Thursday, 2 December 2010

Autonomy Announces Rescue Program for Microsoft FAST Search - Bloomberg

Autonomy Announces Rescue Program for Microsoft FAST Search



Autonomy Announces Rescue Program for Microsoft FAST Search Customers and OEM Partners  'Put FAST in the Past' Program Provides Customers and Software Vendors with Business Continuity  PR Newswire  CAMBRIDGE, England and SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 2, 2010  CAMBRIDGE, England and SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 2, 2010 /PRNewswire/ -- Autonomy Corporation plc (LSE: AU. or AU.L), a global leader in infrastructure software for the enterprise, today announced "Put FAST in the Past," a rescue program for current Microsoft FAST Search customers and OEM partners.  The purpose of the program is to enable customers and software vendors that depend and develop on platforms and operating systems other than Microsoft – such as Unix and Linux – to take advantage of Autonomy's advanced and comprehensive enterprise search technology.    In February, Microsoft FAST announced it plans to "end-of-life" Unix and Linux versions of its enterprise search product.  As of December 31, 2010 Microsoft FAST will discontinue mainstream and extended support for 17 product versions.  These imminent events are causing disruption to enterprise customers with deployed applications and to software vendors who embedded end-of-life technology components.  Businesses and software vendors are now forced to choose between making a painful switch to an entirely new infrastructure and operating system, or select a new enterprise search technology.  This is causing massive disruption in the market, as the majority of the enterprise search market runs on platforms other than Microsoft.  IDC's Worldwide Search and Discovery Software Report states that Unix, Linux, and other operating systems accounted for 65% of market share in 2009.(1) This sizeable market has made considerable investments in business applications and technology products that run on these operating systems, and is now looking to "future proof" their business by investing in technology that will enable them to continue to innovate on their platform of choice for years to come.  Autonomy's enterprise search technology, the Intelligent Data Operating Layer (IDOL), provides a far superior technology for customers and OEM partners alike.  IDOL automatically recognizes and understands meaning within all forms of information, allowing individuals to search by concepts rather than by keywords.  Autonomy offers the most extensive connectivity, to hundreds of data types, and over 500 advanced functions, such as education, video and social media search, and language independence.  Autonomy is the only company that provides enterprise search that is fully integrated with content management, multichannel optimization, archiving, eDiscovery, records management, and rich media management, giving organizations a powerful platform from which to power, promote, and protect their organization.  These important differentiators have driven Autonomy's clear leadership in the enterprise search market.  According to IDC's report titled "Worldwide Search and Discovery 2009 Vendor Shares: An Update on Market Trends," Autonomy increased its market share lead to 15.3% in 2009.(2) This share represents a 50% lead over the next closest keyword search competitor, Microsoft, and is nearly double that of the third place vendor, Google.    Now is the time for businesses and technology companies to make the switch to Autonomy.  Rather than rip out and rebuild search business applications and technology offerings on Microsoft Office Sharepoint Server, organizations can maintain their current platform and operating infrastructure and make a seamless move to Autonomy enterprise search.  An Autonomy IDOL migration tool will index an organizations data, and Autonomy IDOL enterprise search can be used transparently from within Microsoft applications, ensuring a smooth and easy transition for the IT department and end users alike.      Autonomy's "Put FAST in the Past" rescue program consists of the following:  * Autonomy will match an organization's Microsoft FAST license implementation with like-for-like capability on all platforms – for 50% of the organization's original license fee for orders placed before December 31. * Autonomy will provide conceptual search and a Sharepoint connector free of charge * Autonomy's Microsoft FAST to IDOL migration tool will index an organization's data, enabling a seamless migration * Autonomy IDOL enterprise search can be used transparently from within Microsoft applications including Word, SharePoint, etc., providing end users with a seamless and easy transition  Please visit http://www.autonomy.com/fast   to learn more about the Autonomy "Put FAST in the Past" rescue program.  About Autonomy  Autonomy Corporation plc (LSE: AU. or AU.L), a global leader in infrastructure software for the enterprise, spearheads the Meaning Based Computing movement. IDC recently recognized Autonomy as having the largest market share and fastest growth in the worldwide search and discovery market.  Autonomy's technology allows computers to harness the full richness of human information, forming a conceptual and contextual understanding of any piece of electronic data, including unstructured information, such as text, email, web pages, voice, or video. Autonomy's software powers the full spectrum of mission-critical enterprise applications including pan-enterprise search, customer interaction solutions, information governance, end-to-end eDiscovery, records management, archiving, business process management, web content management, web optimization, rich media management and video and audio analysis.  Autonomy's customer base is comprised of more than 20,000 global companies, law firms and federal agencies including: AOL, BAE Systems, BBC, Bloomberg, Boeing, Citigroup, Coca Cola, Deutsche Bank, DLA Piper, Ericsson, FedEx, Ford, GlaxoSmithKline, Lloyds Banking Group, NASA, Nestle, the New York Stock Exchange, Reuters, Shell, Tesco, T-Mobile, the U.S. Department of Energy, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. More than 400 companies OEM Autonomy technology, including Symantec, Citrix, HP, Novell, Oracle, Sybase and TIBCO. The company has offices worldwide. Please visit www.autonomy.com to find out more.  Autonomy and the Autonomy logo are registered trademarks or trademarks of Autonomy Corporation plc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.  (1)  IDC, Worldwide Search and Discovery 2010 –  2014 Forecast, Doc #222715, April 2010  (2)  IDC, Worldwide Search and Discovery 2009 Vendor Shares: An Update on Market Trends, Doc # 223926, June 2010  Autonomy Editorial Contacts: Randy Cairns                           Louise Kehoe  Autonomy (US)                          Ogilvy PR (US)  +1 408 953 7111                        +1 415 677 2739  Randy.cairns@autonomy.com              louise.kehoe@ogilvypr.com Edward Bridges                         David Vindel  Financial Dynamics (UK)                The Red Consultancy (UK)  +44 207 831 3113 edward.bridges@fd.com + 44 207 025 6529  david.vindel@redconsultancy.com  SOURCE Autonomy Corporation plc  Website: http://www.autonomy.com Contact: Edward Bridges of Financial Dynamics (UK), +44 207 831 3113, edward.bridges@fd.com; or Louise Kehoe of Ogilvy PR (US), +1-415-677-2739, louise.kehoe@ogilvypr.com; or David Vindel of The Red Consultancy (UK), + 44 207 025 6529, david.vindel@redconsultancy.com, all for Autonomy, Inc; or Randy Cairns of Autonomy (US), +1-408-953-7111, Randy.cairns@autonomy.com