LucidWorks Now Available in France
December 4, 2012
As LucidWorks expands its reach in the open source search realm, it is building partnerships that allow it to expand beyond the English-speaking world as well. LucidWorks products are now available in France, thanks to a partnership with France Labs. Read the full details of the partnership in the report, “Nice: France Labs makes the products of LucidWorks available in France.”
After a discussion of what LucidWorks is, a development platform providing an out-of-the-box enterprise search application built on open source Apache Solr, the author then goes on to discuss the partnership that brings the technology to France. The author continues:
“LucidWorks therefore decided to forge a relationship with France Labs, an innovative startup based in Nice and focused on open source search technologies, in particular Lucene/Solr. It appeared logical that these two companies joined forces. LucidWorks benefits from the expertise of France Labs, and its localization at the heart of the largest French Technopole – Sophia Antipolis. France Labs broadens its products and services portfolio and can now rely on the advanced skills of the engineers at LucidWorks.”
The above-mentioned engineers are indeed one of LucidWorks’ greatest assets. This team of experts ensures that LucidWorks solutions are ready to go out-of-the-box, seamlessly updated, and fully supported.
Emily Rae Aldridge, December 04, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Exclusive Interview with the CTO of Cybertap
December 4, 2012
Cybertap is a company which pushes beyond key word search. The firm’s technology permits a different type of information retrieval.
In an exclusive interview with ArnoldIT, Cybertap revealed that hidden within the network traffic are malicious attacks, personal and medical information leaks, and insider theft of intellectual property and financial information. Cybertap’s clients use Recon to keep tabs on the good and the bad being done on their networks and who’s doing it, so that they can take the proper actions to mitigate any damage and bring the individuals to account.
Dr. Russ Couturier, Chief Technology Officer of Cybertap, recently granted an exclusive interview to the Arnold Information Technology Search Wizards Speak series to discuss Cybertap Recon, a product that applies big data analytics to captured network traffic to give organizations unparalleled visibility into what is transpiring both on and to their networks.
Until recently, the firm’s technology was available to niche markets. However, due to the growing demand to identify potentially improper actions, Cybertap has introduced its technology to organizations engaged in fraud detection and related disciplines. The Cybertap system facilitates information analysis in financial services, health care, and competitive intelligence.
Dr. Couturier said:
Recon is able to decrease risk and improve your situational awareness by decreasing the time to resolution of a cyber event and by improving your knowledge of what happened during a cyber event. We are incorporating big data analysis techniques to reduce the meaningless data and quantify the meaningful information using categorization, semantic, and sentiment tools,” Couturier said. “Recon presents the information as it was originally seen so analysts can follow conversations and threads in context.
The firm’s system processes content, embedded files, attachments, attributes, network protocol data, metadata, and entities. Developers incorporated semantic analysis tools to “roll-up” large volumes of data into what they call “themes” and “topics.” This aggregation enables researchers to more quickly decide whether information is relevant.
He added:
Mash ups and data fusion are crucial when dealing with big data. You can search, visualize, link, and reconstruct exactly what happened from the primary source and reduce investigation times by hours or days.
Cybertap is one of a handful of content processing firms taking findability to a new level of utility. The firm’s system combines next-generation methods with a search box and visualization to provide unique insights into information processed by the Cybertap system. The full text of the interview is available at www.arnoldit.com/search-wizards-speak/cybertap.html.
Cybertap LLC’s vision is to integrate the best-of-breed cyber forensics, analysis, and security technologies. Cybertap serves all markets requiring solutions next generation data analysis tools including: federal government markets, both civilian and Department of Defense agencies; commercial markets; and state and local governments. The privately held company has offices located in Vienna, Virginia; Englewood, Colorado and Palmer, Massachusetts.
The system is important because it underscores the opportunities for innovators in information retrieval and analysis. Cybertap combines search with a range of functions which allow a combination of alerting, discovering, and finding. In my experience, few products offer this type of pragmatic insight without the costs and complexities of traditional systems built by cobbling together different vendors’ products.
Search Wizards Speak is the largest collection of interviews with innovators and developers working in search and content processing. An index to the more than 60 interviews is available at http://www.arnoldit.com/search-wizards-speak/.
Additional information about Cybertap LLC is available at http://www.cybertapllc.com.
Stephen E Arnold, December 4, 2012
Business Intelligence Software Essential to Current Business Decisions
December 3, 2012
Business intelligence (BI) technologies are essential to today’s knowledge workers in the enterprise, providing helpful and necessary decision support software. A recent academic research article addresses the changes and growth in this industry in the past twenty years. The article, “An Overview of Business Intelligence Technology,” published in the August 2011 issue of Communications of the ACM, was written by a team of researchers from Microsoft Research and Hewlett-Packard Lab. According to the article, this rapid growth has been fueled by the declining cost of data storage.
The article states:
“Enterprises today collect data at a finer granularity, which is therefore of much larger volume. Businesses are leveraging their data asset aggressively by deploying and experimenting with more sophisticated data analysis techniques to drive business decisions and deliver new functionality such as personalized offers and services to customers. Today, it is difficult to find a successful enterprise that has not leveraged BI technology for its business.”
