Search Service Application for SharePoint 2013
October 9, 2012
When it comes to SharePoint, the search application has always been a tricky feature. For smaller companies, if programmed directly, it does the job perfectly, but for larger organizations a more robust solution for search was found in third-party software. Rather than turn to ISVs, these days many IT professionals are developing solutions in house to save on costs and to make a piece of software that does exactly what it needs. SharePoint Tutorial took the “do it yourself” approach for “SharePoint 2013 Create Search Service Application with PowerShell.”
The article teaches you the following:
“This guide shows you how to create a SharePoint 2013 Search Service Application using PowerShell and how this process differs from creating a SharePoint 2010 Search Service Application using PowerShell.”
PowerShell is the task automation framework from Microsoft. It uses command-line shell and other scripting languages for Windows. Its main function is to primarily allow IT professionals have greater access over the administrative function of Windows; mostly it uses cmdlets, which can be combined into scripts or executables.
The article walks the reader through steps on how to create a search service application by going through each step individually and explaining them with the use of screenshots. The coding examples are the real winner as they provide the real basis for understanding how to create the search application. Sometimes in the coding process it is easy to get lost and confused, but when a ready reference is available for help it makes the process all the easier to get through. If the coding examples, screenshots, and explanations are not enough to get you started, the article links to the SharePoint 2013 Resource Page. It is SharePoint Tutorial’s Web resource page that points to all their gathered knowledge on the new SharePoint 2013 deployment.
As SharePoint 2013 is still a new and its sea legs are still being tested and it is still being determined whether a homebuilt application to augment its out-of-the-box search capabilities. If we can follow the same pattern from other SharePoint versions, then a homebuilt, customizable solution is the way to go. The article starts IT professionals and SharePoint developers with a good starting point. The real test will come with longtime exposure to 2013, long enough to get all the bugs figured out.
Search Technologies can provide organizations worldwide with engineering and support services for SharePoint Search as well as other enterprise systems. The firm’s engineers can create PowerShell and other components to improve the performance and user satisfaction of any search and retrieval system. More information about Search Technologies is available at http://www.searchtechnologies.com/.
Iain Fletcher, Search Technologies, October 9, 2012
PS. Search Technologies is holding our first search meet up. Details are available at http://www.meetup.com/DC-Metro-Enterprise-Search-Network/ and http://goo.gl/P5oKY.
Search Technologies Announces First Search Meet Up
October 2, 2012
If you are attending the Enterprise Search Summit at the Renaissance Washington DC hotel, you will want to check out Search Technologies’ search meet up. We learned that the meet up will consist of:
an open forum where members can share search experiences, challenges, and solutions. Members will also hear from search customers who will relate their enterprise search implementation stories. The Meetup will conclude with a Q&A session and networking opportunity.
Search Technologies is a specialized IT services company dedicated to enterprise search implementation, consulting, and managed services.
Kamran Khan, CEO of Search Technologies, said:
We are very happy to sponsor the first ever network for enterprise search professionals in the Washington, D.C. metro area. Being in an area saturated with government, high-tech, aerospace, and other industries so reliant on gaining a competitive advantage through enterprise search, we expect the D.C. Enterprise Search Network to grow into a premier networking and brainstorming event. We envision robust debate on important search related issues that will hopefully infuse participants with new ideas and strategies on how to help their organization thrive.
Additional information is available at http://www.meetup.com/DC-Metro-Enterprise-Search-Network/.
Stephen E Arnold, October 2, 2012
Comperio FRONT: Business Logic for Enterprise Search
October 2, 2012
There are many enterprise search systems. Some are available without charge; others can push beyond seven figures. Many professionals working in an organization want systems to provide information needed in the context of work. Laundry lists of hits from a key word query were a significant advance over manual inspection of documents in file folders in file cabinets.
In order to deliver information within the context of a business task, logic is needed. Many search systems provide laundry lists or categories of possible relevant documents. Without business logic, an enterprise search system can frustrate some professionals.
FRONT is available for Dot Net and Java. FRONT is compatible with SP 2013.
Comperio, a company with the motto “Search matters,” offers FRONT. According to the firm:
Comperio FRONT is the proven business logic software for state of the art search solutions. Comperio FRONT blends perfectly with your enterprise search platform to deliver quickly, with quality and top features.
The software is an outgrowth from more than eight years of experience with enterprise search and more than 100 search projects. Comperio has encapsulated that expertise into the FRONT framework.
