Gartner MQ 2014 for Search: Surprise!
Funny, just last week I tweeted about how late the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Search is this year. Usually it's out in March, and here it is, July.
Well, it's out - and boy does it have some surprises! My first take:
Coveo, a great search platform that runs on Windows only, is in the Leaders quadrant, and best overall in the "Completeness of Vision". Don't get me wrong, it's a great search platform; but I guess completeness of vision does not include completeness of platform. Linux your flavor? Sorry.
HP/Autonomy IDOL is in the upper right quadrant as well, back strong as the top in 'Ability to Execute' and in the top three on 'Completeness of Vision'. IDOL has always reminded me of the reliable old Douglas DC-3, described by aviation enthusiasts as 'a collection of parts flying in loose formation', but it really does offer everything enterprise search needs. And, because it loves big hardware, everything that HP loves to sell.
BA Insight surprised me with their Knowledge Integration Platform at the top of the Visionaries quadrant. It enhances Microsoft SharePoint Search, or runs with a stand-alone version of Lucene. It's very cool, yes. But I sure don't think of it as a search engine. Do you? More on this later.
Attivio comes in solid in the lower right 'Visionaries' quadrant. I'd really expected to see them further along on both measures, so I'm surprised.
I'm really quite disappointed that Gartner places my former employer Lucidworks solidly in the lower left 'Niche players' quadrant. I think Lucidworks has a very good vision of where they want to go, and I think most enterprises will find it compelling once they take a look. I don’t think I'm biased when I say that this may be Gartner's big miss this year. And OK, I understand that, like BA Insight's Knowledge product, Lucidworks needs a search engine to run, but it feels more like a true search platform.
Big surprise: IHS, which I have always thought as a publisher, has made it to the Gartner Niche quadrant as a search platform. Odd.
Other surprises: IBM in the Niche market quadrant, based on 'Ability to Execute'. Back at Verity, then CEO Philippe Courtot got the Gartner folks to admit that the big component of Ability to Execute was really about how long you could fund the project and I have to confess I figured IBM (and Google) as the MQ companies with the best cash position.
If you're not a Gartner client, I'm sorry you won't get the report or the insights Whit Andrews (@WhitAndrews _), a long time search analyst who knows his stuff. You can still find the report from several vendors happy to let you download the Gartner MQ Search from them. Search Google and find the link you most prefer, or call your vendor for a full copy.
/s/Miles
It always helps to understand the "business model" behind Gartner's Magic Quadrant. I also would have expected a better ranking of LucidWorks, Attivio and also ElasticSearch. But imagine a Magic Quadrant full of open source technologies backed by commercial companies - not a good landscape for making a lot of business with expensive analyst studies which also want to be funded.
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Daniel, thanks for the post. I agree that money seems to play a big part in the MQ - I understand that you have a certain 'market cap'; and it probably helps to be a Gartner subscriber to be realistically considered. But given that, I think Whit and his team do look at some objective criteria. I think I'm being objective when I say that the LW position surprised me; they have a very strong vision in the works, but that seems to have not mattered. You and I will probably differ about Elasticsearch: I don't think they are really "Enterprise Search" even tho they have a pretty damn cool search product. One of my next blogs is planned to address that - when you see that one, let's talk again ok? (I'm happy to email and/or talk, rather than dance back and forth in comments too. Let me know!)
/s/ Miles
Posted by: Daniel Schneiter | July 23, 2014 at 02:13 PM