Protected: Webtrends Analyzes SharePoint
July 21, 2011
Symantec Snaps Up Clearwell to Enter E Discovery Market
July 20, 2011
I do some odd jobs for Enterprise Technology Management. Among them is hosting podcasts on various topics. Last week we did a podcast with several luminaries in the e discovery market. E Discovery is a term used to describe the content and text processing required to figure out what is in unstructured content gathered in a legal matter. There doesn’t have to be a law suit to trigger a company’s running an e Discovery project, but unlike search, e Discovery beckons legal eagles.
We read the article “Symantec acquires Clearwell Systems for $390m.” Perhaps best known for their antivirus software, Symantec also offers an array of information management solutions. Clearwell Systems specializes in e-discovery tools, used in response to litigation and other legal/ investigative matters.
Symantec gains much with the acquisition:
Symantec notes the acquisition will add archiving, backup and eDiscovery offerings to its existing offerings, enabling it to offer a broader set of information management capabilities to customers. The deal will help Symantec provide future product integration opportunities with Symantec backup and security, Symantec NetBackup, Data Loss Prevention and Data Insight, the company said.
This acquisition moves e-discovery to the cloud, while continuing the appliance approach.
On the podcast I learned:
- There will be a push for more hosted services. Autonomy has done a good job with its Zantaz acquisition and its hosted services, so Symantec is going down a route that leads to a pay off.
- The Clearwell approach will continue to feature its rapid deployment model. I associated the phrase “rocket docket” with Clearwell which connotes speedy service.
- The Clearwell report and user audit functions will be expanded and enhanced. I saw a Clearwell report and watched an attorney pop it in an envelope for delivery to another attorney. The system impressed me because the report did not require any fiddling by the attorney. Good stuff.
Naturally, other new services are planned. Stay tuned.
Cynthia Murrell July 14, 2011
Search and Security: Old Wine Rediscovered
July 20, 2011
There is nothing like the surprise on a user’s face when an indiscriminate content crawl allows a person to read confidential, health, or employment information. Over enthusiastic “search experts” often learn the hard way that conducting a thorough content audit * before * indexing content on an Intranet is a really good idea.
Computerworld’s new article “Security Manager’s Journal:The perils of enterprise search,” is an insight into the dangers of sloppy search parameters or what we call old wine rediscovered.
The author does a good job of addressing the security concerns that can pop up if an enterprise search is not well thought out.
If security concerns aren’t addressed, this is what you can expect: The IT team does some research, makes a choice, deploys the infrastructure and begins pointing it to data repositories. Before you know it, someone conducts a search with a term like “M&A” and turns up a sensitive document naming a company that’s being considered for acquisition, or a search for the word “salary” reveals an employee salary list that was saved in an inappropriate directory. In other words, people will be able to find all manner of documents that they shouldn’t have access to.
Thurman sites the ‘rule of least privilege’ or the rule that information should only be available to those who need to know of it. With enterprise searching, it means that queries should return only information relevant to the search and that the user is allowed to see.
All in all, a rather informative if redundant read that outlines a few security options and ideas.
What we find interesting is that such write ups have to be recommissioned. Not much sophistication in enterprise search land we fear.
Stephen E Arnold, July 20, 2011
Sponsored by ArticleOnePartners.com, the source for patent research
Protected: SharePoint has a New Beau: Yammer
July 20, 2011
INTEGRITYOne Partners and SharePoint Team Up to Aid the FBI
July 16, 2011
I try to keep at least one tired eye on the competition within the US Federal government between Google and Microsoft. This PR Newswire lead caught our eye here at Beyond Search: “INTEGRITYOne Partners Win $40 Million FBI SharePoint Contract.”
INTEGRITYOne is a management and IT consulting firm that specialized in inspirational and creative ideas/solutions for high-performing clients. They announced a partnership with Applied Information Sciences (AIS) to win a five-year Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract to provide SharePoint services for the FBI. (IDIQ contracts are definitely good. Yep.)
INTEGRITYOne has provided SharePoint services for other law enforcement and national security organizations in the past, proving to have a strong track record. Their experience has made them familiar with the law enforcement mission and will be a boon to their new contract. We learned:
“The role the FBI plays in ensuring the safety of American citizens cannot be overstated,” said INTEGRITYOne Partners Managing Partner Michael Waddell. “We are honored to support their mission under this contract.”
After reading this brief, we asked ourselves will other law agencies dump Google and head to Microsoft SharePoint? SharePoint is easier to self-contain and secure. Google is just about anyone’s game. The FBI should may want to ask an appropriate vendor to check out SurfRay’s technology to make their SharePoint search all the more easier.
Torben Ellert, July 16, 2011
SurfRay
Protected: Updates for XSL in SharePoint
July 15, 2011
Is Enterprise Search Embracing Data Management?
