Lucid Imagination Search Product Offered in Windows Azure Marketplace

REDWOOD CITY, Calif., June 07, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Ease of use and flexibility are two key business drivers that are fueling the rapid adoption of cloud computing.  The ability to disconnect an application from its supporting architecture provides a new level of business agility that has never before been possible.  To ease the move towards this new realm of computing, integrated platforms have begun emerge that make cloud computing easier to adopt and leverage.  

Lucid Imagination, a trusted name in Search, Discovery and Analytics, today announced that its LucidWorks Cloud product has been selected by Microsoft Corp. to be offered as a Search-as-a-Service product in Microsoft's Windows Azure Marketplace.  LucidWorks Cloud is a full cloud service version of its LucidWorks Enterprise platform.  LucidWorks Cloud delivers full open source Apache Lucene/Solr community innovation with support and maintenance from the world's leading experts in open source search. An extensible platform architected for developers, LucidWorks Cloud is the only Solr distribution that provides security, abstraction and pre-built connectors for essential enterprise data sources – along with dramatic ease of use advantages in a well-tested, integrated and documented package.

Example use cases for LucidWorks Cloud include Search-as-a-Service for websites, embedding search into SaaS product offerings, and Prototyping and developing cloud-based search-enabled applications in general.

Quotes:

"In line with Windows Azure's commitment to working with open source communities and serving developers, we're excited that Lucid Imagination is offering its LucidWorks Cloud search technology in the Windows Azure Marketplace," said Bill Hamilton, director, product marketing, Windows Azure, at Microsoft. "Developers gain the benefits of Windows Azure's openness and flexibility while providing search capabilities in their cloud applications."

—Microsoft

"The vision for Lucid Imagination is to provide our customers with choice by offering LucidWorks search capabilities ubiquitously across all key platforms and architectures.  The opportunity to offer LucidWorks Cloud within the Windows Azure Marketplace allows our existing and new customers the freedom and flexibility to take advantage of the power of Windows Azure today. And since LucidWorks is built on top of the most popular and trusted open source search, Apache Lucene/Solr, we are able to broaden this opportunity to a significantly larger audience.  Lucid is very pleased to be the first Search-as-a-Service product available within the Window Azure Marketplace."

—Paul Doscher, CEO, Lucid Imagination

Highlights of LucidWorks Cloud Search-as-a-Service

• Sign-up for a plan and start building your search application in minute
• Well-organized UI makes Apache Lucene/Solr innovation easier to consume and more adaptable to constant change
• Create multiple search collections and manage them independently
• Configure index and query settings, fields, stop words, synonyms for each collection 
• Built-in support for Hadoop, Microsoft SharePoint and traditional online content types
• An open connector framework is available to customize access to other data sources.
• REST API automates and integrates search as a service with an application
• Well-instrumented dashboard for infrastructure administration, monitoring and reporting
• Monitored 24x7 by Lucid Development Operations insuring minimum downtime  

How to Get LucidWorks Cloud for Windows Azure
LucidWorks Cloud helps businesses of all sizes conquer even the most daunting data and business quandaries by rapidly firing up cost-effective, flexible, and scalable search applications that help users find the information they need, when they need it. Customers can set up their Windows Azure instance and obtain LucidWorks Cloud Search-as-a-Service from the Lucid Imagination/LucidWorks Cloud webpage, the Windows Azure web site or directly from the Windows Azure Marketplace. 

RESOURCES

• Watch the future of search unfold on the Lucid Imagination blog.
• Follow Lucid Imagination on Twitter @LucidImagineer and Facebook.
• Learn how leading companies are benefiting from LucidWorks in these Lucene Revolution videos and presentations.

About Lucid Imagination
Lucid Imagination is the only company that delivers enterprise-grade search development platforms built on the power of Apache Lucene/Solr open source search. Out of the 35 Core Committers to the Apache Lucene/Solr project, 9 individuals work for Lucid Imagination, making the company the largest supporter of open source search in the industry. Customers include AT&T, Sears, Ford, Verizon, Cisco, Zappos, Raytheon, The Guardian, The Smithsonian Institution, Salesforce.com, The Motley Fool, Qualcomm, Taser, eHarmony and many other household names around the world. Lucid Imagination investors include Shasta Ventures, Granite Ventures, Walden International, and In-Q-Tel. Learn more about the company at www.lucidimagination.com.

SOURCE Lucid Imagination