Asia Tech Interview: Opportunities in the East
April 20, 2011
Short honk: If you company wants to expand its technical footprint in Asia, you will want to read the exclusive interview with Patrick and Jean Garez. Asia Technical Services Pte Ltd. provides a number of useful services to clients in Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand, and other countries. You can read the full text of interview by clicking this link. For more information about Asia Tech, navigate to the firm’s Web site at www.asiatechserv.net.
Stephen E Arnold, April 20, 2011
Freebie but Jean Garez bought me dinner.
Protected: SharePoint Document Types: Some Tips
April 20, 2011
Protected: Extending SharePoint 2010 Via Rest
April 19, 2011
Netezza CEO Speaks Big Data, Not Search
April 18, 2011
Xconomy Boston recently ran an interview with a former Endeca executive. In the piece titled “Netezza Chief Talks About “Formative” PTC Days, IBM Deal History, and the Future of Big Data“, James Baum has much to discuss. We found this interesting because Endeca has been a player in moving search into business intelligence, and IBM now owns Netezza. Making the mix more interesting, IBM used Endeca technology for one of its Web sites.
The IBM purchase of Netezza late last year was valued at about $2.0 billion. Netezza had flirted with search vendors Attivio and Coveo, but the Endeca hook may alter the Netezza search landscape once again.
The former Endeca professional has, according to the article, played a role in building revenues in a number of companies. Now the Endeca executive is tackling a commercial business with some open source challenges. Mr. Baum asserted:
There’s some really interesting stuff going on with open-source analytics that has the opportunity to offset some of the dominance of the big analytics vendors. We’re seeing many customers beginning to use open-source tools like R [language for statistical computing]. There are startups around it, sort of following the Red Hat [Linux] model. There’s really interesting stuff going on in solid state—SSD [solid state drive] storage is becoming important to big data. It’s still expensive and hard to maintain, and hard to build around. But it’s a really important technology and one that you’ll see us taking advantage of. The other area in core technology that we’re seeing evolve is the use of GPUs [graphics chips] for some of the specific computational processing activities going on. There is opportunity there. Those are interesting spaces to watch.
While he is certainly knowledgeable and successful, whether or not he is a prophet as well remains to be seen. Trends, like polls and reviews of just about anything, tend to be a touch subjective. With IBM and its resources anything is possible.
Sarah Rogers, April 18, 2011
Freebie
Protected: SharePoint: Time Is Money
April 18, 2011
Autonomy Boosts the Discipline of Indexing
April 14, 2011
We found the story “Indexer Flourishes as Search Fails” quite interesting. A few days ago Autonomy, a global leader in enterprise software and “meaning based computing”, released its new service pack for WorkSite Indexer 8.5 as well as for its new Universal Search Server. While the indexer has done well and received many good reviews, the notion of a “universal server” is a difficult concept. The pre-Microsoft Fast Search & Transfer promised a number of “universal” functions. When “universal” became mired in time consuming and expensive local fixes, some vendors did a global search and replace.
The service pack touts a new Autonomy control center which simplifies the management structure of a multi server environment, improved query returns, additional control over Autonomy’s IDOL components, and an automatic restart feature in case service is snarled due a problem outside of Autonomy’s span of control during a crawl. Network latency continues to be an issue despite the marketing hoo-hah about gigabit this and gigabit that. Based on the information we have at ArnoldIT.com, thus far the service pack has been deployed with little or no trouble.
We have heard some reports that the the Universal Search Server can create some extra perspiration when one tries to deploy multiple WorkSite engines. According to the article cited above, we learned:
Autonomy has identified this as a high priority issue and expects to have a resolution out in the very near future.
Autonomy has been among the more responsive vendors of enterprise solutions. We are confident a fix may be available as you read this or in day or two. If you are an Autonomy licensee, contact your reseller or Autonomy.
Stephen E Arnold, April 14, 2011
Freebie but maybe some day?
Protected: Lost a View? Pentalogic to the Rescue
April 13, 2011
Have Your Cake. Eat It Mashed Up
April 12, 2011
The blog Search Nuggets is all about reviewing user experience and business strategy and their latest blog “The Corporate Mashup” is no different. In the blog Marcus Johansson expounds on the need for a corporate search engine that allows users the freedom to search information and receive relevant queries in little time.
