The Future of FAST on Linux and Unix

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Bjørn Olstad, CTO of FAST and Microsoft Distinguished Engineer, has penned a blog post on the Microsoft Enterprise Search Blog that details the future plans for FAST.  Here is just a snippet, be sure to check out the full post for all the details:

  • We will always interoperate with non-Windows systems on both the front- and back-end.  Our search solutions will crawl and index content stored on Windows, Linux, and UNIX systems, and our UI controls will work with UI frameworks running on any operating system.
  • We will support ESP 5.3—the cross-platform search core in the 2010 products—for 10 years as per our standard support policy (5 years mainstream support and 5 years extended support).  Non-Windows customers on ESP 5.3 can continue running their core on Linux and UNIX and add Windows-only innovations or cloud-based services by using a mixed-platform architecture.
  • We’re introducing a Customer Upgrade Program that will help customers evaluate our hosted solutions and/or a Windows-based deployment.  The program will help customers assess level of effort, plan for the project, and implement the upgrade.  (Customers should contact their account representative for more details.)