IBM OmniFind 9.1: Trouble for Some Search Partners?
August 2, 2010
IBM has embraced open source. Now before you wade through the links for the new IBM OmniFind 9.1 search system, let me own up to a previous error. I did not believe that IBM would do much to make open source search a key part of the firm’s software strategy. I was wrong. IBM did or people like Mike McCandless did. Second, the decision to use Lucene and wrap IBM’s product strategy and pricing around it pretty much means that some of IBM’s favored enterprise search vendors are going to find themselves sitting home when IBM makes certain sales calls. Third, the IBM pricing strategy does not mean that enterprise search IBM-style is free. The idea is that IBM will be able to chase after Microsoft without the legacy of the $1.3 billion investment in Fast Search & Transfer, the legal and police muddle, and the mind boggling task of converting Fast into the broader vista of SharePoint. (Do you think my reference to “vista” evokes the Windows 7 predecessor? Silly you.)
Here’s what we have based on my poking around.
You get to license connectors. These puppies will be saddled with IBM pricing elements. This means that it will be tough for a customer to compare what he/she paid with what another customer paid. Bad for competitors too, but that’s a secondary issue compared to generating revenue. Run a query for part number BFG04CML. The adapters work with the UIMA standard.
You get to pay for the multi language option. Same pricing deal as connectors.
There is an email search component. which is available as “IBM OmniFind Personal E-Mail Search or IOPES. This works with Lotus Notes and Microsoft Outlook. IBM sales engineers may be able to bundle up the bits and pieces needed to stop outfits like the not well known Isys Search Software outfit from Australia from selling search to a Lotus Notes’ customer.
The security model reminds me of Oracle’s SES11g approach. You get a system and then get to buy components. Same pricing model again.
You can license a classification model. Same pricing mechanism.
If you already have an OmniFind search installation, you have to reindex after working through the update procedure. That sequence is too complex for a blog post, and if anyone wants a summary, I charge for it. The darned method was not particularly easy to locate on the IBM Web site. Sorry, I run a business.
You can still handle collections, but you have to set these up via the administrative interface or the configuration files.
If you have a bunch of IBM servers running OmniFind, you have to update each one in the search system. Have fun.
There is a Web crawler available, and I think our test showed that it called itself UFOcrawler.
For more information about OmniFind 9.1 click this link. Be patient. The new color is green which evokes the cost of the add ons and components. Nevertheless, bad news for some commercial search and content processing vendors accustomed to IBM’s throwing them bones. IBM is now eating those bones in my opinion. The sauce is open source. Tasty too.
Stephen E Arnold, July 30, 2010
Lockheed Drops Open Source Bomb
August 2, 2010
Used to creating explosions itself, one company is helping make a big bang in the open source world. Lockheed Martin, America’s biggest defense contractor, recently unveiled its own company-based open source social media program, Eureka Streams. eWeek broke the story in its article, “Lockheed Martin Launches Open-Source Social Networking Project,” Lockheed built Eureka Streams, hoping to create something that, “represents a new communication experience for knowledge workers, empowering them to pick and choose the channels of news, information and conversation.” The most impressive part of the entire project is its use of open source technology: “our framework is written in Java and is based on open source projects such as GWT, Hibernate, Spring, and Lucene, to name a few,” one designer said. Seeing the big boys embrace open source technology is a major bump in visibility and vitality for these explosive programs.
Pat Roland, August 2, 2010
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Add Comintelli to the Bandwagon
July 30, 2010
Toss another name into the club of search and enterprise programs utilizing open source technology. Comintelli, the Stockholm-based developer of enterprise knowledge management software, recently improved its product by using Lucene. Red Orbit reported in its story, “New Enterprise Search Solution Based on Apache Solr Released by Comintelli” that Comintelli would be basing its Knowledge XChanger program on Apache Solr. According to the article, “[Knowledge XChanger’s] major features include powerful full-text search, hit highlighting, faceted search, dynamic clustering, database integration, and rich document handling.” Comintelli’s CEO was optimistic about the partnership, saying they have, “always been strong in search, but with Solr in the back-end, it is now well-positioned to tackle any information access problems.” The more we hear about Lucene programs being integrated, the more we hear how business will undoubtedly improve, which is an exciting trend.
