Search FASTer

Announcement by Microsoft at FAST Forward 09 a detailed road map of FAST Search for SharePoint and FAST Search for Internet Business.

FAST Search for SharePoint, is a new "search server" that will bring the portions of the search capabilities of the current FAST ESP into Microsoft Office SharePoint Portal Server. This functionality will be available as a part of the next release of the Microsoft Office system, currently named O14 release. Some will say, it's about time !

For those who are interested in the product today, Microsoft also announced ESP for SharePoint, a special offer that allows customers to purchase high-end search capabilities now, with a defined licensing path to FAST Search for SharePoint when it becomes available.

Overall this direction from Microsoft is a significant advancement in the world of search. We are beginning to see the $1.2b acquisition of FAST now being leveraged to bring great value to the SharePoint interface, as well as provide a path to include the power and versatility of the full FAST engine as required. The Search market is going to heat up very quickly.