Enterprise search — the simplest and most frequently deployed aspect of information access technology — now dominates the dialogue between organizations and vendors on how to improve the ability to find information in numerous and disparate information repositories. Major vendors have come to dominate the market in inquiry, but numerous smaller vendors remain very effective at delivering the capabilities necessary to create search installations.

Organizations that require specialized search-based applications (specifically, knowledge management for a high-tech electronics manufacturer) will want to seek a vendor with specialized vocabularies, ontologies and workflow. Simpler projects, such as making an intranet searchable, fall within the purview of this document. Generalist platforms that may address a broad spectrum of business problems after developers customize their capabilities also are addressed here.

Gartner's Magic Quadrant for Information Access Technology was changed to an Enterprise Search MarketScope to reflect the changing needs and approach of users, which has embraced generalist (and often basic) enterprise search to address its project requirements. Specialized search-based applications are still priced to match their greater value for companies and organizations that must find information as a key element of strategic projects. Vendors that offer specialized search-based applications only have been eliminated, because they do very little or no basic enterprise search.

As a result, we have discarded the scored criteria of application specialty, intense sophistication and vertical specialty as ways to identify leaders. We also no longer assign scores for collections of content-file-type readers or repository connectors or for security system connectors.

Vendors that participated in the Magic Quadrant for Information Access Technology but not appearing here include:

• Vivisimo, which is now focusing on specialized application categories, such as customer service.

• Recommind, which is focusing on knowledge for law firms and other professional services organizations, as well as e-discovery.

• Zylab, which is focusing on investigatory applications and e-discovery.

• Kazeon, acquired by EMC, which is now focusing on e-discovery.

Other vendors that are not included here because they did not meet at least one criterion include Lucid Imagination, a young services firm which is developing applications on Lucene; Coveo, a search firm targeting general applications and customer service; Dieselpoint, a small vendor that has sought to establish interoperability as a key strength; and dtSearch, a well regarded small vendor with attractive pricing, largely for OEM relationships, as well as for other generalist purposes.

Additionally, we did not include vendors that embed search as an element of a larger product line and that do not sell it as a stand-alone product, such as Open Text.

Enterprise search matches users' queries against an index to return relevant documents and data in a result set intended for workers' direct consumption. Consumer Web search is not included.

Pricing models, delivery models and methods for satisfying prospects and customers continue to vary dramatically. Some vendors offer only conventionally installed software, some offer hardware-based appliances and others offer software-as-a-service. Few focus on a single model while declining to provide others. Simultaneously, vendors must offer connectors to both traditional and unconventional data sources. (A traditional source would be a file server or a content management system, a less traditional system might be an external website or a video content management and delivery system.) Finally, they must integrate with various security systems to allow for authentication of users, possibly offering late-binding security that checks privileges during the process of data flow.

Gartner measures the compound annual growth rate for the enterprise search market at 11.7% from 2007 to 2013. In 2010, we believe the market to be $1.37 billion, growing to 1.89 billion in 2013.

Enterprise search products from the vendors included must:

• Ordinarily be used for generalist projects.

• Must have been marketed actively in 2009, in two or more of the following continental markets — Asia and Australia, North America and South America, Europe and the Middle East and Africa.

• Be purchasable and operable separately from all other products (such as portals, infrastructure, records management or customer relationship management products).

• Be natively developed or founded on open source technology.

• The vendor must have had greater than $10 million in any revenue in 2009.

The enterprise search market has endured about 15 years as a robust, distinct market intended to aid companies and governments in making their information available. The products in the market are still undergoing development and innovation, although fewer vendors now pursue general-purpose projects (such as rendering an intranet or tactical website searchable). It continues to grow, with the majority of the sales taking place at the "low" end, with affordable products, such as the Google Search Appliance or Microsoft Search Server, capturing the spotlight.

Autonomy has dramatically expanded its ambitions with a series of acquisitions during the last decade and now stands as the most significant enterprise search vendor, independent of a larger entity. Its primary product, Idol, is highly sophisticated and demands substantial resource investments to achieve success, but it is also particularly flexible and extensible. (Ultraseek, a small portion of Autonomy's business, no longer pursues new business and is mostly community-supported.)

Autonomy is best selected by enterprises pursuing specific projects in e-discovery, regulatory compliance, and possibly Web content management, an area in which its Interwoven property is particularly valuable.

Strengths:

• Owns a broad collection of file-type and repository connectors.

• A highly sophisticated product is ideal for developing search-based applications.