Pat Roland, July 30, 2010
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SAP Picks Black Duck
July 29, 2010
We received an email with information about SAP’s open source activities. The good news is that Black Duck Software, a provider of products and services for accelerating software development through the managed use of open source software, issued this statement:
SAP has selected to implement the Black Duck™ Suite. The comprehensive suite provides a platform for managing the use of open source software in a multi-source development process. It will help development teams at SAP improve productivity by further automating the company’s open source approval processes. SAP is the world’s leading provider of business software(*). SAP, which previously used complex, time-consuming and partly manual processes for handling open source approvals and the legal compliance aspects of open source use, sought a scalable, enterprise-strength platform to further automate the management, compliance, and integration of open source software into its development life cycle. After researching available tools and platforms, SAP chose the Black Duck Suite to support SAP developers worldwide with the suite’s automated, developer-oriented, multi-function platform, which supports scanning, early detection and management of open source used in software development. “When we established the open source approval process at SAP in 2001, we assumed we’d receive only a few open source requests per month,” said Francis Ip, head of SAP Global Technology Legal Compliance. “However, with the continuously increasing importance of open source globally and SAP’s recent strategic change towards systematically utilizing benefits that come with open source, it was necessary for us to scale our open source process through further automation. We conducted an exhaustive search of applications on the market, and the Black Duck Suite was the best solution we tested. The Black Duck Suite will help us further automate and scale our open source process in order to support our open source strategy.” “Using the Black Duck Suite will help SAP developers reduce the amount of code that needs to be developed while increasing the velocity of development,” said Peter Vescuso, executive vice president, Black Duck Software. “Automating the use and management of open source software also will yield the benefits of compliance with software license obligations, reducing risk and improving developer efficiency.”
Based on information in this announcement, SAP is making a move into open source. Details are not yet available. The announcement is a vote of confidence for Black Duck, a company giving one of the presentations at the Lucene Revolution Conference in October in Boston, Mass. For more information on the Black Duck Suite visit www.blackducksoftware.com.
Stephen E Arnold, July 29, 2010
Summer Search Rumor Round Up
July 26, 2010
The addled goose has been preoccupied with some new projects. In the course of running around and honking, he has heard some rumors. The goose wants to be clear. He is not sure if these rumors are 100 percent rock solid. He does want to capture them before the mushy information slips away:
Source: http://oneyearbibleimages.com/rumors.gif
First, the goose heard that there will be some turnover at Microsoft Fast. The author of some of the posts in the Microsoft Enterprise Search Blog may be leaving for greener pastures. You can check out the blog at this link. What does this tell the goose? More flip flopping at Microsoft? Not sure. Any outfit that pays $1.2 billion for software that comes with its own police investigation is probably an outfit that would scare the addled goose to death. The blog is updated irregularly with such write ups as “Crawling Case Sensitive Repositories Using SharePoint Server 2010” and “SharePoint 2010 Search ‘Dogfood’ Part 3 – Query Performance Optimization.” Ah, the new problem of upper and lower case and the ever present dog food regarding performance. I thought Windows most recent software ran as fast as a jack rabbit. Guess not.
Second, a number of traditional search vendors are poking around for semantic technology. The notion that key words don’t work particularly well seems to be gaining traction. The problem is that some of the high profile outfits have been snapped up. For example, Powerset fell into the Microsoft maw and Radar Networks was gobbled by Paul Allen’s love child, Evri. Now the stampede is on. The problem is that the pickings seem to be slim, a bit like the t shirts after a sale at the Wal-Mart up the road from the goose pond here in Harrods’s Creek. For some lucky semantic startups, Christmas could come early this year. Anyone hear, a sound like “hack, hack”. Oh, that must be short for Hakia. You never know.
Third, performance may have forced a change at HMV.co.uk in merrie olde England. Dieselpoint was the incumbent. I heard that Dieselpoint is on the look out for partners and investors. The addled goose tried to interview the founder of the company but a clever PR person sidelined the goose and shunted him to the drainage ditch that runs through Blue Island, Illinois. Will Dieselpoint land the big bucks as Palantir did.
Fourth, the goose heard that a trio of Microsoft certified partners with snap in SharePoint search components were looking for greener pastures. What seems to be happening is that the easy sales have dried up since Microsoft started its current round of partner cheerleading. The words are there, but the sales are not. Microsoft seems to want the money to flow to itself and not its partners. Who is affected? The goose cannot name names without invoking the wrath of Redmond and a pride of PR people who insist that their clients are knocking the socks off the competition. However, does the enterprise need a half dozen companies pitching metatagging to SharePoint licensees? I think not. If sales don’t pick up, the search engine death watch list will pick up a few new entries before the leaves fall. Vendors in the US, Denmark, Germany, Austria, and Canada are likely to watching Beyond Search’s death watch list. Remember Convera? It spawned Search Technologies. Remember the pre Microsoft Fast? It spawned Comperio? When a search engine goes away, the azurini flower.