This obvious growth accompanies a need to shorten the lag time between acquiring data and decision-making in daily business. Innovations in BI technologies require sophisticated functionality and services. Enterprise search solution Intrafind has a history as a university developed solution that understands the challenges in this industry and the company has created research-based services that solve the problem of making data findable within enterprise environments.
Andrea Hayden, December 3, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Organizations See ROI with Big Data Solutions Focused On Information Delivery
December 3, 2012
Much money is expected to come from big data in terms of the vendors profiting from technological solutions to allow companies to utilize big data. Additionally, there are the firms extracting useful insights from big data who hope to gain huge ROI. Forbes points out that ROI is key in “Spending Wisely on a Big Data Strategy.”
Some organizations fall into the trap of throwing money at anything related to big data without looking fundamentally at the resources they currently have on hand and where to need to extend their reach. The constant question should revolve around where ROI is possible.
According to the article:
But strategizing must precede striving, according to John Weathington of San Francisco-based consultancy Excellent Management Systems. Each firm’s top decision makers should spend the time and money to evaluate the return of a Big Data solution. ‘Some organizations are obsessed with spending money on Big Data without any concern for the value it represents,’ Weathington said in TechRepublic’s Big Data Analytics blog.
We could not agree more and we encourage organizations seeking a big data solution to employ resources into research on finding a solution that fits their needed purpose. The direction that we have seen several businesses achieve ROI with is a solution that enables information delivery across the enterprise such as Information at Work from PolySpot.
Megan Feil, December 3, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Semantic Web Company Merges with Prominent European Player
December 3, 2012
We would like to note a significant combination that took place in Austria: Semantic Web Company announced on their Web site that “Semantic Web Company and punkt. netServices Have Merged.” Both companies, the article notes, are prominent players in the European semantic Web arena. The press release informs us:
“In 2004 Semantic Web Company was founded as a spin off of punkt. netServices [founded in 2001] to bring the semantic web and linked data technologies closer to the needs of companies, consumers, and the government sector. We have done a lot of basic research those past years, as well as project-pioneering with prospective customers and partners. Finally we have consolidated our knowledge and skills in that field. What was avantgarde in 2004 now has become bleeding edge technology in present days. A good moment to join efforts and bring together the two sisters.”
The merger combines the companies’ experts in semantic Web services, information management, enterprise software architecture, search engines, collaboration software, and agile Web development. Facing the need fit all these folks into one place, the newly combined Semantic Web Company has taken this opportunity to move its headquarters to a Vienna building designed by the acclaimed early-twentieth-century architect Adolf Loos. (I’m officially jealous.) The firm serves clients in a number of different industries, including pharmaceutical, energy, communications, and finance.
Cynthia Murrell, December 03, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
SearchHub is More than a Forum
December 3, 2012
SearchHub.org is the latest open source community resource offered by LucidWorks in support of Lucene and Solr developers specifically. More than a blog or a forum, SearchHub is an interactive community to exchange ideas. One new item of interest is a session video, “Solr 4: The SolrCloud Architecture.” Read this description to see if this video might be helpful for you or your organization:
“In this talk, Lucene/Solr committer Mark Miller will discuss the low level architecture and design decisions around SolrCloud and distributedLucene Revolution 2012 Download Presentation indexing. Come learn about the latest work on Solr’s new scaling and fault tolerance solution – how it works and how we built it.”
In addition to this session video, there are screencasts, other conference videos, and many how-to instructional pieces. Also, there is a wonderful compilation of resources on the Reference Materials page. Documentation, comparisons, white papers, and tutorials are all included.
SearchHub.org is another way for LucidWorks to give back to the open source community, supporting Apache Lucene and Solr. However, some users may benefit even more from the utilization of LucidWorks products including LucidWorks Search and LucidWorks Big Data. These products are ready to go out-of-the-box and are supported by the industry-vetted power of LucidWorks.
Emily Rae Aldridge, December 03, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Enterprise Search: Is a Golden Age Coming?
December 2, 2012
Let’s recap the enterprise search market. I am 68, so I remember the glory days of SDC Orbit, RECON, and SMART. If you are with me chronologically, think mainframes, batch processing, and the lousy bandwidth which was available within the computer room.
By 1982 even traditional publishers were trying to figure out what to do with digital information. Remember the original New York Times’ search system? Remember the original Dow Jones online system and its desktop search interface? Dow Jones used BRS Search, now part of the OpenText quiver of separate information retrieval arrows. IBM pushed STAIRS.
By the mid 1990s, there were university computing graduates who were on the search bandwagon, even though it was built on a Citroen Deux Chevaux. Think Personal Library Software and Backrub, the precursor of our beloved Google search appliance.
Most of today’s enterprise search systems are as modern as this Citroen Deux Chevaux. A happy quack to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Deux-chevaux-rose-pink-2CV-citroen.JPG for this image.
