Open Source to the Enterprise
May 29, 2011
The technology world is constantly changing and while some concepts catch on and are embraced easily by the public, others take a little longer to win over the crowd. When it first entered onto the scene many people were uneasy about taking a chance on open source but the technology is catching on. According to the NetworkComputing.com’s “Survey” Half of Enterprise Software Will Be Open Source Within Five Years” a recent survey showed not only are more companies using open source but industry experts predict this is only the beginning.
The survey was conducted by OSBC and the results were shared at the Open Source Business Conference 2011. Survey results showed that 60 percent of those surveyed were already using open source software and 56 percent predicted that over the next five years more than half of business software purchases will be open source. We learned:
“This is because customers have overcome their reluctance toward using open source, such as concerns about licenses, and are embracing its virtues, such as flexibility, lower cost and avoiding vendor lock-in.”
Many IT users admitted that in the beginning they did not actually understand open source and what it had to offer. There were also a lot of questions surrounding the open licensing concept including potential copyright violations. Enterprises begin to see that the benefits of the software programming far outweighed any potential concerns they might have. Open source perks such as having free rein of the open source license instead of being tied to a vendor was considered the major advantage followed by lower operating costs and flexibility were the notable areas. Companies are always looking for ways to get the most out of its software but vendor licensing often places very strict restrictions on how users can utilize programming. Open source provides users with flexibility and allows them to manipulate the software to meet their specific needs. The ability to change a program several times if necessary to fit a variety of needs instead of purchasing separate components saves valuable money and time.
Companies are also continuing to develop possible uses for their open source software such as in a SaaS model or the ever popular cloud computing. It should come as no big surprise that open source has found its way into the SaaS and cloud computing world because the software allows such freedom and innovation due to the open license. With open source popping up everywhere even in some mobile technology it seems that the tables have turned.
The question is, “How long will open source vendors remain open?” IBM has been a champion of open source, but it continues to expand its proprietary software holdings. What about Oracle? Is the company a “friend” of open source, or is the firm playing a sophisticated game of lock in and toll road?
We are watching the situation because even the open Google is starting to look more like a closed vendor particularly with regard to Android.
Will open source software become another marketing buzzword, devoid of meaning, or will it become a platform for sustained revenue growth?
April Holmes, May 29, 2011
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, the resource for enterprise search information
Open Source Meets the Cloud
May 29, 2011
Open source software has become a popular choice for many enterprises. Costs savings, flexibility as well as complete creative control are just a few of the coveted benefits. Cloud computing continues to expand and in many instances the two technologies have crossed paths. According to the InfoWorld.com article “Why the Cloud Can’t Be Separated From Open Source” the number of open source cloud projects has since a noticeable increase since 2005.
Now to fully understand the importance of the open source cloud partnership one must take a look at some of the projects that utilize both technologies and their overall importance to the software world. “The cloud takes the open source tradition of collaboration to the next level, as open source contributors meet the new technical and business challenges presented by the cloud.” Another interesting factor is that open source in some instances actually makes the cloud a more attractive option. “According to Michael Skok of North Bridge venture Partners, a firm specializing in open source funding, one of the chief customer objections to the cloud is the high potential for vendor lock-in.” Open source technology provides an obvious solution to the vendor lock-in dilemma.
OpenStack is one notable program that employs both open source and the cloud and it is utilized by more than 50 organizations including some big names such as Dell, Cisco Systems and NASA. Memcached, a distributed caching system, is used by several companies in the Internet world. Notable companies include Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. It’s hard to overlook such an impressive list of Internet industry leaders when discussing the significance of cloud and open source. There are other noticeable signs that cloud computing is expanding its boundaries.
According to the Silicon.com article “Cloud Computing Shines A Light On IT Money Pits” at the EMC world conference delegates were introduced to a “pay-per-use delivery model offered by a cloud computing provider that would allow companies to compare the fine detail of IT infrastructure costs and answer the question, Is the service worth paying for?” Businesses will be able to take an in depth look at their IT money flow and determine if they are spending wisely. More importantly companies can get service and product estimates form various companies and compare the results. The conference also provided insight about collaboration with Google that will allow the Google Search Appliance tool to find indexed data within the VNX storage database. With the innovation that continues within the cloud and open source communities, the search industry could find itself “stuck in the cloud.”
April Holmes, May 29, 2011
From ArnoldIT.com, your resource for enterprise search information.
Canto Announces Major Upgrade to Cumulus 8.5
May 28, 2011
Canto Cumulus created quite a buzz with the announcement of its new release, Cumulus 8.5. According to the Global Print Monitor article “Canto Cumulus 8.5 Introduces World Metadata, Improved Workflow and Easier Administration,” new features offer, according to the write up:
“Native support for metadata in more than 20 languages, and improvements that make automated workflow control easier and more powerful.”
Users have more control than ever in addition to workflow automation tools to help drive production. Those who utilize the program can copy files quickly and easily, back up data, change permission and apply metadata templates. “Based on events like new records or metadata edits, Cumulus 8.5 can perform on-the-fly image processing, update metadata or production statuses—even change visibility and access permissions,” he said. “Cumulus users now have more control over their workflows than ever.” This program might not actually do the semantic metatagging for you but it sure paints a pretty picture.