Fifth, what’s happened to the Oracle killers? I lost track of Speed of Mind years ago. There was a start up with a whiz bang method of indexing databases. I haven’t heard much about killing Oracle lately. In fact, stodgy old Oracle is once again poking around for search and content processing technology according to one highly unreliable source. With SES11g now available to Oracle database administrators, perhaps the time is right to put some wood behind a 21st century search solution.
If you want to complain about one of these rumors, use the comments section of this blog. Alternatively, contact one of the azurini outfits and get “real” verification. Some of their consultants use this blog as training material for the consultants whom you compensate. No rumor this. Fact.
Stephen E Arnold, July 26, 2010
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iPad and Enterprise IT
July 26, 2010
CIO Magazine ran a story that evoked the irony of a sophomore world literature class’s discussion of “Death in Venice”. On the surface, the old dude is trying to ease into the coffin. Below the surface, the tensions of northern and southern Europe create a flurry of post pubescent analyses.
Navigate to “Global CIO: Top 10 Reasons Steve Jobs & Apple Are The Future Of IT”. You can zip through the 10 reasons and understand that Apple’s iPad is not a toy for lean back content consumption. Nope. The iPad is the future of information technology. CIO Magazine has spoken.
A moment’s reflection reveals that *if* CIO Magazine is correct, CIO Magazine an its readers will be out of a job. No pun intended. The iPad limits the damage a user can do. Crashes are rare. Even a clueless tyro can locate content. The notion of docking to the big Apple itself reduces the likelihood of losing data. Installing software does not require a degree from MIT. Even the most conceptually challenged MBA can figure out how to work most of the device’s functions. What’s the argument for an expensive, often cranky information technology specialist. For that matter, why is a magazine needed to explain why information technology is so important to an organization. Most CEOs whom I know see IT as one big reason the company is not making headway in tough economic seas.
Consider these reasons offered up by CIO Magazine and its editorial engine sitting around struggling for a feature:
- Virtualization in general and VMWare specifically. Wow. I never would have thought of the iPad’s importance gated by VMWare. Fresh idea and one that underscores why CEOs want to be rid of information technology pundits.
- The iPad is a hot product. Yep, but what’s that say about the hostility to the clunky information technology solutions foisted on BMW crazed MBAs for many years? I think it says that complexity has made a toaster style computer the next big thing.
- The Apple desktop computers are selling. No kidding. The systems generally work as advertised. I don’t have space to explain the craziness of the Windows 7 desktop. Let me say that USB support is less than outstanding.But what’s the iPad and the CIO list mean for search.
Four points in my opinion:
First, search vendors have to come to grips with complexity and quick. Push back regarding the Rube Goldbeg systems can do them in
Second, the price point becomes an issue. When complexity is kicked to the curb, commoditization may grab the brass ring. Google had this idea years ago but has not been able to capitalize. Now it may be Lucene/Solr that gets the prize.
Third, users go their own way just as they did when bootlegging PCs into companies in the 1980s. I heard on a conference call that Google’s success is due to its opening Pandora’s Box, not from its brilliant marketing efforts.
Fourth, management becomes impotent. I have examples of senior managers who can no longer manage. The evidence is everywhere. Can you name a big company that has lost its sense of direction and the confidence of its shareholders. Need a hint?
Will CIO Magazine survive as a gadget publication? Probably not. Will traditional IT survive? In some outfits, the deck chairs floated when the Titanic sank. Outlook for those with buoyancy is good. Ah, irony of death in Venice digital style.
Stephen E Arnold, July 24, 2010
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SharePoint Search Migration Tool
July 25, 2010
Lucky you. You now have a Microsoft tool to make migration as easy as snapping one’s fingers. The tool is available to help you with the following migrations. No, I did not make a mistake when reporting that you need the tool to migrate from SharePoint Server 2010 to SharePoint Server 2010. I don’t really want to know.
First, navigate to http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/odcsp2010searchmigra to the get the run down on the components which include these components:
- Common
- Search Migration
- O12Layer
- O14Layer
- FS14Layer.
Job security as long at the budget supports this sort of stuff. My approach would be quite different, use a third party tool, and focus on keeping the cost down, the system up, and the users happy. I am not sure some folks share these simple ideas.