In a nutshell, says, Jørn Ellefsen, CEO and Founder of Comperio:
Our deep experience has lead to the creation of Comperio FRONT framework, which allows search solutions to be built more quickly and with improved quality and features.
KMWorld Magazine named FRONT a trend-setting product for 2012. This is the second time that Comperio FRONT has received this recognition from KMWorld. FRONT is now a crucial part of more than 200 enterprise search solutions.
Comperio FRONT is a major source of satisfaction amongst our customers. It is a product that blends seamlessly with existing investments in search engines and end-user applications. The search middleware, or orchestration layer, leverages best practices gained from hundreds of search projects and possesses business logic visualized in graphical workflows. Whether it’s for developing a search solution as a business productivity solution or as a line of business application, Front allows our customers to benefit from faster time to market with higher quality. The flexible nature of the FRONT framework helps companies react quickly to new business opportunities and likewise to the availability of new technology. This award recognizes Comperio’s investment in, and commitment to, delivering world-class search solutions that will stand the test of time.
For more information about Comperio Front, navigate to http://goo.gl/umaO7.
Stephen E Arnold, October 2, 2012. Mr. Arnold is a paid columnist for KMWorld Magazine.
Sponsored by Augmentext
LucidWorks Growth Focuses on the User Experience and Search Features
September 27, 2012
We recently commented on the Forbes’ article titled, “LucidWorks: Bringing Search to Big Data” and the rising usage of Lucene/Solr technology across dominating companies such as Netflix, AT&T, and Twitter. The same article also brings to light the fact that the world of data is shifting from mainly numbers to one that is essentially text-based, thanks to outlets such as social networking.
This is where LucidWorks enters. The company is aware that the Web search box is the key to helping any and all users find the information they are looking for, even if they are inept at programming language. This transition will be bringing Big Data to a larger audience with easy-to-use search features. LucidWorks knows search technology is where Big Data needs to focus and the company plans on becoming the leader for this enterprise. Strides in this direction were made in May with the launch of a big data beta project, LucidWorks Big Data, which certifies and integrates Apache open source components to develop and manage big data applications.
We learn about the company’s plan and focus on user-experience in the article:
“‘Users are missing from the big data conversation,’ argues [Grant Ingersoll, Chief Scientist for LucidWorks.] Paying attention to what users are doing helps improve the real-time, ad-hoc access to the data by improving relevance and search results. The analysis of users’ interaction with the system could also provide, as an interesting by-product, new insights about the business. In other words, what your employees do with your data may tell you a whole lot about how your business is functioning and even where it’s heading.’”
Created in 2008 as Lucid Imagination, the team is adept at managing and developing in the ever-shifting enterprise search marketplace. Changing the company’s business model to become innovators in the open source technology realm and now tackling the global emphasis on Big Data, the developers are aware of what needs to be done to fully contribute and make an impact in the expanding market. With a commitment to innovation and user-experience, we agree with Forbes about the future of LucidWorks:
“LucidWorks may represent a new wave of change, using search—the first ‘killer app’ of the Web—to unlock the value of enterprises’ much expanded big data stores and overflowing organizational memories.”
We are anxious to watch the company continue to grow and become leaders in search, content processing, and Big Data analytics.
Andrea Hayden, September 27, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext.
What Is the Most Deployed Search System in the World?
September 26, 2012
I just had a brief chat with LucidWorks. In that call, I learned about a surprising fact presented in the Forbes’ article “LucidWorks: Bringing Search to Big Data.” Here’s the point I noted:
Lucene/Solr is the most deployed search technology in the world, used by companies such as Netflix, AT&T, Sears, Ford, and Verizon. According to Ingersoll, Twitter search is powered by Lucene, handling more than a billion queries a day, with close to four hundred million tweets indexed and available within 50 milliseconds of being posted (see here for a 2010 post about Lucene by the Twitter engineering team).
There may be many search options. Some are free and spin outs of university or personal research projects (Elasticsearch, SearchBox). Others are well backed start ups (Palantir, Centrifuge Systems). Some are hybrids (Basho and Datastax).
If Forbes is correct, there is one vendor poised to disrupt search, analytics, and content processing—LucidWorks. More about this Forbes article in a day or two.
