Exalead Blog - The blog of Exalead

We are pleased to report that Exalead was named to Gartner’s 2008 Magic Quadrant for Information Access Technology, receiving high marks for “completeness of vision.” In fact, Exalead is one of only two Visionary companies in this year’s quadrant, as changes to the inclusion criteria eliminated several previous members.

An interesting point is that several of our key competitors in the space took a few steps backwards between now and 2007. Endeca, Google and Autonomy all took hits on the “ability to execute” scale, Microsoft FAST lost some ground on vision. We don’t want to speculate about why exactly this is, but it does seem to indicate that the demands of the space is shifting as it grows (Gartner estimated that globally the total 2007 software revenue in the enterprise search market neared $860.3 million and is expected to grow to $1.5 billion by 2012), and that perhaps it is time for a new breed of search vendor to take the lead.

According to the report, “Visionaries demonstrate imaginative and insightful approaches to the information access technology market… and possess architectural flexibility and creative means of establishing relevancy.” Of course, we don’t wear blinders ; we know Gartner thinks that we need to establish more traction and financial resources to make the jump to the Leaders quadrant, but with 170 customers worldwide and 100 million unique viewers a month we feel we are in a position to do this.

Additionally, we just found out we received a high ranking on this year’s Software 500 list (with a 310.8% growth rate); in fact, from 2007, our rank jumped by more than 70 points. We were also named one of the Top 10 companies in the $10-30 Million revenue range as well as one of the “Top 10 Leaders in Software Revenue Growth Overall.

With these numbers and our recent expansion into the U.S., the Leaders quadrant could be just around the corner….

The concept of “cloud computing” has been getting a bad rap lately, with Richard Stallman and Larry Ellison weighing in heavily on the “anti” side.

It is true that “cloud computing” is nebulous in nature.

We at Exalead have our own view of the cloud, perhaps better termed the “enterprise content cloud.” It is a cold, hard truth that enterprises are generating more and more information and that this information is becoming disassociated from the businesses users who need to access it. Data exists…well…everywhere– on a slew of devices, behind the firewall and outside of the firewall– and it has become a challenge to not only access this data but to even find it to make effective business decisions. Given all of these different silos of information, it is no wonder that there is a rapidly expanding chasm between the business decision makers and the information they need. In fact, only 10% of executives report that information to make a decision is usually there as needed. The data is as far away and, sadly, as inaccessible as the clouds in the sky.

Taking a step back, this fracture between information and business decision makers within the enterprise can be extended to mirror the growing disassociation between the enterprise and meeting its computing needs. Stallman’s arguments against cloud computing are rooted in his open source zealotry, so there isn’t a whole lot to say to that in response. Ellison may feel that cloud computing is antithetical to what he has accomplished at Oracle and maybe feels as if he missed out on an opportunity to capitalize on a growing movement. Regardless, both pundits should pay attention to what Galen Gruman pointed out several months ago– sure, cloud computing is nebulous, but it is most clearly realized as a way to meet business needs without a lot of investment in new infrastructure, new employees, or new software.

On-demand computing represents a multi-billion dollar market that touches a variety of verticals and has an all-star line-up of players. If you look at the software companies that have had the most IPO success over the past few years, it has been on-demand companies– SalesForce.com, Taleo, RightNow, Omniture, and HireRight, to name a few. When you are faced with a juggernaut, you have to adapt to its presence, which often requires tagging it as a way of identifying what you are dealing with– and so, cloud computing was born.

Bad rap or not - cloud computing is very much a movement that is forcing new opportunities and challenges onto enterprise users.