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Analysis: Enterprise Search: Page 2 of 26

We also found security concerns. An enterprise-search engine goes to work when a user points it at a file share. The software opens every document on the share--even those with sensitive information. Text and metadata from the file are extracted and indexed in a reverse index; most of the products we tested also cache document text or entire documents. We trust you see how that's a problem.

Worth The Price?

Big questions from the CIO: Why do we need this? What do these products really give an enterprise, aside from making it easier for sales folks to pull together proposals? Are they just pricey insurance against inevitable subpoenas? And how does cost stack up against functionality?

In a nutshell, end users are demanding the ability to gather knowledge from all corners of the enterprise, and as more information becomes digitized, being without sophisticated search will hamper productivity.

In addition, while recent changes in the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure didn't in themselves make implementing enterprise search a priority, they certainly jolted many IT groups out of complacency. Companies from Bank of America Securities to Philip Morris have shelled out billions in penalties for failing to provide business records. On a smaller scale, as information stores--databases, CMSs (content-management systems), file and Web servers--overflow with information, employees waste precious time digging for files that a federated-search engine might return in a fraction of a second.