There's a lot of mysticism shrouding Autonomy's mega-search offering, "IDOL." Not in the least bit because every piece of software that is acquired by the vendor is either "plugged into," "powered by," or "integrated with" IDOL. Supposedly, it's both a server, a product -- and a platform. And it's pretty clear the company tries very hard to sell it to you,
whether you're looking for enterprise search or not. But what actually
is it?
What I like about this description is that it brings IDOL down to its essence: it's a search index, that lives on your server as an executable. When something's plugged into IDOL, powered by IDOL, or integrated with IDOL, this really means you'll have the IDOL, DIH, and DAH executables running alongside the other software. Operating these is hard-core "command-line cowboy" kind of stuff.
Now, there are plenty such cowboys around, and they're perfectly happy with the software. But unfortunately, quite a few of Autonomy's other customers weren't quite prepared for it, and ended up unhappy with what they bought. Of course, it's tempting to blame the vendor's marketing and salesforce for this; but that's a bit like accusing a tiger of hunting deer. You can't really blame them for trying.