Autonomy Leads Search and Discovery Market According to IDC

By Barb Mosher | Published Oct 9, 2009

Autonomy Does Mobile Doc Management on the iPhone A recent IDC research report shows Autonomy (news, site) is leading the search and discovery market in terms of both revenues and market share.

The report by research and strategy firm IDC, entitled Worldwide Search and Discovery Software, 2009 - 2013 Forecast Update and 2008 Vendor Shares(1), cover the search and discovery market worldwide and included a review of Autonomy, Endeca, Google and Microsoft.

According to the report, Autonomy had the most growth in 2008 — 17.6% up from 2007 and increased its lead in the market by 14.4%.

What exactly is Autonomy's secret ingredient? Well, it's not so secret.

Search is a Core Requirement to Business Solutions

Autonomy was once synonymous with search. They have always been considered one of the top enterprise search solutions in the market. But with increased regulations, compliance and eDiscovery concerns, the market need has been evolving, and Autonomy has smartly evolved with it.

In a number of strategic acquisitions, Autonomy has picked up and integrated some key capabilities including discovery (Zantaz), Records Management (Merido) and content management (Interwoven).

At the same time, these acquisitions brought a number of new markets to Autonomy that they may not have otherwise had. And this has definitely made a difference. According to the IDC report:

"(Autonomy) was unique in its early recognition that a search-based architecture, combined with content management, text analytics, archiving, records management, rich media understanding, workflow, and easy-to-use visualizations could create compelling tools to solve a broad swath of current business problems."

The Evolution of Search

We don't call Autonomy an enterprise content management system. But this is the market in which they play in many cases — primarily due to the Interwoven acquisition.

We talked with Autonomy regarding some of the changes that came from the Interwoven acquisition. Most important here is the new Autonomy iManage business unit. Autonomy iManage is Interwoven's former legal, document management and eDiscovery businesses, including WorkSite, Universal Search, Records Manager.

The IDC reports talks about how search-based applications "built on a search backbone, but designed to facilitate a particular task and to create an integrated work environment for users, will proliferate and flourish".

It is these solutions and markets, combined with earlier acquisitions and integrated with Autonomy's IDOL search platform, that provide these search-based applications that have pushed Autonomy to the head of the pack.