출처 : http://www.cmswatch.com/Feature/175-Search-2008
The Enterprise Search Vendors
AutonomyThough it's been nearly 3 years since Autonomy acquired prime competitor Verity, the sense of rapid change at the vendor, and with it their suite of tools, continues. Fusing disparate corporate philosophies and technological approaches (Autonomy's IDOL has always been based on statistical algorithms, versus Verity's traditional language processing approach) has taken time, and the mish-mash of products and technologies in the works and under relatively rapid development at Autonomy compels us to place them in the lower left of the Turbulence sector of the chart. We'd like to think they're moving towards Balance, though, as several parts of the Verity's former K2 have strengthened IDOL in areas where it was traditionally weak. As the major high-end player in the enterprise search market, realizing growth at a pace will have to be achieved by branching out into new territory, and it remains to be seen whether some of its remarkable applications of the technology can accomplish that. For now, Autonomy still feels like a smorgasbord of tools that's constantly changing with the chef's whim.
FAST Search and Transfer / MicrosoftDespite the progress Microsoft had made with their own search technology in the last year to 18 months, the recent acquisition of FAST Search and Transfer demonstrates not only an increased focus on enterprise search, but also speaks to the many gaps that still exist in Microsoft's technology that they hope to fill with FAST. So we place Microsoft and FAST in the Shifting sector, as both vendors are in a rapid state of change, and the tools are changing at a slightly faster than normal rate when considering the enterprise search sector as a whole.
IBMIt's taken Big Blue a while to put its search story together. Characteristically, IBM finds itself awash in good technology, but challenged by more prosaic matters involving product-line integration. Yet, there is progress to report. The past year has seen IBM fold a number of acquired search technologies together into a single unified product line -- the OmniFind family -- with multiple flavors to suit different business needs. Hence our placing IBM in the Shifting sector, but close to Balance.
OracleOracle Secure Enterprise Search is still quite a young product, and although it seems stable and reliable, it doesn't yet match the more sophisticated features of many specialized search products. What OSES inherited from Oracle's many acquisitions isn't very clear-cut. While this duck looks like Ultra Search and quacks like Text (two of Oracle's legacy search technologies), Ultra Search is now end of life (or, as Oracle puts it, in "maintenance mode"), but Secure Search is a familiar-looking successor, and bits and bobs of functionality from other acquisitions are likely to pop up in each new OSES release. Hence our placement in the Turbulence sector.
dtSearch and MondosoftdtSearch has expanded its product line over the last five years, and the company's sizable development staff makes for consistent-to-rapid-paced product development. With Microsoft's acquisition of FAST, it will be interesting to see how Microsoft-centric search platforms like dtSearch and Mondosoft will fare. Mondosoft, which declared bankruptcy in 2007, was scooped up and seemingly saved by fellow Danish company SurfRay (though, several US-based Mondosoft phone numbers appear to be out of service). Hence our placement of both vendors in the Shifting sector.
EndecaEndeca has grown rapidly since its founding in 1999, and appears to be on a roll. The company is considered a prime candidate for an IPO, and with about 500 employees, it's one of the biggest search-centric companies. Customers report strong customer service, and product development continues at a healthy clip, although the technology remains quite complicated. Hence our firm placement of Endeca in the Balance sector.
ExaleadFrench company Exalead offers its "one:search" suite of products for desktop, messaging, and intranet search. Though the software is a bit limited in the range of content sources it can access, both the vendor and the pace of product development are relatively stable. Hence our placing Exalead in the Balance sector.
FunnelbackAustralian universities and government agencies make up the majority of Funnelback's customer base, and the company is perhaps one of the few in this report that isn't undergoing some major shakeup or product shift due to an acquisition or the need to update a legacy technology to compete in the enterprise search space. By the same token, the company's product development is comparably slow (which could be to your liking). Hence our firm placement of Funnelback in the Maintenance sector.
SAPDespite the debut of NetWeaver Enterprise Search, enterprise search is not a major area of focus for SAP as a whole, even if it is now an "official" SAP product. The deeper story here is that NetWeaver Search is tailored to search within an SAP platform, is still undergoing a major overhaul, and is as of yet untested in the marketplace. As such, we expect it to undergo some major revisions in 2008 as real customers start using it. Hence we have positioned SAP in the Overhaul bordering Refresh sector.
RecommindRecommind is a stable, privately-held company with a stable product set, developing its technology continuously, if conservatively. Hence our placement of them in the Balance bordering on Statis and Maintenance sectors.
VivisimoVivisimo's Velocity is a platform in shift -- one that traditionally provided simple clustering and federated search results. Recently the company is more rapidly developing its product to compete in the wider enterprise search market. Version 6 is now getting more firmly established in the marketplace, and in many ways, Vivisimo is pedaling fast to compete with the larger enterprise search vendors. Hence our placement in the Refresh bordering on Turbulence sector.
CoveoThough Coveo has been quite successful to date by focusing on SharePoint integration, they're dropping this focus as they don't want to compete directly with the looming Microsoft / FAST duo (they had, in fact, shifted focus even prior to Microsoft's move to acquire FAST). They're now going after "a much larger chunk of the corporate information." Product development has been stable and consistent to date, as has company growth, hence our firm placement of Coveo in the Balance sector.
ISYSAustralian-based vendor ISYS shows a long-standing tradition of listening to the wishes of their customers, and their comparably accelerated pace of product development reflects that. Hence our placement of ISYS on the border between the Balance and Refresh sectors.
GoogleYou may find it odd that Google's circle is only half filled in, showing its focus on enterprise search is not as committed as others'. But let's not forget that much of the company is focused Google.com's public web search engine and a host of other enterprise applications; the Search Appliance is but one appendage of Googzilla. While product features and development lags many competitors', Google as a vendor continues to evolve at an accelerated clip, hence our placement of Google on the border of the Balance and Shifting sectors.
ThunderstoneThunderstone is a reliable company and its search appliance is a stable product -- almost to the point of stasis, which explains its position on the chart.
Open TextThe wide spectrum of products Open Text offers are often mixed and matched by the company in order to, as they say, "provide solutions rather than products," with search integrated in those solutions in various ways. Though in the early years of Open Text search was the core focus, with each acquisition and new service, Open Text has evolved into a more difficult company to categorize, providing an extremely wide span of content-related services. So while vendor evolution is rapid, enterprise search product development is less so; hence our placement in the Restructuring sector.
Omniture / Visual SciencesVisual Sciences, formerly WebSideStory and Atomz before that, was acquired by Omniture in 2007. It seems both the search and content management products have undergone little to no development ever since, and the future continues to be uncertain as many of the tools appear to be on the auction block. Thus we place Omniture / Visual Sciences firmly in the Restructuring category.
LuceneLucene has a well-established, large and active community, and this solid, proven core technology is overcoming performance concerns. As the backbone for several other vendors' enterprise search offerings, it's not likely to suffer neglect any time soon. Hence our firm placement of Lucene in the Balance category.
