Replacing Google Search Appliance
So long GSA
So you're looking for a Google Search Appliance Replacement? If you didn't already know, the end is near. Google has labelled GSA as end of life and will look to end contracts in 2017 with some possible extensions beyond. For those relying on the product this poses a headache and a choice:
- Move to the cloud (Google is releasing a cloud version of GSA, details TBA),
- Choose another provider, or
- Look to an open source alternative
These options all come with trade offs. For many the cloud is a non-starter, for some this is great news, physical infrastructure has mostly gone cloud and lowered the IT burden in doing so. Open source is a different problem that requires resources to manage operations, data synchronisation, search relevance, etc. Whatever the choice, it will likely be expensive and time-consuming.
We can help you replace GSA
Sajari has been used to replaced GSA deployments in as little as days (website search), and improved their result relevance and reporting at the same time. Aside from that there are some other key reasons to make the switch:
Simple to install
For websites installation is as simple as adding a snippet of JavaScript globally across your sites. This is all that is required to index all your content. Easy.
Real-time Indexing
Sajari indexes in realtime. Forget weekly and monthly site crawls, that may have made sense 15 years ago, but not anymore. We're amazed some providers even charge extra to speed up the crawl. As soon as something is new or changes, it's immediately updated. Not just the page and its meta, but also the popularity, etc.
Machine learning ranking
Most open source search technologies require you to configure the way they rank search queries. We believe your customers (or staff) are better teachers and hence we let machine learning and historical data teach your engine how to rank over time. This gives better results and reduces the configuration oversight required.
Document parsing
Enterprise users of GSA may also require document extraction from a variety of different formats (PDF, DOC, HTML, databases, etc), which requires some plumbing work. Some search engines don't support these data sources out of the box, so for those you're on your own. Sajari supports almost all common document formats and has connectors for various databases. Additionally our gRPC based API allows records to be streamed in without the overhead of request-response REST style APIs. More on why gRPC is favoured over REST based APIs here.
Recommendations
Sajari also has the added benefits of powering recommendations on site as well. These are powered from the same index as search, if you're looking to show related or trending content that's no problem, or you can configure the recommendations to be even more powerful.
Conclusion
It's time to think about migrating your GSA, you have some time left, but not a lot. While you're thinking about it, it may be time to move into the future and embrace real-time indexing, machine learning based ranking and more.
Drop us a line if you have any questions.
