Unified Information Access Platforms are search platforms that provide a single point of access to multiple heterogeneous sources of information. They form the foundation platform for search based applications. These platforms are highly scalable, and combine elements of database

Database

A database is an organized collection of data for one or more purposes, usually in digital form. The data are typically organized to model relevant aspects of reality , in a way that supports processes requiring this information...

 and search technologies in order to make information access dynamic and ad hoc, while offering the reporting and visualization features commonly found in business intelligence applications. They integrate large volumes of unstructured, semi-structured, and structured information into a unified environment for analysis

Analysis

Analysis is the process of breaking a complex topic or substance into smaller parts to gain a better understanding of it. The technique has been applied in the study of mathematics and logic since before Aristotle , though analysis as a formal concept is a relatively recent development.The word is...

 and decision-making. While the vision for such integrated platforms has been around for years, products have only recently been released into the market. They are currently in early and experimental form. Search companies like Attivio

Attivio

Attivio, Inc., is a privately held Newton, Massachusetts-based enterprise software company that produces and sells a unified information access platform that lets users find all types of information with a single query and analyze data extracted from text along with traditional data.Attivio's core...

, BA-Insight, Endeca

Endeca Technologies Inc.

Endeca is a software company headquartered in Cambridge, MA, that sells enterprise search and business intelligence applications. Endeca was founded in 1999 and was a privately-held company, backed by venture capital investment from Bessemer, Venrock, Intel, and SAP...

, Exalead

Exalead

Exalead is a software company that provides search platforms and search-based applications for consumer and business users. The company is headquartered in Paris, France, and is a subsidiary of Dassault Systèmes .- CloudView Platform :...

, MarkLogic, PerfectSearch, Palantir

Palantir Technologies

Palantir Technologies, Inc., headquartered in Palo Alto, California, with offices in Tysons Corner, Virginia, New York City and Covent Garden, London, is a software company that produces the Palantir Government and Palantir Finance platforms...

, and Sinequa

Sinequa

Sinequa is a French search engine.Sinequa provides an enterprise search solution that targets unified search, expertise location , enterprise 2.0 and e-enterprise enablement...

 have recognized the need for this approach. Their platforms unify access to data and content with newer, hybrid architectures that combine elements of both databases and search.
Unified access applications:

1. Create hybrid
   Hybrid computer
   Hybrid computers are computers that exhibit features of analog computers and digital computers. The digital component normally serves as the controller and provides logical operations, while the analog component normally serves as a solver of differential equations.In general, analog computers are...
   
    data structures that combine structured data and data operators with text
   Text (literary theory)
   A text, within literary theory, is a coherent set of symbols that transmits some kind of informative message. This set of symbols is considered in terms of the informative message's content, rather than in terms of its physical form or the medium in which it is represented...
   
    and semi-structured operations and analytics. They combine semantic understanding, fuzzy matching, sorting, joins, and various operations such as range searching
   Range searching
   In its most general form, the range searching problem consists of preprocessing a set S of objects, in order to determine which objects from S a query object, called a range, intersects...
   
    within a single architecture, rather than federating a query to multiple sources in multiple forms.
2. Leverage these hybrid structures to provide real-time access through ad hoc queries to multiple sources of information, including information across a spectrum of format
   File format
   A file format is a particular way that information is encoded for storage in a computer file.Since a disk drive, or indeed any computer storage, can store only bits, the computer must have some way of converting information to 0s and 1s and vice-versa. There are different kinds of formats for...
   
   s (e.g. rich media) through a single interface
   Interface (computer science)
   In the field of computer science, an interface is a tool and concept that refers to a point of interaction between components, and is applicable at the level of both hardware and software...
   
   .
3. Handle sparse matrices of unpredictable content.
4. Optimize interactions for consumption and decisions, processing
   Process (computing)
   In computing, a process is an instance of a computer program that is being executed. It contains the program code and its current activity. Depending on the operating system , a process may be made up of multiple threads of execution that execute instructions concurrently.A computer program is a...
   
    queries faster than traditional database and/or BI applications and implementing visual consumption metaphors.
5. Scale to terabyte
   Terabyte
   The terabyte is a multiple of the unit byte for digital information. The prefix tera means 1012 in the International System of Units , and therefore 1 terabyte is , or 1 trillion bytes, or 1000 gigabytes. 1 terabyte in binary prefixes is 0.9095 tebibytes, or 931.32 gibibytes...
   
   s.
6. Provide reporting tools that are BI-like, or integrate easily with BI applications and reporting tools.

External links

• Video: "Unified Information Access in 4 Minutes"
• http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9180280/Five_Advantages_of_Unified_Information_Access_UIA
• http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Enterprise-Applications/How-to-Use-Unified-Information-Access-to-Get-Most-Value-from-Your-Data/