Stephen E Arnold, May 28, 2011
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, the resource for enterprise search information
SharePoint Needs Speed Still
May 28, 2011
Speed and efficiency are two attributes that companies want from their content search provider and BA Insight seems to have taken care of them both with its new Longitude Preview for Hosted SharePoint Service.
According to the PR Newswire article “BA Insight Offers Instant Search Result Preview as a Service to Hosted SharePoint Providers” the unveiled its new product at the Tech-Ed North America conference and has already made the service available to interested customers. We learned:
“The new offering enables SharePoint users to view search result content without the need to download the file, and automatically directs users to the most relevant page of their search content.”
With one quick click users will be able to bring up their search results and scan through the content without having to wait to download the entire file and best of all SharePoint customers can easily add the service to their existing options and their customers can begin using it immediately. Perhaps BA Insight has finally met the need for speed? Microsoft, hurry up.
Stephen E Arnold, May 28, 2011
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, the resource for enterprise search information
Consultant Benchmarks Business Intelligence
May 27, 2011
Business intelligence has seen tremendous growth and with so many different companies on the market all vying for clients it can become difficult for business owners to know exactly which one will adequately fit their needs.
We learned that InetSoft is a sponsor of the Aberdeen’s Group Agile BI Benchmark Study, which provides a detailed survey and analysis of how companies are currently using their business intelligence products and how they improve.
We found the notion of agile business intelligence interesting. Traditionally business intelligence required trained specialists and programmers with the ability to convert an end user’s dreams into the cold, hard reality of a report. Today end users want to do their own report building and data analysis. In our experience, this sounds great in a pitch focused on reducing headcount. However, in some situations, flawed data leads to even more suspect business decisions.
We learned from the announcement about the study that:
Agile BI is business intelligence that can rapidly adapt to meet changing business needs.
Okay.
Many of those surveyed admitted they were not delivering their business intelligence products on time and found it difficult to make timely decisions. Those companies that earned “Best In Class” were those that were able to provide fully interactive BI to their users. The write up asserted:
Managers need to get “hands-on” to interact with and manipulate data if they are to meet the shrinking timeframe for business decisions that they face.
Without building a solid foundation and taking control BI cannot be fully effective and is like a bird with no wings.
You can obtain a free complimentary copy of the report please visit http://goo.gl/3WujV. We have no idea how long the free report will be available. Act quickly.
Stephen E Arnold, May 27, 2011
Freebie
Frankie Goes to Cloud Computing: IBM Says, Relax Do Not Worry.
May 24, 2011
I listened to a podcast called Cloud Computing. After the “I am giving important talks” portion of the program, I learned that Amazon’s failure was pretty bad news. In fact, the containment of the failure did not work—and here’s the kicker—again. Okay, a couple of dot points on the Amazon failure line may suggest a trend. The podcast made lemonade from the Amazon lemons under a cloudy sky; specifically, hire us to work on your cloud road map. The subtext, “Our firm Blue Mountain can help heal the wound between business needs and information technology.” This theme is quite like the comments I heard from Googlers a year or so ago. The idea is that any intermediary with some expertise is sort of a problem. The idea is to disintermediate these folks so the MBAs can make better business decisions. You know what that means? Embrace cloud services like Google Docs or Amazon and the back end for mission critical services. Those annoying intermediaries can open a Subway franchise or get into consulting.
The cheerleading does not stop. I read “New Global IBM Study Confirms Cloud Computing Poised to Take Off” and experienced shock of awe. IBM is ramping up its PR activities across a range of business sectors. Does the anticipated aggressiveness of HP and Dell’s push into the enterprise, cause anxiety in IBM Land? I read New Global IBM Study Confirms Cloud Computing Poised to Take Off at Companies. My take is that IBM wants to reinforce the Googley notion that that CIOs positions have evolved from “just another job” to highly respected and valued positions.
The IBM study also showed that four out of five CIO’s see business intelligence and analytics as top priorities since abundant data is available and the strategic use of it is necessary to stay competitive. Working closely with CEOs, their visions are merging…”together, their top three focus areas are strengthening relationships with customers, developing the skills of employees and gaining insight and intelligence from data.” With cloud and business intelligence at the forefront, IBM skillfully weaves yet another PR play…yep… poised like Watson, agile like a mainframe, componentized like Lego blocks.
But is it true?
Sony’s cloud has rained on the consumer product giant’s game parade. Amazon fizzled out, making life tough for some high traffic AWS customers. Microsoft Exchange has been gasping in the rarified Microsoft cloud. Google—the ultimate in cloudy billions—announced whizzy new services as its own cloud based Blogger.com crashed. Great timing. Now what happens when a company’s mission critical data are not available?
IBM hums Frankie Goes to Hollywood’s “Relax. Don’t worry.”
Let’s assume IBM puts search in the cloud. How does a company providing support to operations in a war zone if the cloud blows away? Relax. Don’t worry.
