IBM and Its Meta Cloud Aspirations
May 5, 2010
IBM is big. One hundred billion in revenues and counting. For a company of its size, IBM has to aim high. The cloud is a potential gold mine for IBM’s consulting divisions. But once the clients have been studied up, IBM wants to sell technology in its many guises. Enter the idea to integrate disparate clouds. I call this a meta-cloud play.
The IBM of today is a cloud in formation. The meta-cloud play is on the horizon. To speed the formation of the meta cloud, IBM acquired Cast Iron Systems. You can get the details in “IBM to Boost Cloud Services with Cast Iron Buy.” Cast iron will add technology and expertise to the IBM arsenal. The play is to put in place a service that hooks different clouds together; hence, a meta play. Integration can be lucrative. Look at Microsoft’s revenues from rolling up word processing and a spreadsheet. IBM wants to follow this type of model. For me the key passage in the write up was:
Cast Iron uses prebuilt software templates for integration rather than writing custom code. This allows cloud integrations to be carried out in days, as opposed to weeks, whether using physical appliances, virtual appliances or a cloud service, according to IBM.
IBM and its meta cloud play. A view from orbit. Source: http://ultraorange.net/media/2008/03/science-earth-from-space-clouds.jpg
My take away is that IBM wants to change the way it deploys cloud services and create an opportunity to build on the hybrid clouds. IBM will sell consulting, software licenses, and custom services. In short, if the plan works, IBM outflanks some pesky competitors and Google, instead of being a near equal, becomes one service provider. Neat.
The challenge will be to make the meta cloud work. In the good old days, clients were rolling in dough and no one ever got fired for buying IBM. Today, cash can be tricky. Sometimes it’s available. Sometimes it’s not. And customers are looking for ways to tap into the promise of the cloud without losing sales, momentum, and data.
The challenge to IBM may come from some unlikely competitors. For example, “do it on a shoestring” Amazon is flexing its cloud muscles in the US Federal market. IBM considers the Federal sector its stomping grounds. There have been some open source wizards poking around cloud solutions that challenge the commercial software model. And there are folks at Google and Microsoft and Oracle who are in the clouds as well.
What about search? If IBM pushes into the meta cloud, my hunch is that IBM may drag Lucene/Solr along and then open the pearly gates to third party vendors who are IBM partners in search and content processing. Will IBM win? It won’t lose.
Stephen E Arnold, May 5, 2010
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Simplifying Search, Is It Possible?
May 4, 2010
“iPad Guts Approach to PC Design, Says iSuppli” triggered a thought about enterprise search. The article points out that the iPad eliminates the complexity from personal computers. The interface dictated the operating system. In an effort to create a fool proof system, which required a different approach to a computer. The key passage in my opinion was:
…these design changes will have profound implications for manufacturers. As shipments of the iPad are expected to rise to about 20 million in 2012 up from 7 million forecast in 2010, the “question of which companies in the supply chain will capture the profits (from tablets) will be of major importance in the coming years.
The Google Search Appliance implemented a similar design philosophy. Other vendors offer appliances that eliminate the complexities of configuring dozens if not scores of settings.
Try and tinker with this.
Will enterprise search be simplified? There may be a race between the appliance crowd and the vendors who want to embed search in other applications. This embedding angle is similar to the plastic covers that auto manufacturers put over their engines. Blocking the Saturday mechanic minimizes problems. Will this “blocking” be enough to keep the complexity of search and content processing systems manageable and affordable.
Stephen E Arnold, May 4, 2010
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Lucene Solr Developer Event in Prague Arrives
May 4, 2010
Lucid Imagination is hosting a developer event called Apache Lucene EuroCon in Prague form May 18-21. Insiders tell me they have attracted over 120 attendees so far, a real feat in these travel-constrained times. Some reasons might be: rising interest and adoption of Lucene/Solr; the vibrant European developer community, and the gap left due to the cancellation of the 2010 Apache EuroCon.
According to the conference Web site:
Apache Lucene EuroCon 2010 is the first dedicated Lucene and Solr User Conference in Europe. This conference provides professional training on Lucene and Solr as well as a unique opportunity to learn from the search experts in two educational tracks.