Don C Anderson, September 26, 2012
Sponsored by Augmentext
Deconstructing HP Autonomy and Its Eight Answers
September 26, 2012
All Things Digital ran a story called “Eight Questions for Hewlett Packard Software Head George Kadifa.” Let me nudge aside any thoughts that the interview and the questions were presented as public relations and marketing. I want to view the comments or “answers” as accurate. Once I have highlighted the points which caught my attention, I want to offer some side observations from my goose pond in rural Kentucky.
First, there were two passages which addressed the $12 billion Autonomy purchase.
The first was information about a recent planning meeting. The Autonomy staff were on deck and ready for duty. The key statement for me was this one:
Basically when you look at Autonomy, the core unit is the IDOL Engine, which is the unique capability of meaning-based computing. We’re going to double down on that. In our labs in Cambridge, England, we have 40 or 50 mathematicians writing algorithms. And we’re going to build a team here in the U.S. to productize it and create a platform around it because it has that potential. Frankly, the way Autonomy was managed previously, they put a lot more emphasis into enabling applications, which was fine, but our belief is that there’s a broad agenda, which is creating a platform around meaning-based computing. So we will maintain those apps, but at the same time we’ll open up the capabilities to a broader set of players outside HP.
Makes sense. Pay $12 billion for IDOL. Leverage it.
The second was semi-business school thinking about how to grow Autonomy’s business. Here’s the passage I noted:
In Europe, they tend to make things complex in order to create more value. For example, they saw the IDOL engine as too complex to just give it to people. Instead they thought they should acquire vendors and then create value by enabling applications. Here we take something that’s complex and we ask how we might simplify it in order to give it more scale for a bigger market. So some of that difference was cultural, and some of it was that I think they fell in love with these acquisitions. … We think Autonomy’s technology has broader implications.
I urge you to read the full “eight questions” and the answers. Now my observations:
- Productizing IDOL or any search engine can be difficult. When I use the word “difficult,” I mean time consuming, expensive, and timetable free. Buying a search engine and sticking it in a product or service looks easy. It is not. In fact, IBM has elected to use open source search to provide the basics. Now IBM is working hard to make money from its value add system, the game show winner Watson. There may be a product in “there”, but it is often to find a way to make money. HP has to pay back the $12 billion it spent and then grow the Autonomy business which was within shouting distance of $1 billion.
- The notion that Europeans see the world differently from HP is interesting. I am not sure how European Autonomy was. My view is that Autonomy’s senior management acquired companies and did upselling. As a result, only Autonomy broke through the glass ceilings behind which Endeca, Exalead, ISYS, and Fast Search & Transfer were trapped. Before applying business school logic to Autonomy, perhaps one should look at how other acquired search vendors have paid off. The list is, based on my research, a short one indeed. Microsoft, for example, has made Fast Search a component of SharePoint. With Fast Search nearing or at its end of life, Microsoft faces more search challenges, not fewer. HP may find itself with facing more challenges than it expects.
- The notion of “broader applications” is a popular one. Dassault Systèmes, acquired Exalead, which is arguably better and more recent technology than IDOL. But Dassault’s senior managers continue to look for ways to convert a more modest expenditure for Exalead into a river of revenue. Dassault has a global approach and many excellent managers. Even for such an exceptional firm, search is not what it seemed to be; that is, a broad application which slots into to many customer needs. Reality, based on my research for The New Landscape of Search, is different from the business school map.
HP is making an trip which other companies have taken before. My view is that HP will have to find answers the these questions, which were not part of the interview cited above:
First, how will HP pay off the purchase price, grow Autonomy’s revenue, and generate enough money to have an impact on HP’s net profit? My work has pointed out that cost control is the major problem search vendors face. It takes money to explain a system no matter how productized it becomes. It takes money to support that technology. It takes money to enhance that system. It takes money to hire people who can do the work. In short, search becomes a bright blip on most CFOs’ radar screens. HP may be different, but I am not sure that the cost issue will remain off the radar for very long.
Second, IDOL is a complex collection of software components. The core is Bayesian, but much of the ancillary IDOL are the add ons, enhancements, and features which have been created and applied to base system over the last two decades. Yep, two decades. In search, most of the systems which have figured in big deals in the last two years date from the mid to late 1990s. The more modern systems are not search at all. These new systems leap frog key word search and push into high value opportunities. HP may be forced to buy one of more of these next generation systems just to stay in the “beyond search” game.
