Perfect Search Addresses Major Issues in Enterprise Back Up Search
by Bill Ives
The need for fast and more effective enterprise search continues to increase as data grows exponentially. I spoke with Ken Ebert, form Perfect Search, about this problem. According to Gartner, enterprise data growth over the next five years is estimated at 650%. To cope with this trend, enterprises must be equipped with a backup technology that will capture data and move it to a safe, secondary location where data is preserved. However, if a saved file cannot be quickly located and retrieved, then the backup environment does not help.
I see this on a personal level as I am now constantly fighting data capacity on my Mac and iPhone but I have not yet obtained flexible backup storage. The big enterprises have it much worse. Ken said that Perfect Search has developed a number of ways to handle this issue. The company was formed in 2007. It already has three patents and six more pending. Much of what they do is to increase the speed of search through better algorithms. This opens up a lot of options.
Now you can create better indexes to keep track of the data, as size is not an issue. In the past indexing could be too slow when addressing vast quantities of data. You can also push search on less expensive hardware opening up more options by making backup and search efforts financially achievable for more firms. Several of their clients have now been able to do things not possible before, as we will see. You can also do broader search and include things like fuzzy ranges to capture more data. In addition, you can mix metadata and full text search. All of these are made possible through the significant increases in speed that Perfect Search offers.
Ken mentioned a few client examples. Olson DataMax specializes in taking paper files, scanning them to create digital storage. They use Perfect Search to them find these documents. World Vital Records is an online genealogy company that provides access to several million historical documents to help genealogists. They are able to do this so far with only a single server through their use of Perfect Search. When they reach projected growth their old estimates called for over 1200 servers, pushing the cost beyond reach, Now they will be able to handle the same capacity with about 40 servers putting the effort within budget.
i.TV is an online TV and movie guide for the iPhone and iPod Touch. It allows you to see what is on TV and local movie theaters, buy tickets and even use your iPhone as a TV remote. Now they are also able to offer search to their users as Perfect Search brought the price down to acceptable levels.
In 2008 we generated more information online that in the entire history of information. Search is the major way to combat this glut of information. Perfect Search appears to be making a great contribution in this space by bringing the capability in a cost effective manner. In addition to the Web site you can follow their story through the Perfect Search blog.
