Emily Rae Aldridge, May 12, 2015
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
If you query PostgreSQL tables, you may find yourself making nice with a script herder. Tired of that intermediated approach? Navigate to Slinky. You will want to watch the demo in Internet Explorer because I encountered flakiness in Firefox and Mozilla. You enter what you want in a search box, pick the table, and the system spits out the SQL query. Punch a button and you get a data table. Looked good and worked for us.
Stephen E Arnold, May 8, 2015
Written by Stephen E. Arnold · Filed Under Database, News, Search | Comments Off on Making Queries of PostgreSQL Data Easy
Navigate to “Announcing Google Cloud Bigtable: The same database that powers Google Search, Gmail and Analytics is now available on Google Cloud Platform.” I learned:
we are excited to introduce Google Cloud Bigtable – a fully managed, high-performance, extremely scalable NoSQL database service accessible through the industry-standard, open-source Apache HBase API. Under the hood, this new service is powered by Bigtable, the same database that drives nearly all of Google’s largest applications.
In the list of benefits Google offers, one caught my attention:
Over the past 10+ years, Bigtable has driven Google’s most critical applications. In addition, the HBase API is a industry-standard interface for combined operational and analytical workloads.
The question becomes, “Is this the real Hadoop?” Another question: “Is Google using decade old technology for its “most critical applications”? I answer, “Nope. I think there are newer, whizzier software in use.”
Stephen E Arnold, May 6, 2015
Enterprise search is one of the most important features for enterprise content management systems and there is huge industry for designing and selling taxonomies. The key selling features for taxonomies are their diversity, accuracy, and quality. The categories within taxonomies make it easier for people to find their content, but Tech Target’s Search Content Management blog says there is room improvement in the post: “Search-Based Applications Need The Engine Of Taxonomy.”
Taxonomies are used for faceted search, allowing users to expand and limit their search results. Faceted search gives users a selection to change their results, including file type, key words, and more of the ever popular content categories. Users usually don’t access the categories, primarily they are used behind the scenes and aggregated the results appear on the dashboard.
Taxonomies, however, take their information from more than what the user provides:
“We are now able to assemble a holistic view of the customer based on information stored across a number of disparate solutions. Search-based applications can also include information about the customer that was inferred from public content sources that the enterprise does not own, such as news feeds, social media and stock prices.”
Whether you know it or not, taxonomies are vital to enterprise search. Companies that have difficulty finding their content need to consider creating a taxonomy plan or invest in purchasing category lists from a proven company.
Whitney Grace, May 4, 2015
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
The number of companies offering alternatives to Oracle’s traditional database management system continues to go up. The most notable anti-Oracle outfit may be Microsoft, or, the “new” post-Ballmer Microsoft.
A number of specialist companies have offered expensive and often quite complicated NoSQL content management systems. These have been positioned as publishing systems, analytic systems, business intelligence, and other types of unstructured information solutions.
I read “Microsoft Announces General Availability of Azure DocumentDB.” The key paragraph in the write up is a quote from a Microsoft expert which asserts:
We built DocumentDB in response to the increasing demands of mobile first, cloud first application development. NoSQL databases are becoming the tool of choice for many developers however running and managing these databases can be complicated and costly, especially at scale. DocumentDB is delivered as a fully managed database-as-a-service (DBaaS) with built in high availability, SQL query over indexed JSON and multi-document transaction processing.
Like most things Microsoft, this solution has been chugging along for many years. Microsoft has its own relational database to nurture. Leaving the market to the likes of MarkLogic and legions of open source developers and repackagers motivated the ageing Microsoft to keep on pecking away at the unstructured information problem.
Will Microsoft be successful?
The question is, “Sure, probably.” There are many Microsoft certified professionals, certified Gold resellers, and tag-along consultants who milk the Microsoft cow. The installed base combined with job security and consulting opportunities means that over time, Microsoft’s document database will have an impact.
What companies will be affected? There are several categories of firms which may suffer some immediate pain; for example:
- MarkLogic-type proprietary vendors will have to deal with the price pressure Microsoft brings to the market. Microsoft also supports a community familiar with the Byzantine methods of Microsoft software. The combination of familiar programming conventions and job security are likely to be a powerful mix.
