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Enterprise Search: Different Visions, Different Paths
The world of Enterprise Search is moving fast, but towards a destination unknown. Google is pushing out new search appliances. Microsoft is pursuing multiple strategies around search that include giving away enterprise software and bulking up with their acquisition of FAST. And IBM has introduced the next release of their Omnifind enterprise search product.
The new version of IBM’s Omnifind assists with crawling social sites like Lotus Quickr and Connections. IBM sees a future where a large part of future enterprise information will be held within social applications.
Unlike other kinds of enterprise software, Enterprise Search is continuing to morph in its expectations and meaning. Pinning down exactly what it is is hard, and vendors have a wide spectrum of visions and spin about what users want. One camp, led by Google with members like Sinequa and Exalead think that enterprise users have becoming dependent on the simplicity of internet search and expect the same simplicity to map over into the enterprise space.
The IBM approach to Enterprise Search is to provide tools for being able to uncover more meaning from the data. It’s no wonder that they are offering Business Intelligence extensions for Omnnifind. Microsoft is pursuing search as a commodity extension for its portfolio of products. FAST tries to map the complexity of the organization to the search tool.
Exactly who is right and what the correct approach is isn’t clear. Maybe they all are. At least for now. Every organization is unique. Different approaches to search may map differently based on the organization.
