Comments on: Microsoft Delivers a Bundle of Joy

By: Joseph Arduini

Joseph Arduini — Sat, 06 Aug 2011 08:45:20 +0000

I believe that focusing on data management is a core essential for enterprise search systems both software- and hardware-based. Ideally the search efficiency is key and it seems that appliance-accompanied solutions are the highest performing due to their optimized collection methods.

By: How Does Your Organization Use SharePoint? | The Noisy Channel

How Does Your Organization Use SharePoint? | The Noisy Channel — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 21:44:08 +0000

[...] the increasingly tight integration of SharePoint and FAST, Microsoft’s enterprise search offering, my interest in how people use [...]

By: Daniel Tunkelang

Daniel Tunkelang — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 03:52:36 +0000

It will be an interesting year. Online retail is one of the few bright spots in the current economy, so I’m not surprised that FAST wants a piece of it. And, even though I think we can safely agree that Endeca is the leader in that market segment, I can assure you that none of us at Endeca are complacent about it. Especially since FAST’s “interaction management” messaging gives me and my colleagues more than a little deja vu.

To be clear, I think that FAST + SharePoint is a legitimate strategy for Microsoft, even if it’s not their only one. SharePoint has been a winner for Microsoft’s business division, and search is evidently one of its sore points. Besides, as you said, they can’t be everything to everybody.

I guess we’ll find out over the next months / years if they can walk and chew gum at the same time.

By: Adriaan Bloem

Adriaan Bloem — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 02:38:30 +0000

Well, that would certainly be advantageous to Endeca… but I don’t think Microsoft is going to give up on the (presumably quite profitable) eCommerce scenarios, just yet

If anything, that was one of the two major announcements (FAST for Internet Business), with a nice demo as well. It makes sense for Microsoft to more clearly define use cases for ESP and market them (FAST was always trying to be everything to everybody), and they’ve done some interesting things for the Internet Business version.

I’m going to have a close look at how Endeca, FAST and Autonomy are each supporting that scenario in different ways — it’ll be more important than ever for customers to know what the differences are.

By: Daniel Tunkelang

Daniel Tunkelang — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 02:32:22 +0000

Adriaan, thanks for the link. I cited Microsoft’s promise of 10 years of support for current FAST customers in my post, including those on not using Windows, let alone SharePoint. I just wonder how much Microsoft will have their hearts into supporting something they seem to be leaving behind. Yes, I work for a competitor, but I think my reaction is a reasonable one.

In any case, it seems to me (and it seems you mostly agree) that the big news is that FAST will be available as a cheap add-on for SharePoint, and that Microsoft is betting on the bundle being worth more than its parts. It’s certainly a defensible strategy, and consistent with Microsoft’s history.

By: Adriaan Bloem

Adriaan Bloem — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 22:56:40 +0000

There were announcements for FAST Search for Internet Business and FAST Search for SharePoint, but those were just PR highlights — the gist is, the “for SharePoint” will be relatively cheap, and “current FAST customers” will be supported in the future — even when they’re on Unix/Linux. http://www.cmswatch.com/Trends/1498-Microsoft-discloses-plans-for-FAST-ESP

By: Daniel Tunkelang

Daniel Tunkelang — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 15:45:38 +0000

Interesting. Will that be a distinct product? I couldn’t find anything on the official SharePoint blog.

http://blogs.msdn.com/sharepoint/search.aspx?q=ESP+for+SharePoint

By: simonbaptist

simonbaptist — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 15:25:07 +0000

I was part of the FAST acquisition but 100% have no inside knowldge of this announcement but I would think the key point is: “ESP for SharePoint ” at that price point and not plain ESP.