Need to Replace Google Search Appliance? Don’t Wait Too Long.

Introduced in 2002, Google Search Appliance (GSA) was the answer to many companies’ need for a search solution for their website, Intranet and internal content. It provided a way for you to index internal content to make it findable quickly. And it was good - for a while.

The demand for better search solutions that offer more than simple keyword and text indexing has forced a major evolution in the search space. And that makes solutions like Google Search Appliance obsolete. Maybe Google knew that because in February of 2016 it announced that it was ending its licensing and support for GSA.

Goodbye Google Search Appliance

If you are one of those companies that invested in GSA, you remember well the excitement of getting that little yellow server in the mail to plop into your data center. An eConsultancy article cites BuiltWith stats that provide the number of companies currently using GSA: “BuiltWith, a site that tracks the technologies that underpin websites, believes that GSA is currently live on 189,849 websites globally and including 2% among the top 10,000 websites.”

Now that Google is sunsetting GSA (and Google Site Search), you are likely working on a strategy to replace it. Google may want you to move to its new cloud search solution, but for many companies, the idea of storing their corporate data in Google’s data centers is a security risk.

Don’t Bury Your Head in the Sand

In a recent webinar, we asked attendees what their plans were for Google Search Appliance.

It’s time to get your head out of the sand. Time is running out to get a replacement in place. 

Consider this:

• 2016 Last chance to get new GSA 2 year sales.
• 2017 No new sales. One year extensions.
• 2018 Goodbye GSA. No new sales. Appliances start to shut off.

Google has indicated that it will continue to provide technical support and apply bug fixes and security updates for the length of all license agreements, but the push to get you to move to their new service will be in high gear.

You do have an alternative to Google though: a search solution that will propel your ability to get the right information into the right hands quicker than ever before.

It’s Time to Get Cognitive

Traditional search solutions, like GSA, had their day. But organizations need something more today. They need a better way to find relevant search results among a sea of content - both structured and unstructured. And they need those search results to improve as knowledge workers ask more and deeper questions.

Cognitive search includes self-learning technologies like machine learning, natural language processing and text analytics to improve the quality and relevance of search results. And as Forrester points out in its report Brief: Cognitive Search Is Ready To Rev Up Your Enterprise’s IQ: “Cognitive solutions must first and foremost interact with people naturally, learn as they gain more experience, and find links between disparate sources of information.”

Attivio’s Cognitive Search Platform does all of this. And it has connectors to 100+ enterprise data sources across 500+ file formats and a full set of API frameworks to connect to pretty much any application. Take a few minutes and check out what Attivio can do for your company. It’s a low-risk path to transitioning from GSA.