The event will include 2-day Lucene and Solr Boot camp trainings, user case studies, and technical deep dives, along with keynotes from Eric Gries, Lucid’s CEO, Stephen Dunn from the Guardian, and Zack Urlocker, previously EVP at MySQL.
Stephen E Arnold, May 4, 2010
No one paid me to write this. Maybe someday!
Search as Oil Slick or Volcanic Ash
May 3, 2010
I had a conversation with a person familiar with enterprise search. In the course of the ebb and flow, a metaphor surfaced, and I wanted to capture it before it slipped away.
The idea is that an environmental event or a human action can trigger big consequences. Anyone trying to get from Europe on April 16, 2010, learned quickly about ash plumes. Now the unlucky residents of the US Gulf Coast have an opportunity to understand the diffusion pattern of an oil release.
What’s this have to do with search?
The idea which struck me as interesting is that search is now having a similar impact on activities, processes, and ecosystems far removed from ground zero. I am not able to accomplish much of my “work” unless I can locate the program, file, information, and data I need. I don’t really do anything with physical objects. I live in a world of data and constructs built upon information. Sure, I have a computer and keyboard, and without those hardware gizmos, I would be dead in the water or maybe a sea of red ink?
The search eruption. Source: http://www.liv.ac.uk/science_eng_images/earth/research/VolcanicAsh.jpg
Search is now disappearing in some organizations, absorbed into other applications. One way to describe this shift is to use the phrase “search enable application”. Another approach is to talk about search as a utility or an embedded service.
Google Client Stumbles, Not the Google
May 1, 2010
The Los Angeles shift from on premises software to Google Apps has hit some choppy water. The story I read was “L.A. Stumbles In Deployment Of Google Apps.” Note that Google did not stumble. The client stumbled. Here’s the key passage in my opinion:
Santana [an LA administrative officer] explained, “Performance concerns focused on the slowness with which e-mails were sent, received, and accessed in the new system. Functionality concerns focused on features currently available in GroupWise that are unavailable, or significantly different, in Google’s system. Further, the Los Angeles Police Department indicated that several security issues have yet to be resolved, and that a pilot of its technical support staff must be successfully completed before it can be expanded to the rest of the LAPD.”
I wonder if the integrator is responsible for addressing these issues or will the client have to be Googley and figure it out.
Stephen E Arnold, May 1, 2010
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Small and Mid Sized Businesses: Growth and Search
April 29, 2010
Small Business Computing ran “Microsoft SMB Specialists See 2010 Spending Rise.” Microsoft as azure chip consultants? Why not? The write up contained some quite interesting assertions about the future. Well, it was Microsoft’s business partners who were the source of the survey sample. And, to be fair, the survey did not consider the spill over from the financial issues rising like a high tide in Europe. Here’s the passage that caught my attention:
“SMBs are back in spending mode,” Birger Steen, vice president of Microsoft’s small and medium business and distribution, told Internet News.com. “The most salient fact here is, whereas last year, one in four were increasing spending, this year it’s six out of ten,” Steen added.
What was curious is that there was no mention of search. In my opinion, search is not an issue in this business sector from the Microsoft survey team’s point of view. Will this have an impact on other search vendors?
Yes. My view is that Microsoft may be leaving itself vulnerable to direct sales thrusts by vendors of search and content processing in this market sector.
Search may make little material difference to Microsoft in the small and mid sized business market. The indifference of Microsoft may be the life preserver some search vendors need. Some vendors are dog paddling like crazy and issuing news releases with quite remarkable assertions about their products. Others like Google are content with a “meh” strategy.
My view: fewer histrionics and more direct selling, please. Microsoft may slam this door and then what? More search and content processing vendors will slip into the dark, dark night.