• A broad product line beyond search makes it attractive for projects that have a larger footprint.

Cautions:

• Customers report in inquiry that Autonomy's sales, support and pricing transparency are problematic. Autonomy has developed a customer liaison program which is intended to relieve these issues.

• Idol's sophistication is also challenging to work with, as some clients report the product is too difficult to develop with. Therefore it is best not to select this product for simple enterprise search projects.

Rating: Positive

Endeca's general-purpose products intended to serve organizations seeking to develop general search installations are broadly applicable for a variety of different search challenges. The company remains strong in its electronic commerce and publishing roots. It is seeking to develop a new market area in business intelligence for non-technical decision makers.

Strengths

• Particularly strong at revealing the logical elements that lead to particular results being returned to users.

• Has significantly invested in federation as a means of broadening search, while seeking to preserve comparative relevance scoring and results interface.

• Conversational results design is very accessible to application designers, improving the product's facility for reducing ambiguity in results.

• Effectively addresses social search to allow users to collaborate effectively in information gathering.

Cautions

• Early success in e-commerce has dominated its brand's identity.

• Best known for addressing structured data instead of unstructured content.

Rating: Strong Positive

Exalead has been acquired by Dassault Systemes, which describes a path for the search vendor that includes its long-term persistence as an independent operating unit retaining a search focus. Dassault's history in such acquisitions' autonomic operation is strong. Exalead is not yet well-known in North America, but is appearing more in inquiry. Exalead has achieved significant success in large-scale installations.

Strengths:

• Highly sophisticated product is ideal for developing search-based applications.

• Has significantly invested in federation as a means of broadening search while seeking to preserve comparative relevance scoring and results interface.

• Conversational results design is very accessible to application designers, improving the product's facility for reducing ambiguity in results.

• Effectively addresses social search to allow users to collaborate effectively in information gathering.

Cautions:

• Ability for Dassault to expand into search is unproven as yet.

• Expansion into North America must build further momentum (but is improving).

Rating: Positive

Expert System continues to seek a stronger expansion into North America, where most of its success has come in the particular field of competitive and market intelligence, as well as sentiment analysis. Its basic search products are not widely known, but references gave positive reports on its effectiveness. The vendor has struggled to identify niche markets in which it can establish mastery in the United States and must continue to invest there.

Strengths:

• Highly sophisticated product is ideal for developing search-based applications.

• Particularly strong in sentiment analysis.

• References report that tools for customization are particularly flexible.

Cautions:

• Must effectively develop a sales program outside its geographical center of gravity to capture sufficient revenue and attention.

• Natural language focus constrains its ability to achieve breadth across significantly heterogeneous languages.

Rating: Promising

The Mindbreeze subsidiary of Fabasoft continues to improve and hone its search product, now offering an appliance and a simple pricing scheme. Fabasoft, an Austrian vendor of a variety of content management products, has no major presence in the U.S. Mindbreeze will need to focus sharply on particular business challenges to grow its sales in this large market. The vendor has struggled to identify niche markets in which it can establish mastery in the United States and must continue to invest there.

Strengths:

• A broad product line beyond search makes it attractive for projects that have a larger footprint.

• Effectively addresses social search to allow users to collaborate effectively in information gathering.

• Notable for ease of administrators' use.

Cautions:

• Must effectively develop a sales program outside its geographical center of gravity to capture sufficient revenue and attention.

• Still developing particular areas of focus and competency outside generalist foundation.

Rating: Positive

Google seeded the search market with a radical change when it introduced the Google Search Appliance in 2002, driving the overall market toward acceptance and even ardor for simpler, easier products. Google's brand name has abetted its pursuit of small-project, simple installations.

It continues to roll out new functionality that makes it more attractive to more sophisticated projects, but it still lags many other vendors in the development of market-leading functionality. On the other hand, it does continue to incorporate popular functionality for lower prices than its competitors, which may have originated such features.

Strengths:

• Steady, but deliberate feature-addition program is bringing it closer to vendors with greater flexibility and extensibility; investments in tuning and security in particular have been valuable.

• Notable for ease of administrators' use.

• Basic interoperability OneBox protocol offers easy (but shallow) federation.

• Strong initial results for installations make the product popular.

Cautions:

• Disinclination to share a specific road map for future capabilities baffles organizations which expect such conventional perspectives.

• Customer service has improved, as several enterprises report extended engagements with Google engineers — but it remains uneven, as others report challenges in dealing with Google support.

