Architecture: How to commercialise a Solr based application?

[Paul Smith Parker <pa...@gmail.com>]

Hello,

I am building a search application based on single core Solr 6.6 server, with an Angular frontend.
Between the frontend and the Solr server I am thinking of using a Java backend (this to avoid exposing Solr end points directly to the frontend).

I would like to package all those components and commercialise the final product.

Do you have any advice on what technology I should use to build this final product?

I would do the installation at customer’s premise, including data import, maintenance and support.

Ideally, I would like the customer to access only the frontend and never access the Solr configuration files nor call the Solr endpoints directly.

Initially I thought of delivering a Linux based VM, but that seems a bit too heavy.
Another idea is to create a docker container with all components.

In any case I need some kind of licensing mechanism that prevents the customer from installing/running an arbitrary number of instances (the commercial model is based on a pay per installation approach).

I know this is not Solr specific, but I was wondering if you could share your experience on how to commercialise a Solr based application.

Any help is much appreciated.

Thank you,
Paul

Re: Architecture: How to commercialise a Solr based application?

[Paul Smith Parker <pa...@gmail.com>]

Hello Charlie,

Thank you for your reply.

I am not trying to build anything like Searchblox nor Lucidworks Fusion. 
My expertise is in my customer’s domain, and I would like to sell them a product that fulfils their need to search their content in a smart way: easy-to-use admin UIs, clever ingestion pipelines plus some other features.
Being a commercial product, my question is related to how I could prevent this customer from adding features on their own.

Looking at the flax.co.uk website, I understand that you guys do something similar; in my case my target customer is only one (and potentially to 3-5 more).
I will certainly look at the books you suggested, too bad I missed the July 29th deadline to have yours for free :-) Any chance you can send it through?

Thanks again for your input!

Kind regards,
Paul


> On 7 Aug 2017, at 15:36, Charlie Hull <ch...@flax.co.uk> wrote:
> 
> Hi Paul,
> 
> You should be aware you're doing something that has been tried many times before - there are lots of Lucene-based 'packaged' search products out there, from Searchblox to Lucidworks Fusion to Attivio. It's not a small task. You should focus not on the technology (you could build this with pretty much anything) but rather the user need and what you'll do to address it, by building easy-to-use admin UIs, clever ingestion pipelines or whatever. None of your users will care about which language or platform you use, but they'll care about what capabilities they get for their money (and what this gives them over and above Solr). You might start by reading some background texts such as Martin White's excellent Enteprise Search, Doug Turnbull & John Berryman also excellent Relevant Search, Tony Russell-Rose & Tyler Tate's Designing the Search Experience and the book I've just co-authored with Professor Udo Krutschwitz, Searching the Enterprise.
> 
> Really I'm only scratching the surface here, this is potentially a very big subject!
> 
> Cheers
> 
> Charlie
> 
> On 06/08/2017 13:46, Paul Smith Parker wrote:
>> Hello,
>> 
>> I am building a search application based on single core Solr 6.6 server, with an Angular frontend.
>> Between the frontend and the Solr server I am thinking of using a Java backend (this to avoid exposing Solr end points directly to the frontend).
>> 
>> I would like to package all those components and commercialise the final product.
>> 
>> Do you have any advice on what technology I should use to build this final product?
>> 
>> I would do the installation at customer’s premise, including data import, maintenance and support.
>> 
>> Ideally, I would like the customer to access only the frontend and never access the Solr configuration files nor call the Solr endpoints directly.
>> 
>> Initially I thought of delivering a Linux based VM, but that seems a bit too heavy.
>> Another idea is to create a docker container with all components.
>> 
>> In any case I need some kind of licensing mechanism that prevents the customer from installing/running an arbitrary number of instances (the commercial model is based on a pay per installation approach).
>> 
>> I know this is not Solr specific, but I was wondering if you could share your experience on how to commercialise a Solr based application.
>> 
>> Any help is much appreciated.
>> 
>> Thank you,
>> Paul
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> ---
>> This email has been checked for viruses by AVG.
>> http://www.avg.com
>> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> Charlie Hull
> Flax - Open Source Enterprise Search
> 
> tel/fax: +44 (0)8700 118334
> mobile:  +44 (0)7767 825828
> web: www.flax.co.uk

Re: Architecture: How to commercialise a Solr based application?

[Charlie Hull <ch...@flax.co.uk>]

Hi Paul,

You should be aware you're doing something that has been tried many 
times before - there are lots of Lucene-based 'packaged' search products 
out there, from Searchblox to Lucidworks Fusion to Attivio. It's not a 
small task. You should focus not on the technology (you could build this 
with pretty much anything) but rather the user need and what you'll do 
to address it, by building easy-to-use admin UIs, clever ingestion 
pipelines or whatever. None of your users will care about which language 
or platform you use, but they'll care about what capabilities they get 
for their money (and what this gives them over and above Solr). You 
might start by reading some background texts such as Martin White's 
excellent Enteprise Search, Doug Turnbull & John Berryman also excellent 
Relevant Search, Tony Russell-Rose & Tyler Tate's Designing the Search 
Experience and the book I've just co-authored with Professor Udo 
Krutschwitz, Searching the Enterprise.

Really I'm only scratching the surface here, this is potentially a very 
big subject!

Cheers

Charlie

On 06/08/2017 13:46, Paul Smith Parker wrote:
> Hello,
>
> I am building a search application based on single core Solr 6.6 server, with an Angular frontend.
> Between the frontend and the Solr server I am thinking of using a Java backend (this to avoid exposing Solr end points directly to the frontend).
>
> I would like to package all those components and commercialise the final product.
>
> Do you have any advice on what technology I should use to build this final product?
>
> I would do the installation at customer’s premise, including data import, maintenance and support.
>
> Ideally, I would like the customer to access only the frontend and never access the Solr configuration files nor call the Solr endpoints directly.
>
> Initially I thought of delivering a Linux based VM, but that seems a bit too heavy.
> Another idea is to create a docker container with all components.
>
> In any case I need some kind of licensing mechanism that prevents the customer from installing/running an arbitrary number of instances (the commercial model is based on a pay per installation approach).
>
> I know this is not Solr specific, but I was wondering if you could share your experience on how to commercialise a Solr based application.
>
> Any help is much appreciated.
>
> Thank you,
> Paul
>
>
>
>
> ---
> This email has been checked for viruses by AVG.
> http://www.avg.com
>


-- 
Charlie Hull
Flax - Open Source Enterprise Search

tel/fax: +44 (0)8700 118334
mobile:  +44 (0)7767 825828
web: www.flax.co.uk