Today, the world of search is one step closer to revolution.Vmana - the
cloud-based commerce search engine - is entering beta on September 1, 2010. Starting today, we are accepting requests from users who wish to participate in the beta program.
The Vmana
beta program is expected to run for at least two months. We plan to accept up to 200 beta testers; no more.
What is Vmana?
In a nutshell, Vmana is a hosted e-commerce search engine.
It supports filtering, facets, XML feeds, and all of the other bells & whistles of a top notch search engine.
It is fully managed, with a 100% up-time SLA (service level agreement).
Being a hosted solution, performance never suffers. We always grow capacity behind the scenes to meet demand.
Why is it a revolution?
Quite simply, this has never been done before. Especially not on the scale that it is about to be done.
As the cost of computing continues to decline exponentially (at a rate of ~40% per year), the time for providing high-level software APIs in the cloud is growing ever closer to the present. Vmana is one such example: a high-level search API sitting in the cloud.
Up until now, cloud computing has centered around the idea of providing low-level services (such as queues, storage, or CPU) to the user. This is akin to the days of time-sharing computers and dumb terminals.
The key to the future of cloud computing lies in the ability to provide high-level services (such as search). This is only recently becoming possible. Just as the evolution from the command line to the GUI required a certain critical performance level to be reached, we are now on the cusp of a major transition in cloud computing, from low-level "dumb" APIs to high-level "smart" APIs.
Vmana is a high-level API, which is why it is called "intelligent" search. That's why it's a revolution.
How is it being done?
Behind the scenes lies
Lucene - a powerful open-source search engine. However, Lucene is just a tiny fraction of Vmana.
Vmana consists of a crawler, a search engine, and a management & administration dashboard.
Key features include: on-demand and automatic crawling, comprehensive logging, XML feed support (for input), XML search results, REST-style API,
and more.
Why cloud?
There are several key advantages to cloud computing in general:
- Guaranteed performance.
- Guaranteed reliability.
- You only pay for what you use.
- Easy setup and deployment.
These are the advantages of Vmana over, say, an enterprise search appliance like the GSA (Google Search Appliance).
Why not a "bare bones" search engine like Lucene?
There are several disadvantages to doing that:
- Steep learning curve.
- Integration effort is costly.
- Maintenance is difficult (often requires dedicated staff).
- No analytics or reporting features.
The better question is - why live with those disadvantages?
Conclusion
A hosted search solution really makes sense when you take into account all of the disadvantages of the alternative solutions.
For those willing to try something new, it may be worthwhile to
sign up for the Vmana beta program or
learn more about Vmana.
Note - we are only accepting 200 beta testers in total.