Agarwalla of Uchida Spectrum Discusses Open Source Search
April 28, 2011
If you are tracking the maturation of open source search, you will want to read the exclusive interview with Rahul Agarwalla of Uchida Spectrum. Uchida Spectrum provides products and services in enterprise search and content processing. Mr. Agarwalla has built a number of successful Internet businesses. In addition, he is an expert in Fast ESP and other search systems, including Lucene/Solr.
He said:
Uchida Spectrum is one the leaders in the Japan search market. It all started in 2002, when we saw opportunity at the intersection of software and information. That was the inspiration to launch the search business. Our product, SMART InSight, is a search application that integrates information from across the enterprise in easy–to-navigate cross department information chains, and adds visual summaries that add value through contextual metadata and analytics.
On the subject of his product SMART InSight he said:
Our product, SMART InSight, uses search to integrate and retrieve information — so scalability and reliability, at reasonable cost, are critical factors. Lucene/Solr has delivered this in spades. The amount of data we can index on a server and the ability to scale in a linear fashion are unmatched. For instance, in one project we found a 10x improvement due to lower cost of ownership combined with higher performance.
You can get more information about Uchida Spectrum at www.spectrum.co.jp. The full text of the interview is available at http://wp.me/pf6p2-4vg. Mr. Agarwalla will be speaking at the Lucene Revolution in San Francisco at the end of May 2011.
Stephen E Arnold, April 28, 2011
Freebie
Deloitte on Top Tech Trends: Where Is Search?
April 27, 2011
Editor’s Note: This is a article written by Iain Fletcher, vice president of Search Technologies. We found his comments about a recent study authored by a top notch team at one of the world’s leading consulting firms interesting and thought provoking.
My colleagues and I were in a client meeting and had a break. One of the documents available to us was Deloitte’s report “Technology Trends 2011. The Natural Convergence of Business and IT.” The report looked interesting and we were able to download a copy of this report from the Deloitte Web site without a fee and without registering.
We found this passage particularly interesting:
… important developments are underway this year, adding compelling new dimensions to the decision process. We recommend taking a fresh look at each (Re)Emerging Enabler to see how it can apply to you in the near term, and whether new investments make sense. Disruptive Deployments require a more creative lens.
We thought the Deloitte approach of identifying enablers such as visualization and security was useful. The report then put the future in perspective by describing disruptive technologies. Among these were analytics, social computing, and mobile solutions. What struck us as interesting was the peppering of “search” throughout the book. There was no pivot point for findability. In our work, we have learned that there is an urgent need to process structured and unstructured information, making it easy for employees to locate needed information in an efficient way, and coping with the problems of “big data”.
I spoke with my colleagues at Search Technologies, which is one of the largest independent search application implementation companies. We agree with most of the Deloitte trends. My take away from our discussion was that unstructured data quality was a key issue for both search across an enterprise and for the identified emerging trend of information visualization. Visualization is an increasingly important part of business intelligence and relies on the quality of the input data. Poor data in means ill-informed decision out, whether via search or any other means.
In today’s financial climate, organizations need to reduce costs. In our experience, employees hunting for information is expensive and inefficient. The cost control is important. As important is the need to improve the efficiency of information retrieval. With search and content processing embedded in work flows, we see search and content processing as a foundation, not an add on or a spice in a consulting engagement.
Second, the merger of business processes and information access extends to the integration of different software systems. There are many buzzwords in use to describe what most senior managers intuitively know; namely, it is easier to make sense of disparate data if the information is presented in a context. Visualization, as Deloitte noted, is an enabler. However, the plumbing and the configuration of the output systems are as important as the attractive graphics. Third, young university graduates do not understand why “silos” of information force them to use multiple enterprise systems and findability solutions. Deloitte did not emphasize the generational divide that we find in some of our engagements. As today’s recent college graduates move upwards and outwards in their careers, their impact will be significant.
