New effort ups ante in battle with Google
Microsoft ups ante in battle with Google, others to provide enterprise search across corporate systems while easing adoption, rollouts
Microsoft Tuesday made a dramatic statement about its future in enterprise search by introducing a free search server along with a licensed version, both of which align with search software already offered via SharePoint Server.
The company unveiled Microsoft Search Server Express 2008, which will be offered for free, and a fee-based upgrade called Microsoft Search Server 2008. A preview of Search Server Express that runs on Windows 2003 Server is available for download.
Both Search Server versions will be generally available in the first half of 2008, and both team with SQL Server on the back-end. Microsoft fully expects its partners to use the software to build stand-alone search appliances.
In addition, Microsoft plans to support the OpenSearch specification and use it to anchor a federated search environment that can integrate results from disparate search platforms.
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The two new search offerings create an entry point and a midtier in a Microsoft enterprise search portfolio that previously included only SharePoint Server.
Microsoft is using a familiar model of seeding a market with a free tool to entice users to experiment and backing it up with a path to migrate to more full-featured versions. Microsoft used the model with SharePoint, offering SharePoint Services for free as part of Windows Server, and aligning it with SharePoint Server, a stand-alone content management, collaboration product and search engine with its own licensing requirements.
The two new search servers are based on technology baked into SharePonit Server.
Critics say Microsoft’s strategy will disrupt in the short-term an enterprise search market that has Google and IBM, with OmniFind Yahoo, offering no-cost or low-cost entry-level appliances or software.
In the long term, high-end vendors that integrate with corporate infrastructure and applications — such as Autonomy, Fast Search & Transfer, Endeca Search and Vivisimo — also could face pressure from Microsoft, the same critics conclude.
“Microsoft sees Google doing well selling search appliances, and it is clear there is some sort of inexpensive search thing that is desired [by the enterprise],” says Guy Creese, an analyst with the Burton Group. “But [Microsoft’s move] is also part of a larger search strategy. You start with Express and oops, you need load balancing, and now you can move to Search Server and then you can move up to SharePoint Server. The strategy provides a lot of points where Microsoft can bring search into the enterprise. It’s part of a long-term effort to make search part of the infrastructure.”
Experts say Microsoft Search Server Express and Search Server will probably be judged initially as being “good enough” for divisions, departments or workgroups and will bring a new visibility to the enterprise search market.
“Being able to do it for free at an entry level, being able to install it easily makes it compelling to look at,” says Jim Murphy, an analyst with AMR Research.
But Murphy says the high-end search vendors will continue to offer search as part of the network architecture with links to business intelligence and customer service.
“Users won’t get that now from Microsoft, but they will eventually,” Murphy says. “Microsoft will open up the controls over time, and they will become more of a viable platform.”
Murphy says part of Microsoft’s motivation with search is to block Google from becoming the interface to enterprise data.
“That is part of the threat to Microsoft from Google,” Murphy says. “So I see Microsoft’s search strategy as a protective strategy.” Murphy says SAP and Oracle also are facing the same threat from Microsoft and Google.
“They don’t want people to start accessing their data via a Google or Microsoft generic search application, because then those companies lose their opportunity to sell more seats, which is a big part of their revenue,” Murphy said.
Microsoft is entering the market with its typical bravado and aiming at defining the evolution of enterprise search.
“Twelve to 18 months from now we believe we will be looking back at [today] as the tipping point in the enterprise search space from a market-adoption standpoint,” said Rhett Dillingham, product manager on the enterprise search team in Microsoft’s business division.
He says user acceptance of search on the Internet will translate into those users demanding the same tools on the corporate network, and that will drive corporate rollouts.
“Today companies have the option between simplicity and power; it is tough to get both,” Dillingham said, but Microsoft is aiming to do just that.
Experts say the idea is to change corporate thinking about how search is rolled out.
“Microsoft is trying to redefine search less as a monolithic tool and more as something that is essential for effective collaboration, document sharing and content management,” says Ken Poore, a senior analyst at Forrester Research.
“They are building this connector gallery, they are building this collaboration environment around search that includes people interested in search and sharing their connections and opening up search.”
The Search Server versions will ship with connectors for file shares, SharePoint sites, Lotus Notes repositories and Exchange public folders. Microsoft also will have connectors for EMC’s Documentum and IBM’s FileNet in early 2008.
In addition, Microsoft is working with partners and its own product groups around the OpenSearch specification. Open Text, Business Objects SA, Cognos and EMC have pledged to develop federated search connectors based on the standard.
OpenSearch will let the Microsoft search interface show results from other search services.
Express versions will use the free SQL Express database as a basic install and provide indexing of nearly 400,000 to 500,000 documents. Users will be required to run the search services and the database on a single box. Document limitations are not preset but are determined by configuration.
The Express version also can be installed with an Advanced option, so users can attach Express to a separate SQL Server database, version 2000 SP3a or higher, and index nearly a million documents, according to Microsoft. Users will have to license the separate SQL Server.
The fee-based Search Server version is different from the Express version in that it separates the index service from the search service to provide scalability. It includes support for load balancing and high-availability features.
With SharePoint Server, the software adds search based on people and topics, and provides indexing of line-of-business applications via an XML-interface.
Pricing for Search Server will be announced when the final product ships next year.
