Google Search Appliance Gains Muscle
June 2, 2009
Update: June 3, 2009: Version 6.0 of the GSA software includes a SharePoint Web part.
Original story below:
If you looked at the line up of the Google Search Appliances on offer in February 2009, you probably noticed that the pricing discouraged organizations from indexing more than 30 million documents per appliance. To scale the system with the GB 7007s and GB 8008s cost millions.
Version 6.0 and a new GB 9009 were announced today. You can read Google’s own write up here. You can download a data sheet here. The features fall under the banner of universal search, but you will need a cheerful authorized reseller or partner to get the most from your GSA.
You can get some other information from several IDG publications, including:
Google today revealed that it has created a GSA on steroids to handle larger indexing jobs. The GB 8008 is no more. The new model is the GB 9009, and it is built on Dell’s PowerEdge R710 platform. Google is not into customer support, so the Dell crowd gets the honor of explaining what to do when a GB 9009 goes south.
The system consists of two components: one for content processing and one for storing the index. Until ArnoldIT.com can get up close and personal with one of these two part set ups, it is not clear what indexing and query processing changes may be necessary.
A PowerEdge in gray, wondering if it will be Googley.
We do know that Version 6.0 of the GSA software won’t run on low end or the older GB 8008s. This seems to suggest that an organization can mix and match the GB 7007s and the GB 8008s. If you haven’t been keeping up with the GSA software, Version 6.x gives system administrators more control over security, customization, and hit boosting. In the older versions of the software, Google decided its relevancy was exactly the relevancy the licensee needed. Period. There were some clunky Fast Search & Transfer type workarounds, but Version 6.0 makes the system’s controls a bit more flexible.
The PowerEdge R710 gussied up for the enterprise prom.
Autonomy, Endeca, and other companies were previously able to point out that Google’s enterprise solution was less configurable that other high end systems. That’s still true, but to a lesser degree. Keep in mind that the GSA is not a box of components that can be assembled like Legos. An appliance is designed to eliminate the expensive and time consuming set up, tuning, and customizing that some high end systems permit. The GB 9009 is a search toaster, bigger, faster, and more capable, but still a toaster.
Google’s distribution channel will be selling the two part set up in the morning. I don’t want to estimate the cost of the GB 9009. Google has a fuzzy wuzzy approach to some pricing, and it is better to wait until the authorized resellers close some deals for the gizmos and the “street price” becomes clearer. My hunch is that the Dell gear will up the cost. With GB 8008s coming out of the blocks at $659,000 for a 15 million GB 8008 with two years of support and about $300,000 for a fully supported hot back up GB 8008, the GB 9009 will be in the same ballpark.
What’s interesting to me is that these prices convert to about what a fully loaded enterprise search system license with customization can cost from one of the blue chip search vendors. Expensive to perform search, isn’t it. I wonder why the actual cost of industrial strength search is not included in the reports from the azure chip consulting firms or those who witlessly insist that “search is simple. Yes, a no brainer.”
I look for another upgrade early in 2010., At that time, the blue chip vendors will have to start sweating the fact that Googzilla is finally getting serious about the enterprise search market. One indication of the shift is that the GB 1001 is a goner and that the the new software won’t work with even numbered GSAs.
Stephen Arnold, June 2, 2009
Comments
3 Responses to “Google Search Appliance Gains Muscle”
-
- Subscribe to Beyond Search
Feature archive
News archive
-
Best free wordpress themes…
Nice write up…usually I never reply to these thing but this time I will,Thanks for the great info….
Google…
Documentation links # main GSA page…
ssbdfg gsdgb