Third, HP is a large company and it faces considerable competition in software. What makes HP interesting is that it has not been able to make its services business offset the decline in personal computers and ink. HP now wants to prove that it can make services work, but as the Inquirer pointed out in mid August 2012:
HP’s write-down of EDS might have resulted in just a paper loss – the firm didn’t actually lose $9bn in cash – but it provides an insight into how a decade of mismanagement has left HP in a bad situation. The fact is that HP cannot lay the blame on diminishing PC sales because its enterprise business, printing and services divisions all reported losses, too. For HP to write down the purchase of EDS, a company it paid $13.9bn for just four years ago, strongly suggests that those who were at the helm of HP in the run-up to that acquisition simply had no clue as to how much EDS was really worth and how to incorporate the company into HP. The value of any company can go down over time – just look at AOL, Microsoft or Yahoo – but for an established business such as EDS to be overvalued by almost $10bn just four years after being acquired is nothing short of gross incompetence by HP in both the purchase and the subsequent handling of the firm once it became a part of HP.
I don’t fully agree with the Inquirer’s viewpoint. But one fact remains: HP must demonstrate that it can manage a complex business based on IDOL, a technology which is not a spring chicken. The man who did manage Autonomy to almost $1 billion in sales is not longer with HP. In the history of enterprise search and content processing, Mike Lynch was unique. Perhaps the loss of that talent will continue to impact HP’s plans for a different approach to the market for Autonomy’s technology?
Life extension treatments are available, but these often do not work as expected and can be expensive. Most fail in the end.
Stephen E Arnold, September 25, 2012
Sponsored by Augmentext
Moving to SharePoint 2013: Planning Necessary
September 25, 2012
Many organizations will want to take advantage of the new features, services, and functions of SharePoint 2013 and SharePoint Search 2013. “Planning the Infrastructure Required for the new App Model in SharePoint 2013” makes clear that a shift to Microsoft’s 2013 enterprise systems requires planning and preparation.
Because the name of the solution is the same, many SharePoint administrators may feel that SharePoint 2013 is a routine upgrade. The article points out: “SharePoint 2013 brings with it a brand new application model, which we euphemistically refer to as the ‘app model’ or ‘cloud app model’. “
The scope of the planning required, according to Steve Peschka, includes, the development model, the security model, and the infrastructure. The article jumps from broad themes into quite specific information about modifications to url formation. For an administrator with this specific concern, the information is useful. The recommendation focuses on creating additional Web applications.
Comperio, one of the world’s leading specialists in search and content processing, approaches SharePoint planning by considering the context of the client’s needs, the existing SharePoint implementation, and the requirements the client has which can benefit from the 2013 solution. Comperio’s search engineers can handle the technical details of an implementation, but these are integrated into the roll out of a SharePoint system which considers budget, timetable, and existing resources.
According to Jørn Ellefsen , CEO and founder of Comperio:
Search matters. Our approach is to gather information, analyze the data, and develop a migration plan which focuses on meeting client requirements. Our engineers specialize in the search element of SharePoint for SharePoint migrations. However, our capabilities embrace the preparation and post-migration work that are important to SharePoint licensees.
Comperio’s approach to SharePoint Search reduces the time and cost of a shift from an existing SharePoint installation to the latest version of SharePoint. For more information about Comperio Search’s SharePoint 2013 planning and implementation services, visit www.comperiosearch.com.
Stephen E Arnold, September 25, 2012
Sponsored by Augmentext
Salesforce Incorporates Coveo Enterprise Search
September 22, 2012
ITWorldCanada announces, “Coveo Brings Enterprise Search to Salesforce.com.” The Canadian company will contribute its indexing engine and business intelligence tools to the Salesforce.com cloud. Coveo for Salesforce, which can pull together, index, and analyze unstructured data from multiple sources, will be fully integrated into the popular online customer relationship management (CRM) platform.
The write up tells us:
“Louis Tetu, CEO of Coveo, said the product is the first tool of its kind that is integrated directly into Salesforce. ‘We are enabling an entirely new paradigm to federate information on demand,’ he said. ‘And that paradigm means that we don’t have to move data, we’re just pointing…secure indexes to that information.’
“Users of the technology that need information delivered in real-time, such as customer-facing companies, will be able to get it rapidly — within 100 milliseconds — he added. This will help solve the common problem of consumers dealing with contact centres that cannot pull up their information in a reasonable period of time.”
Yes, that is a real plus. Tetu went on to emphasize that this is no small development– his company has conquered the considerable challenges of operating securely in the cloud. He mentions they also make a special effort to ensure new users can dive in as easily as possible.