July 13, 2011
As the economic noose tightens around the next of some enterprise search vendors, some remarkable transformations are underway. Who thought that the motion picture Transformers would presage the remarkable shift of brute force search to customer support (an oxymoron?), eDiscovery, and business intelligence. I am indeed surprised.
If companies have become the equivalent of data hoarders, then firms like Brainware are the professional organizer called in get things under control. As reported in RedOrbit’s “Brainware Launches Cloud-Based Intelligent Data Capture,” the vendor has launched Brainware Distiller, a service for the automation of document-centric business processes. The write up asserted:
Hosted on Microsoft’s Azure platform, Brainware becomes the first intelligent data capture vendor to make the transition to software-as-a-service.
The online solution uses a patented template-free data extraction method. Think trigrams. Not sure what these are? Click and read this write up which makes a three letter sequence more exciting than I thought possible.
Brainware has done a good job of moving from search to eDiscovery, to enterprise search, to online public access catalog search, and to back office paper processing, optical character recognition, work flow and forms processing.
Agility, thy name is Brainware. Can other enterprise search vendors with or without trigrams match this acrobat of information retrieval?
Stephen E Arnold, July 13, 2011
Sponsored by Stephen E Arnold, author of The New Landscape of Enterprise Search
Microsoft and Its Different Search Systems
July 12, 2011
We noted SharePoint Geek’s useful blog post “Comparing SharePoint 2010 Search: Foundation vs Server vs FAST.” The table presents in a very succinct manner the three main search solutions available from Microsoft. In fact, this table is something we suggest you tuck into your SharePoint Reference folder, which was put together by the editor at LearningSharePoint.com.
Let’s take a quick look at the three search systems available from Microsoft. Search Technologies has significant experience with each of these within our Microsoft Search Practice, and we find them useful within the design and configuration constraints which Microsoft’s engineers have defined for each system.
SharePoint Foundation 2010 is what we call “basic key word search.” The product is included with SharePoint 2010. It does a solid job of indexing content within a properly configured SharePoint installation. If you are a small business with two or three people who need access to shared content, SharePoint Foundation is going to be a logical choice.
The upgrade is the search function in SharePoint Server 2010. In a nutshell, the basic key word search and intranet indexing is similar to that in Foundation. Additional features provided with this Microsoft search system include:
- An entity search which is optimized for people
- A query federation function which allows content from different intranet sources to be combined in one results list.
- Graphical administrative interface.
A basic “suggested search” or “see also” function is available as well. This search system may meet the needs of most small businesses. If you need to access external content, you will want to upgrade to the Fast Search system.
The features of the Fast solution include:
- Basic search
- A document preview function so the application does not have to launched to view the content
- Intranet indexing
- Indexing of Web and third party content not within the licensee’s SharePoint repository
- Concatenated results lists; that is, information from multiple collections and sources
- A graphical administrative tool
- Faceted search.
Our view is that if you implement the SharePoint Server 2010 or Fast Search Server 2010, you may want to enlist the support of a company like Search Technologies. There are three reasons:
First, engineers working on SharePoint without deep experience in search will benefit from the expertise obtained through dozens and dozens of SharePoint Search and Fast Search deployments.
Second, the optimization techniques that a firm such as Search Technologies possesses often allow a SharePoint licensee to maximize performance without the need to scale up and out.
Third, the customization functions are rich; however, some of the methods for fine tuning certain features often require custom scripting or the use of methods not required for SQL Server or Exchange. Therefore, a third party can reduce the time, cost, and frustration of adding the final touches to a SharePoint “findability” solution.
Please, navigate to www.searchtechnologies.com to learn more about our expertise in deploying Microsoft’s search solutions.
Iain Fletcher, July 12, 2011
Search Technologies
Exalead Injects Its Expertise into Dassault Aviation
July 11, 2011
It’s a great idea for an aviation company: a search-based application for flight line crew and mechanics. Timely information is precious in this area. The write-up elaborates:
“Developed in less than a month by a mixed Dassault Systèmes-Bull team, it allows instant post-flight access to all the maintenance data used for diagnostics support.
“Several hundred thousand records – aircraft, system and equipment repair records and other maintenance reports – contained in different databases are collected, indexed and linked together by high-performance search algorithms. The innovations offered by this new technology open the way to other applications in every sector of the company’s activities.
As just one example, the piece cites a worldwide spare part stocking system. Efficiency is good.
We have long been impressed with Exalead and its industry-leading technologies. The company serves clients worldwide with both Web and enterprise search products. Their advanced semantic technologies can’t be beat.
Dassault Aviation is another company we admire. A subsidiary of the Dassault Group, the French company has been operating since 1930. They manufacture cutting-edge jets for military, regional, and business use.
Cynthia Murrell, July 11, 2011
Sponsored by Pandia.com, publishers of the New Landscape of Enterprise Search.
Protected: Microsoft’s New Office 365 for SharePoint and Exchange
July 11, 2011
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