Rating: Strong Positive

IBM has wrestled with a too-broad product line that included many products, and customers still report that its sales force faces particular challenges in selecting and positioning search products for given challenges. (Products in search include Omnifind Enterprise Edition, Omnifind Discovery Edition, and Omnifind Enterprise Starter Edition.)

Nevertheless, its search products now are seen as better than adequate for many basic enterprise search challenges. It is simultaneously developing more sophisticated technologies to pursue business intelligence and content analytics-driven projects.

Strengths:

• A broad product line beyond search makes it attractive for projects that have a larger footprint.

• Open source foundation appeals to enterprises that seek stability.

• Particular facility in addressing indexing of other IBM products, such as Lotus Notes.

• Highly sophisticated content analytics products are ideal for developing search-based applications.

Cautions:

• Product line remains complex, although road map is encouraging.

• Administration must become simpler.

Rating: Positive

Isys offers a low-priced, effective package of search functionality for a wide spectrum of solutions and is particularly well-regarded for its service and attention to customer needs. Isys has established specialties in OEM, government and law enforcement, but maintains a strong generalist business, and offers competitive pricing in alternatives to more sophisticated products in many cases.

Strengths:

• Owns a broad collection of file-type and repository connectors.

• Effectively addresses social search to allow users to collaborate effectively in information gathering.

• Notable for ease of administrators' use.

• Very positive references for services and vendor-led customization.

• Broad customer base in law enforcement and the public sector.

Cautions:

• Less known in market.

Rating: Positive

Microsoft has surged to a leadership position through offering effective, basic search and more sophisticated search for inward- or outward-facing applications. Its decision to eventually retire its Linux version of Fast Search and Transfer software (while promising support through 2019) causes concern that its Fast product will increasingly focus on SharePoint as a platform and gives Fast's most innovative customers some concern.

Microsoft seeks to allay these fears through continuing its research and development for such applications. It also will emphasize the Web-facing search capability as it turns SharePoint toward such installations.

Strengths:

• A broad product line beyond search makes it attractive for projects that have a larger footprint.

• Particularly strong at transparently revealing the logical elements that lead to a particular result being returned to users.

• Has significantly invested in federation as a means of broadening search while seeking to preserve comparative relevance scoring and results interface.

• Effectively addresses social search to allow users to collaborate effectively in information gathering.

• Notable for ease of administrators' use, especially SharePoint administrators' use.

• Highly sophisticated product is ideal for developing search-based applications.

Cautions:

• Clients express concern that it will focus on SharePoint to the detriment of non-SharePoint features.

Rating: Strong Positive

Oracle has focused on its loyal customer base and internally allied applications, such as Customer Relationship Management. Its product is regarded as good enough to accomplish the majority of projects these prospects require.

Strengths:

• Particular facility in addressing the indexing of other Oracle products.

• Owns a broad collection of file-type and repository connectors.

• A broad application product family beyond search makes it attractive for projects that have a larger footprint.

Cautions:

• Most sales are taking place in Oracle-specific environments, which limits its visibility outside Oracle.

• Relatively limited and conventional delivery model options.

Rating: Promising

PolySpot continues to seek to expand its U.S. presence but is barely known in that critical market. Its product is simple and allows for the effective development of search applications.

Strengths:

• Conversational results design is very accessible to application designers, improving the product's facility for reducing ambiguity in results.

• Effectively addresses social search to allow users to collaborate effectively in information gathering.

• Notable for ease of administrators' use.

Cautions:

• Must effectively develop a sales program outside its geographical center of gravity to capture sufficient revenue and attention.

• Must develop specific competencies to pursue to gain visibility in particular use cases.

Rating: Promising

Sinequa continues to seek to expand its U.S. presence (and is making significant investments in 2010) but is barely known so far in that critical market. Its references report that it is particularly easy to set up and use for a highly sophisticated product. Sinequa has won some significant contracts against better known vendors for collaboration and knowledge management.

Strengths:

• Particularly strong at transparently revealing the logical elements that lead to a particular result being returned to users.

• Conversational results design is very accessible to application designers, improving the product's facility for reducing ambiguity in results.

• Effectively addresses social search to allow users to collaborate effectively in information gathering.

• Notable for ease of administrators' use.

• Highly sophisticated product is ideal for developing search-based applications.

Cautions:

• Must effectively develop a sales program outside its geographical center of gravity to capture sufficient revenue and attention.

• Relatively limited and conventional delivery model options.

Rating: Positive