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TELECOMS AND SOFTWARE NEWS
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ISYS breaking the duopoly
Mike Davis
ISYS breaking the duopoly
In a very welcome announcement, ISYS Search Software has released ISYS File Readers, which are aimed at being embedded in other vendors' search applications on an OEM basis. Whilst at first glance this may be considered just a technical issue, it is actually potentially disruptive to the two main providers of file readers and, importantly, ensures that both software vendors and enterprises have the security of choice in their software.
Enterprise search has a secret
One of the lesser known facts about the enterprise search world is that to index the content of a file the search program has to understand the structure of that file, and that requires filters known as file readers. Creating robust filters that can not only extract the text but also add precision for retrieval by identifying headings, tables etc. requires considerable coding effort and testing. Hence for most search application vendors it is easier to OEM an existing set of file readers than to build their own from scratch.The ISYS product, launched on 25 March, reportedly supports 200 file, email and container formats in 60 languages, and is particularly targeted at implementations of the open source Lucene, which requires third-party filters.The risks of duopoly Through the process of acquisition and consolidation of vendors in the enterprise content management (ECM) and enterprise search markets, until last week there were only two commercially licensed File Reader packages left: Autonomy's KeyView and Oracle's Outside In - the latter coming as part of Oracle's takeover of Stellent.Microsoft also has its IFilter Framework, but this is intended to be an integral part of other Microsoft offerings rather than a standalone product.While there are a number of open source products, the reality is that Autonomy and Oracle provide the overwhelming majority of file readers, with the appropriate licensing revenues - and neither offering is cheap. Although having a duopoly of providers does give a level of competition, it is not beyond the bounds of possibility that Oracle could in the future acquire Autonomy, and the subject of file readers may not be visible to those that would check for anti-trust issues.Competition is good This is a good move for ISYS Search, adding significantly to its value as a business, and also for the enterprise content management and search markets, which could have been regarded as stagnating a bit following the rapid consolidation of recent years.
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