Oracle makes enterprise search easier

Oracle's new technology to help staff navigate disparate data sources

Oracle has announced new search technology to help staff trawl through a firm’s data sources. The system is designed to be easy to manage and can enforce security policies.

Secure Enterprise Search 10g is a standalone search engine that can return results from a range of sources, including internal and external web sites, databases, content management systems, portals, email systems and enterprise applications, according to Oracle’s director of technology marketing, Andy Cleverly.

“The algorithms we use are very Google-like, and we have built in the [same] identity management capabilities [as] our Fusion middleware to make it secure,” said Cleverly. “Authorisation is the same as access to corporate applications – it’s done as a centralised policy.”

A simple web-based interface is intended to reduce training and support costs, and the technology will also be easy for IT administrators to configure, Cleverly added.

However, David Mitchell of analyst Ovum said Oracle may struggle against some “powerful incumbents”. “I think Oracle has the potential to go forward in terms of [offering functionality for searching] structured and unstructured data,” he said. “But it is a very crowded marketplace with many content management and information retrieval specialists.”

Bjorn Olstad, chief technology officer at enterprise search specialist Fast Search & Transfer, said Oracle’s moves into enterprise search systems had been widely predicted. “When such a big player moves onto the scene it certainly helps to educate the public about the nature of enterprise search,” Olstad added.