For more information about our firm’s approach to technical, engineering, and business consulting, visit www.searchtechnologies.com
Iain Fletcher, April 27, 2011
Search Technologies
Oracle Text Installation Help
April 25, 2011
We ran a query for IBM OmniFind and Oracle Text on Google and found that Beyond Search is one of the sources for information about how to configure these systems and obtain documentation about specific methods. We were hoping that IBM and Oracle would occupy the top spot, but it Harrod’s Creek is the go to place, we are okay with that.
As we have said, Oracle Text is a handy tool for building text queries and document classification applications. For some reason, directions for manually installing Oracle Text are somewhat elusive. That being said, Beyond Search has some good news.
So, if you’ve ever wondered how to “Install Oracle Text on Oracle Database 11gR2”, this blog post is for you. The link contains the code snippets required to install the text, install the language and verify. Appropriate explanations are included.
We’d say it is definitely worth tucking into your Oracle Text tips folder for safekeeping.
Sarah Rogers, April 25, 2011
Freebie
Is IBM Reshaping Its Approach to Enterprise Search?
April 25, 2011
IBM is a mysterious and baffling outfit to me. One day I get a call from eager IBMers panting to find out what I know about the vendors in enterprise search. content processing, and semantics. Then weeks, maybe months go by, before an IBM person emails me a message like “We’ve been really busy” or “We don’t have a very big budget but maybe you could talk for free”. The classic IBM input I had this year is from a person who agreed to participate in a Search Wizards Speak interview via email. Months after the deadline, I was told an excuse similar to those I heard when I was a freshman in college and a classmate was explaining that his mother and dog died on the same day.
A better search or a more complex guitar? Source: http://www.heirloomradio.com/history.htm
Imagine my surprise when I received a link to a story from Yomiuri Online. “Natural Language Analysis Software, IBM Japan” contained what may be an compass reading about IBM’s enterprise search strategy. In a nutshell, IBM may be hooking together a content analytics component with the Lucene based OmniFind Enterprise Edition 9.1. Instead of offering what I can download from Apache or Lucid Imagination, IBM has grafted on text analytics.
The product, which becomes available on April 26, 2011, in Japan. IBM Content Analytics with Enterprise Search mashes up text mining software and information retrieval software. For good measure, IBM includes natural language analysis technology.
The other shocker, if the person translating the article was accurate, is that IBM will compete aggressively on price. I am not sure how IBM prices its products in Japan, but the software could, for all practical purposes be free. IBM makes its money on hardware and services with services becoming increasingly important in my opinion.
The product will handle social content, the unstructured data that plagues customer service operations, and email, among other source and file types. The system classifies content and outputs analytics, which may mean anything from a simple frequency count to a more elaborate SPSS type of function. If prices are indeed low, my hunch is that the SPSS type horsepower will not be present in full royal wedding regalia.
Some questions:
- Will this approach make IBM a bigger contender in enterprise search? No. IBM may be trying to carve a new niche for itself but Autonomy and Exalead are already there.
- Will this play explain the role of Watson or what IBM is doing with the dozens of analytics companies it has acquired? No.
- Is this a new trend in enterprise search? No.
- Will IBM continue to make sales to organizations who want to “go IBM”? Yep.
Vendors have been trying to distance themselves from the word “search” for years. In a sense, IBM is just late to the party. But with its financial resources and clout, tardiness may not matter.
Stephen E Arnold, April 25, 2011
Freebie unlike IBM professional services or a technical roll for a FRU.
Protected: SharePoint Content and Editing Tips
April 25, 2011
Fetch: Interesting View of Big Data
April 24, 2011
Our sister publication, Inteltrax, covers the world of data fusion, but we thought that Fetch’s stance on big data was appropriate for Beyond Search’s readers.
You may find Fetch Technologies’ Blog entry, “Bringing the Web to Big Data.” In it, Timo Kissel presents a useful point of view on the challenge of big data.
