The Exalead CloudView Platform

Built on a pure service-oriented architecture (SOA), Exalead CloudView is designed from the ground up to bring structure, meaning and accessibility to previously unused or under-utilized data in the disparate, heterogeneous enterprise information cloud. It also provides advanced tools to ensure easy administration and monitoring, real-time index availability and full security compliance.

"We were able to deploy Exalead across our 23 European subsidiaries in only a few days without making changes to the platform itself. It also included linguistics capabilities for more than 54 languages, which meant that we didn't have to develop a customized solution for each country."

– Pierre-Olivier Brial, Director of E-Business, Manutan International

Unparalled Structure, Context and Access for Information

The CloudView information analytic and access functions are executed by four core components:

Universal Data Collection
Efficiently gathers high volumes of internal and external data in more than 300 formats, including structured data (RDBMS, ERP, Lotus Notes, directories, etc.) and unstructured content (email messages, PDFs, Office documents, Web pages, etc.)

Patented Semantic Data Processing
Automatically analyzes, structures and contextualizes collected data into a single structured resource, detecting hidden relationships and meanings between disparate pieces of data to facilitate search and discovery.

World Class Indexing Engine
Provides Web search engine-class indexing and query processing together with enterprise-grade security and update functionality.

Open Application Layer
Supports direct interaction via customizable interfaces, or application access via APIs.

Open SOA Architecture

CloudView features a modular, scalable, service-oriented architecture (SOA) that adapts to virtually any enterprise's operational, technical, and economical needs. Its administrable components are delivered as a set of Web Services with a fully programmable API, with code sample for multiple platforms (.NET, Java, C++) and access to the CloudView developer network. Designed on a distributed computing model, CloudView also provides Internet-class availability and scalability.

Strict Security Compliance

CloudView provides full compliance with existing security schemas and confidentiality rules. Three types of native security ensure this compliance: 1) Original Data Security (Access Control Lists, optional cryptography), 2) Application Layer Security (single-sign on and unified security), and 3) Security of Operational Layers (standards-based security, e.g. AES, HTTPS, for internal and external network interactions).

Easy, Robust Management

CloudView features Web-based tools for managing the configuration and scheduling of data connectors, the configuration of search interfaces, and for monitoring system activity and performance. Role-based administration and application reporting is also available (query logs, information access statistics such most frequently consulted documents, top search requests, etc.).

For further information, download the CloudView Platform Highlights document.

How Exalead CloudView Works

Entirely modular in order to adapt to the context of each enterprise, the flexible CloudView solution provides the following core functions:

• Data Collection
  Collect unstructured and structured data from internal and external sources
• Data Transformation
  Structure and enrich data using advanced statistical and semantic technologies
• Indexing & Access
  Index, access and update enhanced data
• Interaction
  Interact via customizable web interface, visual dashboards, or API

The Future of Information Access

"While most people are familiar with basic search engines, they don't realize that the technologies that have developed to find, organize, and present text and rich media are fundamentally different from database architectures, which are aimed at managing and finding predictable and precise data."

– IDC, Information Access in Tomorrow's Enterprise
Download the IDC Executive Brief

COLLECT: Universal Data Collection

CloudView gathers unstructured and structured data from virtually any source in the enterprise cloud (both inside and outside the firewall). Native connectors support more than 100 source types and 300 file formats, including database records, ERP data, Lotus Notes, LDAP directories, Word documents, PDFs, Web pages, RSS feeds, etc. In addition to this extensive array of built-in connectors, the CloudView API can be used to integrate even non-standard data repositories.

PROCESS: Automated Data Structuration and Contextualization

CloudView uses advanced statistical modeling and semantic technologies to transform heterogeneous data into a single exploitable resource. It analyzes collected data, and automatically classifies and categorizes it while extracting embedded meanings and relationships to be used in the search results navigation system, or in applications calling CloudView services.

ACCESS: World-Class Indexing & Access

This module provides Web search engine-class indexing and query processing. It offers real-time, incremental indexing of the enhanced data, and processes user and application queries containing textual, numerical, and symbolic constraints, with extensive Boolean operator support. The module also supports Natural Language and structured (BISQL) queries.

INTERACT: Flexible, Dynamic Interaction

Users can interact with your data through the built-in Exalead interface, visual dashboards, or via the API (for fully embedding CloudView functionality into OEM applications, or for rapidly constructing advanced decision intelligence applications (DIA) leveraging CloudView data and functionality). All options offer:

• Multi-axial navigation based on system-derived contextual data for more successful searching, discovery and exploration
• Visual scanning with thumbnail document images, file type icons, and document previews with search term highlighting
• Easy customization using CSS and JavaServer Faces (JSF) technology
• Complete portal adaptability using JavaServer Portlet technology

For further details, download the CloudView Platform Highlights document.

Exalead CloudView SOA Architecture & High Performance

For maximum IT agility, Exalead CloudView has been designed from the ground up with a secure, scalable, service-oriented architecture (SOA) that meets the most challenging enterprise operational, technical, and economical constraints.

SOA: Transforming Businesses

"44% of current SOA users report that SOA is helping them with strategic business transformation. This is a level of business impact that CIOs can't ignore."

