Autonomy dominates search space, reports IDC

Autonomy dominates the worldwide data search and discovery market, according to a report from analyst IDC.

IDC says Autonomy holds a commanding share of the market that is nearly double that of Google and more than four times that of Microsoft.

IDC says Autonomy has a 15.5% market share in data search and discovery. Google has 8.5%, Fast Search & Transfer (now owned by Microsoft) holds 5.7%, and Microsoft is on 3.6%.

IDC said the search and discovery software market grew to £1.1bn in 2007, a growth rate of 28%.

The report found that businesses have become more dependent on finding and using their information as that information proliferates, and the organisation ceases to depend on keepers of central files.

In addition, unifying access to both structured and unstructured information is slowly being recognised as a new enterprise requirement, said IDC.

This trend is driven by the need to understand the customer from information held in e-mails, voicemails, blogs, wikis and customer relationship management systems.