With all the talk about how to simply manage colossal amounts of data, ways to benefit from them can feel like an afterthought. Fetch puts the focus back on how we humans can make best use of Big Data:
But what’s more exciting to me is the use of this Big Data infrastructure to glean novel insights by using new approaches, algorithms, and analytics that simply weren’t feasible before. . . . This is another instance of using computers to do what they’re good at (tireless processing of large amounts of information) and using humans to do what we’re good at – pattern recognition, creativity and insight – albeit now at a scale that would be impossible for us to execute without these novel tools.
Kissel’s example involves retailers. Sure, they can continue to analyze sales from their own stores for trends. However, it would be so much better to open the whole Web, with global information about our products as marketed in different areas by different competitors. Immediately.
It seems that Fetch has some ideas on how to do that with the firm’s services, of course. But whether you go to them or not, this viewpoint represents a profitable way to approach what is now almost every organization’s new hurdle.
Cynthia Murrell April 24, 2011
Freebie
Autonomy Financials via a Mid Tier Consultant
April 23, 2011
In my email this morning, was a short item that pointed me to Autonomy’s 2011, first quarter financial results. I took a quick look at the top line revenues, multiplied by four and concluded:
- Autonomy has a better than even chance of breaking $1 billion in revenue before the end of its current fiscal year
- Autonomy was growing and rolling out new products and services, including an interesting medical and health product, other vendors of search were floundering (Google), giving away search as part of bundles and other deals (Microsoft, Oracle), struggling to be findable by potential customers (Thunderstone, a search vendor whose name is now used by a band and a game), or repositioning themselves to be something other than a vendor of enterprise search (Brainware for scanning, Coveo for customer support).
- Autonomy was reporting growth in its various of lines of business at a decent rate; 28 percent organic growth if I read the report correctly.
The story was ignored by most of the financial wizards who monitor search for the bottom tier and mid tier consulting firms. I read one “analysis” from an outfit called Gerson Lehrman Group which was written by a single individual but presented with a royal “we”. What struck me was that individuals seem happy pontificating about search, financials, and a darned complex technology using sentences that remind me of the rhetoric for the royal wedding. Wedding coverage has more substance than analyses of enterprise search I think.
In my new landscape of search study for Pandia.com, I analyze Autonomy, finding enough bone and gristle to fill 13 pages with technical goodies, comments, and critical evaluation of a company that blew past Convera, Delphes, Endeca, Entopia, Fast Search & Transfer, Powerset, Radar Networks, and a bunch of others.
If you want a free run down on what Autonomy has been doing in the last two years, just do the query “Autonomy” in the search box on the splash page of this blog or click this link. We changed our search results display to make it easier for users to get a sense of search vendor activities. For the more timely information, click this link for my free Overflight “what’s happening” report.
Stephen E Arnold, April 23, 2011
Freebie unlike low and mid tier consulting services
Enterprise Search Reaches Out to Video
April 22, 2011
Probably many of us are familiar with video in the workplace, but with limited applications like training. The next step is finding more ways to make video work for us, as stated in “Searching for Value: Overcoming the Challenges of Video in the Enterprise”.
The referenced article focuses on the obstacles associated with implementing video as a vehicle for knowledge sharing. Namely, the amount of bandwidth required to process videos can become a nightmare for ill-prepared companies and in turn disrupt other services. Even more importantly:
“A few reasons why video poses challenges go beyond bandwidth, but confront issues associated with ownership, archival and business value. Companies serious about video need to consider a few necessary additions to their search infrastructure…”
The author recommends these additions include enterprise search technology, digital asset management and hosted video solutions.
There are a number of outfits who have already been successfully solving these problems. Exalead’s Voxalead and Autonomy’s Virage systems can both process video, making it searchable and providing an expansive toolset to the user. Even Cisco recently announced including video search capabilities in its TelePresence package. So no need to reinvent the wheel on this one; jumping on the latest corporate trend can be easier than ever before. Or should I say more robust?
Sarah Rogers, April 22, 2011
Freebie
Protected: Microsoft SharePoint a Swiss Army Knife? Almost.
April 22, 2011
Protected: Is Genesis a New SharePoint Opportunity?
April 21, 2011
-
- Subscribe to Beyond Search
Feature archive
News archive
-
