Search 2008
Enterprise Search Vendor Landscape, Circa 2008
by Theresa Regli and Adriaan Bloem
19-Feb-2008
You might be tempted to select vendors for your shortlist based on their supposed "leadership" status in the market -- status either conferred by analyst firms or assumed by the vendors themselves. However, as our Enterprise Search Report 2008 amply describes, enterprise search represents a very wide range of technologies to solve an equally wide range of information findability problems.
Our aim is to provide you with current and verified information to make the right "fit" choice for your specific needs. Once you have selected toolsets that meet your requirements, you also need to consider the status of the vendors. Appearance in a top right quadrant on an analyst chart does little more than tell you who has the biggest revenues in the sector, along with the widest array of technology to offer. It does not tell you whether the vendor's corporate status is in state of flux, or whether the product set is currently undergoing an overhaul, or whether both are in the process of becoming somewhat irrelevant in the marketplace due to a lack of innovation and investment.
All of these above factors involve risk to you, the buyer. The purpose of the chart below then is to provide you with some key indicators to recognize and weigh those risks. It makes for very interesting reading (we believe), as you'll see that major brands do not always fair well and may, in some circumstances, represent an unacceptable risk.
To gain maximum value from this chart you need to consider two key factors: Your own enterprise and the search marketplace. Each buyer is different. What represents a high risk to one, may represent a chance for innovation and a competitive advantage to another. What represents a staid, uninspiring, and somewhat slow-moving product set to one, may represent a solid area of comfort and low risk to another. Matching your appetite for change and risk against the vendors is an important element of the selection process. Equally important is the knowledge that this chart is in constant flux. Each edition looks different as new products and initiatives are launched and others mature. As many enterprise search projects stretch over many months, monitoring this vendor movement is an important part of the project process.
Making Sense of the Chart
The chart below represents four key dimensions that we believe should supplement a functional and cost/value analyses in any major procurement decision. Use this tool in addition to the specific vendor chapters that look in more detail at the specific functional and technical capabilities of the product sets.
Enterprise search tools will become integral to your business, and in committing to a purchase you are also by default committing to a long-term relationship with the vendor. Major enterprise search vendors will gladly dazzle, and wine and dine your team, but though they may appear to be a safe and conservative choice, in fact today many are ironically higher-risk partners.
Let us be clear: there is no "right" or "magic" or "leader" location this chart. Buyers with strong internal IT processes and a predilection for "early adoption" may favor a vendor undertaking fundamental change, on the grounds that they can influence roadmaps and new technology and "leapfrog" competitors stuck with older tools and approaches. Other customers will prefer an enterprise search supplier evolving at a more moderate pace; while still other buyers will prefer a more conservative approach. It is for you to decide where your preferences sit.
The four dimensions we plot are:
Size -
Denotes the relative size and importance of the vendor in the broad technology marketplace.
Focus on enterprise search -
Indicates how much of the firm's efforts are focused on enterprise search. For some it is a side activity, for others it is the sole focus.
Vendor Evolution -
Weighs the current pace of change at the vendor itself: Is it evolving as the marketplace changes? Has it just been acquired, or acquired another product?
Product Development -
Weighs the current pace of change for the enterprise search solution. Is the product line about to undergo a major revision? Is the firm in the midst of trying to piece together many disparate modules? Or is little happening, with a mature product undergoing minimal change?
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Each buyer will rate the importance of these dimensions differently and we encourage you to make use of this tool interactively. Our placement of the vendors denotes our assessments as of early 2008; we will update it substantially at each revision of the report.
Indeed, this is a snapshot of vendors in motion. For a better sense of where each supplier is headed, consult the individual product chapters below.
The Vendors
Autonomy
Though 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 / Microsoft
Despite 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.
IBM
It'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.
Oracle
Oracle 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 Mondosoft
dtSearch 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.
Endeca
Endeca 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.
Exalead
French 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.
Funnelback
Australian 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.
SAP
Despite 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.
Recommind
Recommind 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.
Vivisimo
Vivisimo'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.
Coveo
Though 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.
ISYS
Australian-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.
Google
You 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.
Thunderstone 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 Text
The 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 Sciences
Visual 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.
Lucene
Lucene 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.
Editor's note: this article was excerpted from the Enterprise Search Report 2008.