I worry. Fail over, security, telco-inspired service level agreements, latency. So I worry. Your mileage may vary.
Stephen E Arnold, May 24, 2011
Freebie unlike IBM, Amazon, et al cloud services
Mapping the New Landscape of Enterprise Search
May 23, 2011
What has happened to enterprise search? In a down economy, confusion among potential licensees has increased, based on the information I gathered for my forthcoming The Landscape of Enterprise Search, to be published by Pandia in June 2011. The price for the 186 page report is $20 US and 15 euros. Pandia and I decided that the information in the report should be available to those wrestling with enterprise search. With some “experts’ charging $500 and more for brief, pay to play studies, our approach is to provide substantive information at a very competitive price point.
In this completely new report, my team and I compress a complex subject into a manageable 150 pages of text. There are 30 pages of supplementary material, which you use as needed. The core of the report is an eyes-wide-open analysis of six key vendors: Autonomy, Endeca, Exalead, Google, Microsoft, and Vivisimo.
You may recall that in the 2004 edition of the Enterprise Search Report, I covered about two dozen vendors. By the time I completed the third edition (the last one I wrote), the coverage had swelled to more than 28 vendors and to an unwieldy 600 plus pages of text.
In this new Landscape report, the publisher, my team, and I focused on the companies most often included in procurement reviews. With more than 200 vendors offering enterprise search solutions, there are 194 vendors who could argue that their system is better, faster, and cheaper than the vendors’ systems discussed in Landscape. That may be true, but to include a large number of vendors makes for another unwieldy report. I know from conversations with people who call me asking about another “encyclopedia of search” that most people want two or three profiles of search vendors. We maintain profiles for about 50 systems, and we track about 300 vendors in our in house Overflight system.
My team and I have tried to make clear the key points about the age and technical aspects of each vendor’s search solution. I am also focused on explaining what systems can and cannot do. If you want information that will strike you as new and different, you will want to get a copy of my new Landscape report.
Are you lost in the alchemist’s laboratory? This is a place where unscientific and fiddling take precedence over facts. Little wonder when “experts” explain enterprise search, there is no “lead into gold” moment. There is a mess. The New Landscape of Search helps you avoid the alchemists’ approach. Facts help reduce the risk in procuring an enterprise search solution.
Search Appliances for Archive Searching
May 23, 2011
“Index Engines Extends e-Discovery Appliance to Data Domain” reminded us that appliances, archives, search, and e-discovery are best friends forever. Archives are a hassle. Who knows what’s on a back up? Who knows which version is the “right” version? Who knows how to span paper, tape, near line, offline, online, and cloud repositories? The answer, which may irritate you, is, “No one.”
Companies like Index Engines and EMC are working to create a viable solution. The write up explains how Index Engines is integrating its data collection software with the Data Domain storage system from EMC. We learned:
The Collection Engine appliance sits in the Data Domain backup box and automatically indexes backup images, identifying the useful content, collecting what is relevant and writing it back to allocated disk space on the Data Domain storage, making it available for compliance and litigation purposes. The Index Engine also indexes the content of backup images so that they can be searched and analyzed for business relevance. The searches can be high-level metadata such as user mailboxes, or detailed queries based on file or email content, location and date ranges. Searches are saved as stored queries that run automatically once a new backup is executed.
Another advantage cited by the article is a reduction in archive requirements, because the software filters the data before backup. The product should be available on July 1, 2011. We think this niche will become increasingly hot due to the proliferation of digital information and the problem companies have paying expensive humans to sift through information looking for smoking guns or misplaced info nuggets.
Cynthia Murrell, May 23, 2011
Protected: Tips for Improving the SharePoint UX
May 23, 2011
Forensic Logic: Open Source Search and Law Enforcement
May 20, 2011
An exclusive interview with Ronald Mayer, chief technical officer of Forensic Logic, reveals how open source search is contributing to law enforcement activities. Mr. Mayer will be one of the featured speakers at the Lucene Revolution conference in San Francisco the week of May 24, 2011. In the interview, Mr. Mayer observed:
he flexibility of Lucene and Solr interest are what really attracted me to Solr. There are many factors that contribute to how relevant a search is to a law enforcement user. Obviously traditional text-search factors like keyword density, and exact phrase matches matter. How long ago an incident occurred is important (a recent similar crime is more interesting than a long-ago similar crime). And location is important too.
When asked about law enforcement’s use of commercial proprietary search solutions, Mr. Mayer said:
Where appropriate, we also use commercial search solutions. For our analysis and reporting product that works mostly with structured data we use a commercial text search solution because it integrates well with the relational tables that also filter results for such reporting. The place where Solr/Lucene’s flexibility really shined for us is in our product that brings structured, semi-structured, and totally unstructured data together.
To learn more about Forensic Logic, navigate to www.forensiclogic.com. For more information about Lucene/Solr, register now to attend the Lucene Revolution.
Stephen E Arnold, May 2011
Sponsored by Lucid Imagination
-
- Subscribe to Beyond Search
Feature archive
News archive
-