Stephen E Arnold, July 25, 2010
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Lucid to Stretch Across Scandinavia
July 23, 2010
Yet another company has stepped up and embraced open source Lucene technology, showcasing quite a trend. Scandinavian IT consultant, Findwise, recently announced a partnership with burgeoning open source giant, Lucid Imagination. (You can read the news story here.) The partnership will allow Findwise to be the official reseller of Lucid’s products and services across Scandinavia. The partnership also provides customers with exciting search-enabled apps at affordable rates. Findwise, according to the article, “enables its customers to reach business goals by maximizing the ‘Findability’ of information. Utilizing the full potential of enterprise search technology, Findability creates value by enabling easy and secure access to desired information.” This news is an exciting addition to the waves of companies taking full advantage of Lucene technology.
Stephen E Arnold, July 23, 2010
Squiz Funnelback Pattern Analyzer
July 21, 2010
If you’re looking to be able to fine tune search rankings and other features then you should be looking to the Funnelback Pattern Analyzer. If this sounds little too good to be true for your business needs than you’ll also be excited to hear about the Web based administration interface that comes with the product.
By looking in the analyze section of the administration interface you’ll see a query spike detector that’s especially useful for alerting you to a change in user patterns or even query spikes.
The interface can even provide the kind of geographic information that you’ll find useful and there’s another report that alerts you and informs you of the size and length of each of the spikes. The analyzer can be set up to inform you via email when these spikes occur or to send a regularly scheduled report.
More information about open source Funnelback is available from the Funnelback Web site. Like other search vendors, Funnelback is holding its first user conference in October in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. That’s a bit far for the ArnoldIT goslings, however.
Stephen E Arnold, July 21, 2010
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CMS Vendors Face Old Age, Maybe Need HGH?
July 20, 2010
Content management systems and CMS consultants are an interesting mix. On the lower digit end of the CMS spectrum are the lightweight content management systems. Four years ago, the capabilities of even the vaunted Google’s Blogger.com, which seems frozen in time to me, were like Lance Armstrong’s 2010 Tour de France.
On the end of the spectrum where the big numbers are round, the industrial strength records management systems were found. The addled goose honks about IBM, but when properly configured, IBM’s FileNet can perform some nifty CMS tricks.
So the CMS spectrum ran from the citizen journalism functions to the mad scientist mode. The consultants followed suit. I don’t recall getting spam from IBM about FileNet. Sure, IBM – like any $100 billion outfit – has its weak moments, but shoving FileNet at the addled goose has never happened. Probably won’t even happen opine I.
The reason is that when you move to the double digit end of the CMS spectrum you enter a world where a document error can shut down a nuclear power plant after a US government inspection or a really friendly CEO gets to spend time with prisoners in the “yard.” The vast majority of CMS consultants trample around in the lightweight end of the CMS market.
The problem is that the lightweight systems are now looking more sophisticated, and some venture firms and corporations are taking a hard look at these former wimps.
Don’t believe me. Navigate to “Squarespace Gets $38M to Compete With WordPress and Six Apart”. The write up calls attention to three outfits with CMS that can do interesting things and seem to be growing as my son did when he was in the third grade. Every day he needed a new pair of sneakers with the French chicken on them. Le Coq Sportif for those who are not into suburban Maryland fashions. I noted this passage in the write up:
The size of the investment that Squarespace has managed to attract from Accel and Index indicates that these investors see the potential to take the company’s software and services beyond simple blogging and into the broader world of content-management systems. Although some media companies have been experimenting with open-source software such as Drupal and Joomla for web publishing, both of these are fairly complex to manage, and a hosted solution could appeal to publishers such as the Telegraph Group, which is already using a number of cloud-based services.
Squarespace is quite interesting. The company makes it dead simple to create a blog, a photo gallery, even a complete Web site. The user can drag and drop. Sure, SquareSpace allows coders to fiddle, but the company seems to draw the line with some potentially interesting live database action from its pages. Aside from that prudent step, SquareSpace is a CMS for the person or company frustrated with a traditional CMS.
Is the SquareSpace system right for managing nuclear power plant records? Probably, but I wouldn’t use the system for that purpose. Nor would I rely on SquareSpace for information likely to be probed for effective safeguards against spoliation. For other work, SquareSpace looks mighty tasty as it is.
What will happen with $38 million? Traditional content management vendors may want to pay some attention to the fun loving folks at this outfit. Also, the CMS consultants may find themselves having to work much harder to get those high-paying, wild and crazy CMS product reviews. SquareSpace makes it dead simple to play with the system any time, for free, for a couple of weeks.
Times are a’changin’ in CMS and CMS consulting I conclude.
Stephen E Arnold, July 20, 2010
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