– Forrester Research, Service-Oriented Architecture For CIOs

Exalead CloudView provides a fully integrated stack of services that bridges the gap between original data silos and applications. It provides universal access to semantically-enriched, synthesized information derived from multiple structured sources (databases, files, directories, etc.) and unstructured sources (email, Office documents, PDFs, RSS flux, Web pages, blogs, forums, etc.), internally or externally in the enterprise cloud, and allows that information to be directly accessed via Exalead's products, or consumed by virtually any application running on any platform, in any language, anywhere in the extended enterprise.

The system's administrable components are delivered as a set of Web Services with a fully programmable API. Code samples are provided for multiple platforms (.NET, Java, C++), with access to a developper network to further .

Optimal Quality of Service (QoS)

Exalead CloudView meets the high QoS requirements of a true SOA solution: including strict compliance with security requirements (e.g., authentication and authorization), high availability, and scalable performance.

Availability

To ensure maximum availability while remaining flexible with regard to the particular performance and uptime needs of each individual enterprise, CloudView offers numerous availability-related configuration options:

Real-Time, Incremental Indexing
Data sources may be treated at a regular intervals (every 20 seconds, every minute, daily, etc.), or on request from an application, and are indexed on the fly, in near real-time.

Use of Temporary Indexes
Each new indexing of data triggers an update of the main index, and, in parallel, the creation of a temporary index. Once the update of the main index is completed, the temporary index is automatically deleted.

Index Replication
An index may be infinitely replicated (duplicated) on any number of servers, maximizing availability and improving the performance of the solution.

Multi-Indexation
The multi-indexation capability permits the use of several indexes in parallel for maximum performance.

Data Replication & Division
Data in the index cache can be divided (ventilated cache), or replicated on any number of remote servers, each containing an identical copy of the data, enhancing performance and providing continuity.

Scalability & Performance

CloudView uses a dedicated data update bus; dedicated storage, indexing and caching structures; and a dedicated, distributed computing infrastructure to achieve maximum performance. As a result, the system is extremely resource-efficient, supporting real-time indexing of 100 million documents and processing up to 20 queries per second on a single low-cost server.

Processing of search queries is equally high performing, regardless of the complexity of the queries or the original source data. Such queries are executed 100s of times faster than those processed by traditional RDBMSs operating under ACID constraints. The comparison of such technological capacities with those of RDBMS, especially in terms of consumption of hardware resources, explains the passion excited by the CloudView solution.

Performance & Scaling Benchmarks

Below are average performance statistics for CloudView indexing and query processing. For specific client benchmarking data, please see our whitepaper, The Hidden Costs of Scaling Search.

Indexing Performance
Context	Record Type	Indexing Speed
Telco Log	Small	4000 records/second/server
Web Index	Medium (Web Pages)	8 billion records/week
Email	Upper Medium	200 records/second/server
Query Processing Performance
Context	Records	Performance per Server
E-Commerce	15 million	200 queries/second
Web Index	70 million	30 queries/second
Archiving	200 million	5 queries/second

For further information, download the CloudView Platform Highlights document.

Exalead CloudView Security

Exalead CloudView enables full exploitation of the formidable potential of an enterprise's extended information assets. Naturally, this type of access requires full compliance with strict security and confidentiality rules.

An Integrated Work Environment

"Search-based applications create a polished, integrated work environment for information workers for eDiscovery, sales, research, reputation monitoring, voice of the customer, or customer support. The work environment hides the complexity of the underlying multiple information sources and applications."

– IDC, Information Access in Tomorrow's Enterprise
Download the IDC Executive Brief

To ensure this compliance, Exalead CloudView provides three types of native security:

Original Data Security
All data stored in the system is associated with Access Control from its original source. Optional cryptography of data stored by CloudView is also possible.

Application Layer Security
The Security Management Master allows federated login and group management information, and provides single-sign on and unified security among multiple data sources

Security of Operational Layers
The CloudView system supports secured standards (AES, HTTPS) both for internal and external network interactions.

Enterprises can reinforce these native CloudView security compliance tools with prudent operational measures:

• Physical protection of centralized or remote installations (access to locations, to machines, anticipation of damages, etc.)
• Education of users regarding security and confidentiality issues (protection of work post by strong passwords, user identification procedures, local archiving of personal data, etc.)
• Informing tech personnel of security and confidentiality tools and best practices (development methods, use of the tools in place, respect of operational procedures, etc.)
• Technical protection of the systems and their components (use of firewalls, routers,proxies, demilitarized zones (DMZs), user identification and accreditation systems, rights and authorizations management, intrusion detection systems (IDS), etc.)
• Securing data sources, especially by definition of ACLs (Access Control Lists) associating access rights with user profiles. This security and confidentiality information is collected and respected by the CloudView Data Collectors.
• Appropriate configuration of the CloudView solution in order to properly integrate ACLs with the BIs construction mechanisms.

For further information, download the CloudView Platform Highlights document or the CloudView Security whitepaper.

Exalead CloudView Management

Exalead CloudView features a browser-based configuration tool that allows administrators to easily control all processes running on the platform. This includes monitoring of document analysis, index build, search and security, and configuration tracking for managing the configuration and the scheduling of the connectors and the search interfaces.

In addition, administrators can analyze and refine performance with the built-in application reporting, including query log and information access analysis (Top 100, etc.). CloudView also supports role-based system administration.

Administrators can easily assign user privileges according to security access levels; create specific ranking rules; modify the appearance of the results page and categories; change the color scheme; or create fully customized service-oriented applications.

For further information, download the CloudView Platform Highlights document.