Amazon CloudSearch: AWS Cloud Apps Gain Search Capabilities
Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) has launched CloudSearch, a fully managed, scalable cloud service that permits customers to integrate search capabilities into their applications. To get the search functionality running, according to AWS users simply create a search domain, upload the data they want to search, and CloudSearch will provide both the technology resources and the necessary search indexes. Going forward, businesses can change the search parameters, relevance and settings to suit their needs, without having to upload the same data.
It will be interesting to see how far Amazon challenges Google on its own stomping ground – internet search technology – albeit with a business-oriented service like CloudSearch. Amazon is no stranger to search technology. CloudSearch was developed by Amazon-owned A9, the same outfit that built the Amazon.com retail site search functionality. The AWS CloudSearch page shares the following service highlights:
- Simple to Configure – You can make your data searchable using the AWS Management Console, API calls, or command line tools. It is easy to add or delete fields, and customize search options such as faceting.
- Automatic Scaling For Data & Traffic – Amazon CloudSearch scales up and down seamlessly as the amount of data or query volume changes.
- Low Latency, High Throughput – Amazon CloudSearch always stores your index in RAM to ensure low latency and high throughput performance even at large scale.
- Rich Search Features – Amazon CloudSearch indexes and searches both structured data and plain text. It includes most standard search features, such as faceted search, free text search, Boolean search, customizable relevance ranking, and sorting of results using any field.
- Low Costs – Amazon CloudSearch is designed to be cost-efficient. Customers pay low hourly rates, and only for the resources they consume.
- Secure – Amazon CloudSearch uses strong cryptographic methods to authenticate users and prevent unauthorized control of your domains. Amazon CloudSearch supports HTTPS and includes web service interfaces to configure firewall settings that control network access to your domain.
“For many organizations, search plays a major role in how their customers experience their product or service – businesses need a sophisticated search capability to help their customers find the right information quickly. Implementing rich search functionality has traditionally been very expensive and time consuming due to the complexity of the technology required,” said Adam Selipsky, VP Amazon Web Services, in a prepared statement. “Amazon CloudSearch frees customers from worrying about all of these complexities so they can easily launch powerful search functionality and pay only for the resources they use.”
For more information, including FAQs and pricing details, visit the CloudSearch page on the Amazon Web Services site.
Channel partners can click here to learn more about the Amazon Solution Providers program.
