Comments on: Enterprise Search is Maturing

By: Trond Renshusløkken

Trond Renshusløkken — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 20:28:11 +0000

And to follow up on “truly schema agnostic indexes”. See this subproject being done at NTNU for the iAD Research Centre on Information Access Disruptions:

http://www.idi.ntnu.no/grupper/db/research/projects/ongoing/iad.php

By: Marcus Johansson

Marcus Johansson — Wed, 17 Nov 2010 21:18:24 +0000

I’d go even further and say that search technology is heading to become tomorrow’s integration layer and a place for business process modeling. The concept of “actionable result sets”, which we see and implement everywhere these days, is the first baby steps in that direction.

An enterprise search solution is always put in a central position, right in between source systems and end-users. There is by definition, and necessity, good connectivity in both directions. Scalability and fault-tolerance is already catered for. And most importantly, truly schema agnostic indexes are no longer just a farfetched idea. I think it’s safe to say that slicing and dicing of enterprise content, disregarding in which data repository the actual content belongs, is just around the corner!

Perhaps “corporate mash-up” is the next big buzz word? I said it first. ;)

By: Trond Renshusløkken

Trond Renshusløkken — Wed, 17 Nov 2010 15:26:09 +0000

Well observed Jørn.

My experience working with customers is that as soon as the internal “information marketplace” is established in the form of an enterprise-wide index, a whole bunch of new and innovating IT solutions are made possible. These solutions typically is developed as new views into the same index based on the previously established information model. Let the imagination prevail!

By: Vegard Sandvold

Vegard Sandvold — Thu, 21 Oct 2010 21:02:32 +0000

Nice article, Jørn!

A good description of how our business has changed over the years – for the better. I recognize the shift from plain bolt-on search to universal enterprise-wide information access. I hope it means that decision makers are comming to terms with two inconvenient truths about great enterprise search: 1) it demands a high initial investement up-front, as well as 2) significant and continous maintenance costs to keep both the index and the user interface sharp. Magic does not come for free :-)