Stephen E Arnold, April 29, 2010
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Oracle Shape Shifts Search
April 28, 2010
Oracle’s SES10g search system and the native search functions in PL/SQL provide licensees with ways to locate information. Oracle has been moving to leap frog the problems of traditional search, and the article “Florida State U Transforms Reporting with Business Intelligence” may provide a glimpse of what Oracle will do to prevent search vendors from poaching. The article says:
Online Management of Networked Information, or OMNI, the university’s name for its ERP system, consists of an enterprise portal, financials, HR and payroll, and enterprise performance management. That word, “online,” is revealing. Beginning in March 2008 Florida State has been in a continuing process to move off of third-party BI vendor and legacy tools for reporting and to open up its data systems to 1,500 active users on campus through several analytics tools provided in Oracle Business Intelligence Suite Enterprise Edition Plus (OBIEE). These include a query system; dashboards; Microsoft Office-integrated analytics; and “ibots,” e-mail alerts sent when specific user-set conditions in the data occur.
Two points. The article focuses on the financial payback, estimated at no less than $360,000. Second, the integrated system delivers needed information in the context of an integrated system courtesy of Oracle. Forget search. The new system tells users about important events.
What happens to search? It becomes a utility, not the main event. I keep hearing rumors that Oracle is thinking about buying a traditional search and content processing vendor. That may be true. The story to watch is Oracle’s using cost savings and desirable new features to deemphasize traditional search. Will the approach work? To many organizations that $360,000 savings looks tempting enough to make the set up sticker shock lose its impact.
Stephen E Arnold, April 28, 2010
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Autonomy and Kainos Tie Up
April 26, 2010
Autonomy announced Evolve. You can read the full story on the Autonomy Web site in the article “Autonomy and Kainos Launch Next Generation Electronic Document Management Solution for Hospitals.” The key feature of the new health-centric system include:
- Automated compliance and information governance
- Security components that comply with regulatory guidelines and the needs of authorized users
- A single, centralized view of information from patient records
Autonomy embeds its search solution in these vertical systems. What’s interesting is that Autonomy is selling solutions, not standalone search. Does this mark a change in Autonomy’s approach to the market or a broader shift in the search and content processing sector? With Autonomy back on the acquisition hunt, which way will Autonomy go? Back office like Brainware? Duplicative services like OpenText? Maybe ERP or CRM?
Stephen E Arnold, April 26, 2010
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OmniFind Does XML
April 25, 2010
I never doubted that OmniFind when indexing DB2 tables. The write up “Search XML in OmniFind V1R2” makes this point clearly. If you want to dive into this use of OmniFind, take a peek at the syntax for a query:
> SELECT PRODUCT_ORDER FROM ORDERS WHERE CONTAINS(PRODUCT_ORDER, ‘@xmlxp:”/ORDER/CUSTOMER/TITLE[. contains(“digital indexing operator”)] ” ‘ ) = 1;
More information is available from www.ibm.com.
Stephen E Arnold, April 25, 2010
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Will Infosys Become the De Facto Expert on Fast ESP?
April 24, 2010
I read “Who’s Buying Microsoft’s Outsourcing Excuses?” and interpreted the write up in the context of my interest in search and content processing. As you know, Microsoft purchased Fast Search & Transfer, dumped the Linux/Unix business, and positioned Fast ESP as the solution to search challenges in SharePoint. Good idea, but the implementation is complex, even for those familiar with search and retrieval system set up. The main point in the write up, in my opinion, appeared in this passage:
Here’s a part of an Infosys press release announcing the deal that is especially telling: “This agreement provides Infosys with a unique opportunity to partner with Microsoft IT and gain deep and early expertise in the implementation and management of the latest Microsoft technologies, and thus enhancing Infosys capabilities to help other customers leverage Microsoft’s innovation and adopt these technologies.” Translation: The $100 million deal with Microsoft will help Infosys land even more outsourcing jobs at the expense of U.S. workers. Talk about adding insult to injury — and Infosys is hardly hurting.
Quite a few companies exist to handle implementation challenges of Microsoft Fast ESP. Will this deal put Infosys in the catbird seat? If Infosys does get insight others do not, the search integration companies (which I won’t name to keep the legal eagles at bay) may find that their core business faces a significant challenge. Microsoft is in an ideal position to bundle advanced search with almost any other Microsoft sale. When the customers can’t get these systems to work as hoped, Infosys may be the first port of call. Result? Lots of pain for the specialists who depend on customers to hire an expert in search remediation. Why hire those outside the tent? Go for those who are on the inside and used by Microsoft itself.
Stephen E Arnold, April 24, 2010
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