Coveo was founded in 2005 by some members of the team which developed Copernic Desktop Search. Coveo takes pride in solutions that are agile and easy to use yet scalable, fast, and efficient.
Cynthia Murrell, September 22, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Learning about SharePoint Search 2013
September 18, 2012
“Search Is Everywhere! What You Need to Know about Search in SharePoint 2013 Preview” provides a handy summary of new features and major changes in Microsoft enterprise search.
The summary begins with a look at the tweaked document library. The author points out, “Search is everywhere in SharePoint now so it is important to understand how it has changed.”
One important assertion the article makes is, “Search was essentially rewritten from the ground up… The concept of FAST Search for SharePoint servers is gone. The components from FS4SP have made their way directly into SharePoint and we don’t need separate dedicated servers for it (necessarily).
Corey Roth adds:
Aside from cool stuff like drag and drop, document libraries directly leverage the search engine to allow users to filter documents easily. Gone are the days of relying on CAML for simple document library searches. You’ll find out why later in this post on why you can rely on search for those uses as well.
The other topics covered in the summary include the components of the search system; specifically, crawl component, content processing component, index component, analytics component, query processing component, and the search administration component.
The summary provides additional detail about crawling. The summary points out:
Whereas SharePoint 2010, only had protocols for Local Search and OpenSearch 1.1, SharePoint 2013 Preview (as well as SharePoint Online Preview), support for Remote SharePoint servers and Exchange has been added. Since SharePoint and People Search results are served by the same search index now, you can choose which type of results you want here too.
This summary includes information about querying, the user interface, and the API, and some of the new administrative controls. Illustrated with screenshots, we think the article is a useful reference.
For more detail, you will want to take a look at “What’s New within SharePoint 2013 Search.” So far, SharePoint Talk has issue three useful write ups which include screenshots and links to supplementary documents.
The first part is “What’s New within SharePoint 2013 Search? Part 1. This is an overview. The second part has the same name but focuses more on some of the configurable elements; for example, managed properties.
The new features of SharePoint Search 2012 deliver significant benefits to those seeking information. However, implementing and customizing specific search features will require close attention by programmer who are deeply knowledgeable about Microsoft’s technologies. The “cool stuff” is indeed very exciting. Comperio can provide the engineering support to make these functions deliver to the SharePoint’s licensees’ specific requirements.
Comperio’s search engineers continue to work closely with clients, Microsoft partners, and Microsoft itself. As a result, we have compiled deep experience with the most recent version of SharePoint Search. We can implement the specific features of SharePoint Search 2013 that a client requires. More importantly, we can extend the system to deliver particular functions such as seamless interaction with third party enterprise applications. For more information about Comperio, visit the firm’s Web site at www.comperiosearch.com.
Stephen E Arnold, September 18, 2012
Sponsored by Augmentext
Tips Are Not Enough for a Killer SharePoint Search System
September 11, 2012
We read “5 Tips for Turning a SharePoint 2010 Search Center into a Find Center.” The points are useful and include such suggestions as appointing a search administrator, have a SharePoint Search plan, and monitor the search system.
We found this passage interesting:
The default Search Center above might be enough for some sites (hey, the minimalist approach works for Google), but with some work, you can turn this into a Search Center that is useful enough for users to set it as their home page. You can get a lot of good ideas from the white paper How Microsoft IT Deployed FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint, especially the Enterprise search center article. This screenshot from the white paper provides an example of what you can do with your Search Center. FAST Search Server will give you a richer experience on the search results page, but the items you see on this Search Center are achievable with SharePoint 2010—or even SharePoint 2007. To create a Search Center that is the go-to place for your users, you can add helpful information such as links to event calendars, corporate news, campus maps, benefits, expense reporting, and research portals.
In our experience, SharePoint Search can deliver high-value services to users throughout an organization. SharePoint, particularly with its distributed and cloud capabilities, can now provide exceptional information access across a wide range of on premises and remote worker use cases.
However, only a handful of consulting services firm have the technical expertise and hands-on experience necessary to deploy a SharePoint solution in a matter of days. Search Technologies has implemented hundreds of SharePoint Search solutions, and the firm’s technical staff knows how to move through a project from its inception to its customization and optimization in an efficient manner.
If you want to move SharePoint to the next level, consider Search Technologies.
Iain Fletcher, September 11, 2012
Sponsored by Augmentext
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