In the late 1990s, the enterprise search market was pulling together threads of different ideas which sort of worked. The first wave of “brand” name vendors date from the 1996 to 2000 period and include Autonomy, Convera, Endeca, Fast Search & Transfer, and Verity. Most of these companies survive either as units of larger firms or as genetic strands woven into various search consulting firms like Comperio and Search Technologies. Google, I want to point out, is using technology which dates from the mid 1990s. So much for the difference between PR and enhanced CLEVER-ness.
When we hit the mid 2000s, the landscape has become barren. There are plenty of innovations and there are entrepreneurs who have embraced the magic of search sub-disciplines like latent semantic indexing, natural language processing, goosed Bayesian, and mish-mashes of every possible indexing and retrieval method. The notable shift in search since 2005 has been the emergence of Lucene, Solr, and Xapian, among other open source information retrieval options.
Have we reached the end of the line?
Nope. The Golden Age is coming.
In 2013, Beyond Search will add coverage of next generation vendors poised to rework search. On Tuesday, December 5, you will be able to read an interview with the chief technology officer of a little known search and content processing vendor named Cybertap. You can dip into the archives of my Search Wizards Speak’s series and get more insight about where search is headed by reading the interviews with such experts as:
- Christopher Ahlberg, www.recordedfuture.com
- Paul Doscher, www.lucidworks.com
- Mike Sorah, http://www.imtholdings.com/
- Luca Scagliarini, http://www.expersystem.net
- Chris Westphal, http://www.visualanalytics.com
A Spectacular Quote to Note: HP Autonomy Again
December 1, 2012
Short honk: The source is the New York Times. The article is “From HP, a Blunder That Seems to Beat All.” If the link is dead, you can chase the story in the dead tree version of the December 1, 2012, newspaper on page B1 with the jump to B6. Here’s the quote about HP Autonomy:
Autonomy “will arguably go down as the worst, most value-destroying deal in the history of corporate America,” Mr. Sacconaghi asserted.
I wanted to highlight another comment from the article. Try this one on for size:
Adjusted for relative performance to the broad market, HP’s shareholders have suffered far more than Time Warner’s did.
I think this quote will be worth keeping too. The New York Times attributed this gem to Léo Apotheker, former top dog at SAP and HP:
We did that analysis [Autonomy] at great length, in great detail, and we fee that we paid a very fair price for Autonomy. And it will give a great return to our shareholders.
One thing is certain. An MBA case study is coming down the pike.
Stephen E Arnold, December 1, 2012
Convergence of BI and Enterprise Search Requires Full Service Solution
November 30, 2012
We are starting to see a slow convergence of business intelligence and enterprise search in the world of corporate IT. And according to the article “Business Intelligence, Enterprise Search: Marriage in Prospect, Still No Ring” on Computer Weekly, the catalyst for this convergence may just be the Big Data trend and the continued focus on unstructured data in this arena.
According to the article, the need to sift through the available data to find what is relevant and create an end-to-end solution is the ultimate goal. We learn:
“Ollie Ross, head of research at the Corporate IT Forum, notes a convergence of business intelligence and enterprise search interests among members of the blue chip user group, at least to the extent of the holding of a member-driven ‘Enterprise Search as a Business Intelligence Tool’ workshop in December 2011. Ollie Ross said that when enterprise search was first broached inside the forum, some two years ago, it was intensive from some, but not general. […] But, over time, it has come to be seen as potentially a matter of business advantage, given sufficient usage.”
BI, Enterprise Search, and Big Data Analytics are three different approaches to finding information. A good bet to close the deal would include working with a full-service solution like Intrafind that can meet your enterprise needs and even help guide you through the maze of options.
Andrea Hayden, November 30, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Possible SharePoint and Lync Server Price Increases
November 30, 2012
It is rumored that SharePoint and Lync Server prices will increase, but Caroline Donnelly says enterprise users may end up better off. She discusses the claim in the ITPro article, “Microsoft Users Warned of Upcoming SharePoint and Lync Server Price Hikes.” Richard Gibbons, software manager at Microsoft reseller Bechtle Direct says that SharePoint prices may go from £4,000 at the moment, so an extra £1,500 for 2013. This is added:
Gibbons was quick to point out that end users who stump up for the 2013 versions of Sharepoint and Lync from 1 December will be rewarded with extra functionality, which might make the price hikes a little easier for some end users to swallow.
For instance, Microsoft has introduced changes that mean end users will no longer need to purchase additional SharePoint for Internet licenses, which allow external users to access the software.
And while the added functionality comes at a cost for Standard users, enterprise users already having the features could end up paying less. The price hike doesn’t necessarily come as a surprise, but the amount may be hard for many to justify. To save resources, consider evaluating your third party tools and streamlining your systems. Fabasoft Mindbreeze offers Enterprise Search with SharePoint Connectors so to easily snap into your existing farm. In addition to all-inclusive search, Mindbreeze creates relevant knowledge by storing data according to type and relevance while processing data in a comprehensible form at a fair price.
Philip West, November 30, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
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