- Vendors who drifted from Microsoft may have to fall in love again. Some specialist companies like Coveo and Smartlogic have shifted from Microsoft centric business to support for other systems and methods. If the document centric database sector catches on quickly, then these companies will have to rekindle their Microsoft affection. The challenge will be to fit into a Microsoft world in which more loyal developers have been faithful.
- Licensees reeling from the cost and complexity of XML centric document solutions may find that loyal licensees are kicking the tires of the Microsoft approach. Microsoft developers are easier to find and hire than masters of proprietary XML programming methods. JSON may become a good enough alternative to XML wonkiness.
What about search? I assume that an open source outfit like Elastic will encourage its fans to carry coals to the New Microsoft castle. Vendors of proprietary Microsoft add ins are likely to be revving up to offer snap in solutions to Microsoft’s migraine inducing search and retrieval function.
Net net: Microsoft is creating an opportunity as it inflicts pain on companies struggling in a tough economy. Worth monitoring this initiative. Will Oracle sit on the sidelines? How will proprietary content processing vendors respond? No answers yet.
Stephen E Arnold, May 3, 2015
Written by Stephen E. Arnold · Filed Under Database, Microsoft, News | Comments Off on Microsoft and Its Play in the Document Database Sector
Well, well, well. I read “What’s Holding Back Hadoop?”
If the article is on the beam, Hadoop may not be what the consultants, former middle school teachers, and assorted cheerleaders assert. I learned:
a recent survey of IT, business intelligence and data warehousing leaders found that 60 percent will Hadoop in production by 2016, deployment remains a daunting task.
Several years ago I gave a talk at a Big Data Summit. Two of my colleagues and I were regaled with slices of baloney which looked like the mystery meat served in my high school’s cafeteria. The audience gobbled up the juicy bits. My talk, which took place, about 2 pm pointed out that Hadoop was not really a solution. One used Hadoop to achieve specific outputs and then other “things” were required. The audience listened politely and then gobbled more stale baloney.
The problem is one that is all too common in digital information. Experts find it easier to talk about a chunk of functions than do something with them on time, on budget, so that those paying the bill can see some concrete result.
The survey, always a slippery fish, points out that 42 percent of the unknown respondents in a statistically murky study found that staff and expertise were the number one problem. Also interesting was the finding that 32 percent of those responding had a tough time explaining to a bean counter what the investment in Hadoop would deliver.
No surprises.
Stephen E Arnold, May 1, 2015
PR Newswire has a big announcement for fans of dtSearch Engine: “Announcing The Altiar Cloud-Based (Optimized For Microsoft Azure) ECM Platform Embedding The dtSearch Engine.” Altiar is a leading enterprise collaborative content management platform based in the cloud, developed for prime optimization in Microsoft Azure. To improve the enterprise content system, dtSearch’s search engine (its headlining product) will be integrated into Altiar platform.
Altair wants to improve how users find content on the platform. Users can upload and create brand new content on Altair, but with files from so many different programs it can be confusing to manage and locate them. Altair hopes to remedy any search problems with the integration:
” ‘Utilizing the power of dtSearch Engine at the core, users can search across the entire database of files uploaded by other users as well as manage their own uploads simply and quickly,’ explains Altiar. ‘Search results deliver relevant results from the content within every file as well as any additional data provided at upload.’”
Altair restates what we already know about search: it is one of the most important functions of technology and without out people would not be able to track down their content. Comprehensive search across multiple programs is a standard feature in all computers these days. Is searching the cloud more complex than a regular system? What improvements need to be made to make search handle the extra work?
Whitney Grace, April 30, 2015
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
In 2014, we noted that Scientel’s Norman Kutemperor was a leader in NoSQL data management. We learned that Scientel is beating the drum for an integrated, user friendly content management, search, and analytics system. Kutemperor has been described as the father of NoSQL.
