Classification & Search Converge

The worlds of data search and classification continue to consolidate following a flurry of M&A activity, as users look for all-in-one products that can handle more than one task.

Classification specialist Autonomy ramped up its efforts in this space by throwing down $375 million for archiving firm Zantaz earlier this week, followed by Business Objects' acquisition of Inxight for an undisclosed fee. (See Autonomy Acquires Zantaz for $375M, and Autonomy Acquires Zantaz, Business Objects Closes on Inxight, and Business Objects to Acquire SRC Software.)

The rationale behind Autonomy's Zantaz deal was to create an all-singing, all-dancing solution combining both data classification and search features, something which is high on users' storage agendas. Typically, users have been confronted with buying two separate appliances to solve these problems. (See Classifiers Grab Search Partners.)

Enterprise Strategy Group analyst Brian Babineau tells Byte and Switch that there is likely to be plenty more consolidation in this corner of the market. "There's certainly going to be a lot of activity in this area," he says, adding that, initially, startups specializing in "conceptual search" are likely to see a lot more funding, possibly becoming acquisition fodder for the likes of EMC and IBM.

Recently, startups such as Attenex have begun touting in-depth search technologies that go beyond traditional keyword searching, enabling users to view the context in which different pieces of data are presented. "If funding comes in, then there's a lot more enterprise search technologies for these types of partnerships and acquisitions," says Babineau.For the time being, at least, the classification/search market is still split into two camps. In the classification corner, Google, Autonomy, and Business Objects aim to make sense of users' growing mass of unstructured data. (See The Ongoing Search, Google One-Ups Intranet Search, and Google Intros OneBox.) Google has already made a song and dance about Web classification, unveiling a high-end search appliance called the OneBox aimed at enterprises and a low-end Mini device for smaller firms. (See Google Unveils New Mini.)

Google touts its devices as a way for users to target data on specific business intelligence applications. The OneBox, for instance, trawls the Web with workforce automation, customer resource management (CRM), enterprise resource planning (ERP), and business intelligence packages. (See Google Bangs Application Drum, Google One-Ups Intranet Search, Google Intros OneBox, and Google.

In the search corner are vendors like Index Engines, Kazeon, Scentric, and StoredIQ, many of whom are looking to tie their wares to products from the likes of Google. (See Content Classifiers Glom Onto Google, Kazeon Reduces Cost of E-Discovery, Scentric Rolls Out Suites, Classifiers Grab Search Partners, and Index Intros eDiscovery Appliance.)

ESG's Babineau was unable to identify any individual vendors as the next possible acquisition target, although he feels that only one firm is unlikely to get acquired. "Anyone except for Google [could get bought]," he says, adding that even Yahoo, which uses the open-source Lucene search tool, could enter the M&A equation.

In a Byte and Switch poll last year, the overwhelming majority of respondents said that they are drowning in a sea of unstructured data, with almost half relying on third-party data classification and search tools. (See Search Is On.)James Rogers, Senior Editor Byte and Switch