Lucid Imagination announced an update to their LucidWorks Enterprise product this week that includes a way of connecting the search tool directly to SharePoint repositories, which has to be very attractive to users looking for an open source enterprise search solution.

Lucid Imagination came up with a great idea a few years ago to create a product around the Apache Lucene/Solr open source search engine. The open source tool had a lot of fans, but it lacked a corporate sponsor that many enterprises require. That was the so-called "throat to choke" should anything go wrong. Despite the fact that Lucene/Solr had been around for years nobody had ever monetized it in this way. 

This new version takes advantage of an open source connector created by none other than Google (NASDAQ: GOOG). According to a blog post by Real Story Group's Adriaan Bloem, who writes:

"...More interestingly, perhaps, is that this also means it's not too hard to use Google's Framework to feed SharePoint content to Solr, instead. And this is exactly what Lucid Imagination has done in their latest 1.7 release of the LucidWorks distribution. Using the connector, it's now as easy to index SharePoint with Solr as it is with a Google Appliance."

As Bloem points out though just because it uses open source parts doesn't mean it's free. If you want a throat to choke, you have to pay the piper and Lucid Imagination charges real money for this product.

In addition to the SharePoint connector, you get an updated version of Lucene/Solr along with better indexing and an enhanced security framework.

So it might not be free, but as Lucid Imagination CEO Eric Gries points out, it offers the advantages of an open source framework and the backing of an organization to help you get over any rough spots you may encounter.

For more information:
- see the Lucid Imagination press release

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