Google recently announced plans to introduce a new version of its enterprise search hardware, which aims to help ease the process of searching for private and public information in the workplace.

Google Search Appliance is a search server companies use to index internal and web-facing content, including corporate portals, websites, file servers and enterprise content management systems. With GSA 6.8, Google introduces the ability to combine external and internal indexes while retaining security controls for on-premise documents, according to InformationWeek.

Google’s Search Product Manager Rajat Mukherjee said businesses need to be able to access information beyond their own firewalls, so search systems need to reach across traditional boundaries.

“Business information is everywhere,” Mukherjee told ZDNet UK. “You have wikis, you have content management systems like [Microsoft] SharePoint and [EMC] Documentum and you need to have access to all this information.

GSA 6.8 integrates new connectors for SharePoint 2010, as well as Lightweight Directory Access Protocol data sources.

It also includes a new feature called People Search to encourage collaboration. Makherjee referenced a 2009 IDC study called The Hidden Cost of Information Work, which found that knowledge workers waste 25 percent of their time on tasks that could be made quicker through better search capabilities.