In today’s mishmash of business and technology it is important to have an understanding of user requirements as well as technical savvy, such is the case with search engines like Google. The engines are everywhere, even in your toolbars. They’re readily available for users at any time of day and have no problems communicating information between the systems. The problem arises when you put the same search engines to use behind the “corporate firewall.”
“Imagine if you had a common front-end to all those esoteric systems. A solution that lets you search everything at once, with proper tools to dig around in the result set. Even better, a solution that lets you act on the results… You find whatever you’re looking for, and you act on it immediately.”
Because of the strict social restrictions most systems don’t share information and users become bogged down with endless URL’s. that’s where Enterprise Search comes in, it creates a common thread between systems so that you can find what you need, when you need it. Sounds pretty good if you think about it, now if the corporate mash up dream could only be brought to fruition.
Stephen E Arnold, April 12, 2011
Search Technologies: Makes the Google Search Appliance Sing
April 12, 2011
According our information here at Beyond Search, There are more than 35,000 Google Search Appliances in organizations worldwide. Although data are sketchy, some US government agencies have more than 50 GSAs providing search and retrieval functions. To put the number 35,000 in context, Autonomy has more than 30,000 licensees of its search system worldwide. In short, since 2002, the Google Search Appliance has moved from novelty to one of the most widely used enterprise search and retrieval systems in the world. Only public Web search systems reach more users than Google’s GSA.
In order to learn the ins and outs of the Google Search Appliance one had to put in long hours scrutinizing Google’s copious online documentation and then work through a GSA set up. Google makes a low cost appliance available, but many managers and system administrators need a fast start and insider tips for getting the most out of GSA.
Until now, combining the basics with the “need to know” information to make the Google Search Appliance sing was knowledge that simply was not available in an easy-to-digest form. Search Technologies, one of the world’s leading search consultancies and integration firms, has responded to this market need. We learned that Search Technologies will participate in a Federal Search Seminar on May 5, 2011. The location is the Google office at 1101 New York Avenue. You can get additional information at this link. You can register via the Search Technologies Web site at this link.
The program will include how to plan a sophisticated search application. The Search Technologies and Google team will discuss the most common pitfalls and how planning can mitigate these challenges. The return on investment will be discussed with particular reference to the payoffs from Google’s simplified approach to deployment and the next-generation methods for integrating disparate content into the GSA’s retrieval system. In addition, the session will dig into how to connect to multiple repositories within an organization. Running separate queries across many different enterprise and desktop systems is no longer feasible in today’s fast growth data environment. The session will also include a review of the most recent technological advances in search, including the innovations in the latest version of the GSA.
According to Search Technologies’ founder, Kamran Khan:
This session is about how to fit search into real life business issues. Technology is important, but a focus on the business problem is paramount. The presentations provide the attendee with expertise gained through implementation of the GSA in a variety of different work situations. A focus on specific business objectives makes the GSA sing.
Appliances, like toasters, are made to plug in. but the GSA benefits from being implemented with a business focus. The Search Technologies’ team has handled more than 60 GSA implementations. You can benefit from this direct knowledge in the Google Washington, DC office. Space is limited.
Stephen E Arnold, April 12, 2011
Search Technologies
Former Autodesk Exec Takes Charge at MarkLogic
April 7, 2011
We learned via BusinessWire that “Ken Bado Joins MarkLogic as Chief Executive Officer.” We love MarkLogic, a key player in the expanding smart content and big data arenas, and we’re happy to see them place such a proven leader at the helm.
Bado led Autodesk to success as Executive Vice President of Sales & Services, with revenue increasing on his watch from $800 million to over $2.3 billion and the company’s share price increasing by over 800 percent. Few search and content processing vendors have an executive with this track record.
The article asserted:
‘MarkLogic has the foundation, the technology, and the people to be a multi-billion dollar company. In a relatively short time, the company has experienced tremendous growth and now it is my job to multiply it ten times over,’ said Bado. ‘The technology is groundbreaking, [and] the people at this company are by far some of the smartest in Silicon Valley.
Perhaps the key to Bado’s success is his focus on the people he works with. All the technology in the world won’t make up for an unmotivated, unskilled, or mismatched team. A happy quack to MarkLogic and Ken Bado good luck- we’re sure they’ll do great things together. MarkLogic has grown rapidly and it has smart money behind it. Oracle is already on notice that the MarkLogic technology leaves the more traditional RDBMS technology in the dust.
Cynthia Murrell April 7, 2011
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