Microsoft: Fast Search For SharePoint On The Way
Microsoft took a big jump into the search software market last April when it acquired Fast Search & Transfer, the Norway-based developer of the Fast Search ESP search technology, for $1.2 billion. Since then, Microsoft has continued to sell the Fast ESP software as a stand-alone product. But that's about to change, said Jared Andersen, senior product manager for Microsoft enterprise search, in an interview.
"We see search as the entry point to how you find and interact with information, people and applications," Andersen said.
Under the new road map, Microsoft is developing Fast Search for SharePoint, a new search server that will integrate the high-end search capabilities of the Fast technology into the SharePoint collaboration and content management server. That product will be available as part of the next release of Microsoft Office known as "Office 14." Andersen declined to offer a projected date for that release but it's widely expected either late this year or in early 2010.
Fast Search for SharePoint will be used for search applications inside an organization, in contrast to Internet search engines such as Google. Andersen said integrating the Fast Search software into SharePoint would make it easier for solution providers to deploy search technology and build applications on it. Microsoft has about 400 channel partners working with the Fast Search product.
Jorn Ellefsen, CEO of Comperio, an Oslo, Norway-based Microsoft solution provider, said Fast Search for SharePoint will make it easier for businesses to deploy a search platform that's integrated with collaboration, productivity and business management applications. In a statement, Ellefsen added that it "will spur greater adoption of high-end search capabilities with all the opportunities this generates for partners like us."
When it ships, Fast Search for SharePoint will be sold using the same user-based licensing plan as SharePoint. Customers that already own SharePoint will only have to pay a server license for the search software and won't be required to buy separate client access licenses, Andersen said.
Microsoft, meanwhile, is renaming the stand-alone product to Fast ESP for SharePoint and selling it under licensing terms that can be upgraded to Fast Search for SharePoint when it ships, according to Andersen.