Guest post by: Joe Leung Product Marketing

Data is king within today’s world.   

Organizations that are able to analyze their data are smarter and more productive across all facets of their operation. This data “awakening” of sorts is changing how organizations collect, analyze and govern all types of data, including structured and unstructured data that includes images, video, audio, as well as machine data such as that from internet-of-things (IoT) devices.  It is also forcing customers to identify new technology that can support this rapidly expanding field of data. 

The growth of unstructured data is prolific.  Gartner identified that data volume is set to grow 800% over the next 5 years and 80% of it will reside as unstructured data.  This is supported by IDG’s expectations that unstructured data is growing at a rate of 62% a year and that by 2022, 93% of all data in the digital universe will be unstructured. 

Understanding this trend, Forrester Research published its report, The Forrester Wave: Cognitive Search And Knowledge Discovery Solutions, Q2 2017  (download a free copy here). Forrester identified that standard key-word search is obsolete due to the introduction and use of cognitive search.  Specifically, Forrester identified cognitive search as the new generation of search solutions that leverages artificial intelligence as a means to deliver personalization and relevance to the business query search.  

Forrester went on to say that new technologies applied to enterprise search, including natural language processing and machine learning, are able to bring a level of cognitive search and knowledge discovery that was not possible before.  This new technology is providing context to both search queries and applications.  By understanding all types of data, organizations are able to quickly and efficiently identify relevant materials to make more informed decisions. 

Forrester identified Micro Focus (formerly HPE) IDOL as a cognitive search solution leader and cited its ability to connect to and ingest data from a wide variety of sources.  Specifically, Forrester shared that “HPE IDOL can analyze whatever you throw at it.”  Another capability noted by Forrester was Micro Focus (formerly HPE) IDOL’s question/answer capability that allows developers to build chat bots or virtual conversational assistants.  This vast range of analytic capabilities afforded by IDOL leads organizations to create comprehensive search and analytics applications that empower the user with the most relevant information to make smarter decisions faster. 

Enterprises and government entities will rely heavily on data to make their organizations more efficient and their workforce more productive.  The ones that can effectively take advantage of AI in their search and knowledge discovery are going to gain unprecedented competitive advantage.

Additional Resources

To learn more about Micro Focus IDOL visit - https://software.microfocus.com/en-us/software/information-data-analytics-idol