SCIENCE

Government agencies and corporations are spending $1 billion a year for advanced data analytics and other software designed to help "connect the dots" in the war against terrorism and/or crime. The market is expanding at an estimated compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 20%. ISI-related transactions have accounted for some $2 billion in M&A activity over the past 18 months. And the stock markets have taken notice -- CEUT's new ISI Index of public companies serving this market returned 90% in 2003, 54% in 2004, and 10.8% so far in 2005 (as of Nov. 11). The findings come in the report: "The Business of Connecting Dots: the $1 Billion Intelligence and Security Informatics/Analytics Market." It is the first research effort to define and size the ISI market and was produced by CEUT and the Chesapeake Innovation Center (CIC), America's first business accelerator for homeland and national security. The report includes information on important public and private companies in the market. ISI technologies include stand-alone analytical software and similar technologies embedded in intelligent video surveillance, biometrics and other security systems. New breakthroughs include tools for mining vast amounts of text and technology to allow "affect mining," which can determine the emotional state of a person whose words are captured on a recording or email. The report focuses on "dual-benefit" ISI technologies -- such as visualization and unstructured data mining tools -- that can also serve the multi-billion dollar "Convergent Informatics Market" of ISI, business intelligence and bio-informatics. Key factors driving the ISI and convergent market include: * More powerful and/or cheaper computing and storage technologies * Huge increases in information production from email and Web chat to video and mass media * Growing regulatory, compliance and liability pressures * Increased wiretapping and intelligence interception of voice, video and text * Growth of "intelligent" sensor systems, from video cameras to biometric readers, that employ analytical software to identify patterns and matches * Urgent requirements and increased funding for "actionable intelligence" and information sharing for homeland security and the Global War On Terrorism (GWOT)