IDG Contributor Network: Maybe the cloud has won, after all: Google end of life's its search appliance

Having watched the cloud space for almost a decade, I've been interested to see the change in how enterprises react to the emergence of cloud. In the early days, enterprises were generally happy to ignore cloud, regarding it as a generally experimental trend that may or may not continue to be important. Thereafter, as cloud gained a toe hold, enterprises looked to get cloud-like solutions, but within the context of their existing on-premises focus. Many of us waited for the day when enterprises (and not just the early adopters) put aside their objections and dived right into cloud as the default position.

So news recently that Google is dropping its search appliance is a small, but important data point on this journey. Google’s search appliance was a somewhat counter-intuitive product (at least from the cloudy Google). It was intended for companies that had a desire to use Google technology to search their internal documents. Customers could buy a Google box, a hermetically sealed piece of kit that delivered a Google-like solution in an on-premises model. Google had previously phased out one model of the so-called GSA a few years ago. But this blanket sunsetting was something bigger.

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