According to “Scientel Releases EZContent Content Management and Search System for the Small Enterprise,”
Scientel’s EZContent™ Content Management and Search system operating under GENSONIX® NoSQL DB is an advanced ECM solution for “Big Data” content for the smaller enterprise. Scientel’s EZContent is derived from Scientel’s primary Enterprise Content Management & Search System (ECMS). It is the ideal, most cost-effective, and simple to operate tool for organizing, managing, and retrieving your Big Data contents at all organizational levels. Powerful, yet comprehensive and fun to use, it can start small and is highly scalable. The system can be configured for various system requirements. This makes it ideal for use in small offices/organizations as well as medium and large enterprises.
The company asserts that it has a search system which displays an information object thumbnail. The user drags a document to the system. EZContent processes 40 different file types, including images and video clips. Kutemperor explained the search system this way:
With ECMS, we are able to move the contents of that CD into our ECMS system, and all 100+ people can access that all at the same time. They can also do searches from within what we call textual documents – PDFs, Microsoft documents mostly are all textual documents, whereas clips, videos and pictures are not. By being able to search inside the textual document, we can actually locate what we are looking for and get to the right page that we want to read. Content management is a very valuable tool for all of us, and it is a very helpful tool for all organizations, whether it is non-profit or profit, commercial, corporate, scientific, medical, city government, small businesses or large enterprises. Everybody needs it and now can have it cost-effectively. The basic offering that we can start with is a very small appliance that is turnkey and virtually maintenance free. It is easily installed into the network and pretty much goes to work without having to do too much in the way of setup. For larger organizations, we offer appliances that can scale to very large configurations, that can store very large numbers of documents efficiently, and that are able to locate these documents rapidly.
According to CIOReview:
Scientel’s Gensonix DB is an all in one SQL. Gensonix based solutions can take the place of SQL, NoSQL and storage systems and can process large data sets in real time. Its massive core based parallel solutions deliver performance in range with in memory systems. thus performance of Gensonix on Scientel LDWA hardware matches the performance of in memory systems and with higher reliability.
In 2014 the database was described as “polymorphic.” One explanation is:
Polymorphism is the ability of an entity to behave like more than 1 of its counter parts given a set of circumstances or criteria; or, the provision of a single interface (a shared boundary across which separate components of a computer system exchange information) to entities of different types. In other words, in a polymorphic DB, you can use a relational approach when that is appropriate, hierarchical when that is, and so on. No one paradigm is fully implemented, but the DB uses enough of the features/capabilities needed to provide a reasonable solution to a problem.
These are envelope stretching assertions. The Manta entry for the company reports, perhaps erroneously, that the company has three employees. Another Manta entry asserts that the company employs five to nine people and has revenues of $1.0 million to $2.5 million. For more information about Scientel, navigate to the company’s Web site at www.scientel.com.
Should MarkLogic and other vendors offering similar products up their game? Worth monitoring this Swiss Army knife approach to information access.
Stephen E Arnold, April 25, 2015
Sponsored by CyberOSINT: Next Generation Information Access
The article titled Integrate Data with Cloudant and CouchDB NoSQL Database Using IBM InfoSphere Information Server on IBM offers a breakdown of the steps necessary to load JSON documents and attachments to Cloudant. In order to follow the steps, the article notes that you will need Cloudant, CouchDB, and IBM InfoSphere DataStage. The article concludes,
“This article provided detailed steps for loading JSON documents and attachments to Cloudant. You learned about the job design to retrieve JSON documents and attachments from Cloudant. You can modify the sample jobs to perform the same integration operations on a CouchDB database. We also covered the main features of the new REST step in InfoSphere DataStage V11.3, including reusable connection, parameterized URLs, security configuration, and request and response configurations. The JSON parser step was used in examples to parse JSON documents.”
Detailed examples with helpful images guide you through each part of the process, and it is possible to modify the examples for CouchDB. Although it may seem like a statement of the obvious the many loyal IBM users out there, perhaps there are people who still need to be told. If you are interested in learning the federation of information with a logical and simple process, use IBM.
Chelsea Kerwin, April 24, 2014
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
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