Skip to main content

What is IBM Watson Explorer?

Have you been thinking about diving into the world of IBM Watson Explorer (WEX) but you're just not quite sure if it's the right solution for you? I'm going to try to explain to you a little bit about what Watson Explorer is.

IBM Watson ExplorerThe IBM Watson Explorer software is actually a bundle of two different applications: IBM Watson Explorer Foundational Components and IBM Watson Explorer Analytical components. There are major differences between the two packages. You can buy IBM Watson Explorer Foundational Components on their own but you must buy the Advanced Edition to get the IBM Watson Explorer Analytical components.

IBM Watson Explorer Foundational components is a search engine based solution for ingesting and indexing structured and unstructured data from various data sources. It has connectors for different data repositories built in such as common databases, file systems, web, MS SharePoint, email, etc. The search engine application is known as Watson Explorer Engine. WEX Engine ships with it's own legacy search engine display. This display has been largely replaced with a component known as IBM Watson Explorer Application Builder or WEX AppBuilder for short. AppBuilder allows you to easily configure and display different entities based on your search engine data and build custom widgets for each entity page using a combination or Ruby, HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.

IBM Watson Explorer Analytical components is another separate software package that was acquired later on.  It's important to distinguish that fact; that IBM Watson Explorer Foundational and IBM Watson Explorer Analytical components are really two separate pieces of software that IBM Bundles as a single "product".

IBM WEX Analytical components can crawl and ingest data into indices and then perform advanced text analytics functions using custom annotators. These annotators can be written in a java eclipse-like environment.  This allows you to get insights from your unstructured text and can be a very powerful enterprise data analysis tool.

If you are thinking about deploying Watson Explorer or already have an IBM Watson Explorer system in place, it's important to get the right guidance to ensure your project runs smoothly. That's why we always recommend reaching out to an experienced Watson Explorer Consultant. There are very few consultants in the marketplace that have years of real world experience. You want to find an IBM Watson Explorer Consultant that has at least 10 years of experience under their belt.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Watson Explorer

IBM Watson Explorer is a powerful way to mine insights from structured and unstructured data repositories in one central location. It's a cognitive exploration and content analysis platform. Work with internal or external data sources. Improve your decision-making process by using the latest in cognitive technology and natural language processing. You can unlock the value of your data and get a 360-degree view of your entities to create better experiences. The picture above shows you just a small example of what you can do in IBM Watson Explorer Application Builder to build those 360-degree views of your data. It's complete with a class-leading search engine and the ability to make customize pages and widgets driven by your structured and unstructured data. Make finding millions of documents as easy as finding one. You can unlock the secrets of your data and get the fastest results available with cognitive technology. Don't leave your employees in the dark, find out mo...
Post a Comment
Read more

IBM Watson Explorer Consultants

If you found this post then you are probably thinking about hiring an IBM Watson Explorer Consultant . There are a few considerations you need to make before deciding which consultant you would want to hire. First, you could always go to IBM for consulting. I've seen IBM charge up to $320 per hour for a Senior WEX Architect though. So I don't want you to get the idea that you will find someone for $60 an hour. You're not looking for a typical java or web developer, you want someone with real-world experience with IBM Watson Explorer projects. So what kind of skills are we looking for when it comes to a Watson Explorer Consultant or Developer? Well, it does help to have a little bit of a web development background, especially if you are deploying Watson Explorer Application Builder. First, you need to think about which components from IBM Watson Explorer you would like to deploy: Foundational or Analytical components. When you search for skills you will likely find that...
Post a Comment
Read more

Important Considerations For Your Next Watson Explorer Project

Whether you're thinking about deploying IBM Watson Explorer for the first time or you're ready for your next WEX project there are some things you need to consider. First, you want to decide which components from Watson Explorer you are likely to use. There is a significant difference between the components and the pricing of these components. Decide if you want to take the foundational approach with cognitive search and the 360-degree view of Application Builder or if you need more of a data analytics approach that the Deep Analytics version supplies. You want to consider which data sources you are going to use and if IBM Watson Explorer has a connector for these data sources. IBM Watson explorer ships with many connectors to popular content management systems, databases, filesystems, and more. Next, you want to consider how many users you are likely to support. This will help you determine if you need an architecture that consists of multiple tiers or something more sim...
Post a Comment
Read more