OpenSearch Service's semantic search finally works inside VPCs too!

Hi, it's Shii! Today I've got a quietly nice update from AWS's "AWS What's New": Amazon OpenSearch Service's semantic search finally works inside VPCs too!

AWS What's New aws.amazon.com

What was announced?

According to AWS's "AWS What's New," Amazon OpenSearch Service's automatic semantic enrichment now works on VPC-enabled domains. Automatic semantic enrichment turns keyword-only search into search that understands context. For example, if you search for "lightweight laptop for travel," it can surface results about "ultrabooks" or "portable notebooks under 3 lbs" even though those exact words weren't in the query. You don't need to manage any machine learning models yourself, since all the processing happens automatically.

The story so far

This automatic semantic enrichment feature actually already existed, but until now it only worked on domains that weren't VPC-enabled. If you're running OpenSearch Service with strict security requirements where you can't expose your domain to the public internet, you were stuck just watching this feature from the sidelines.

What changes

With this update, you can now get the benefits of AI-powered semantic search while keeping your private network configuration intact. You don't need to change your existing VPC setup, so you can improve search relevance without touching your current security posture. This should be especially welcome for organizations with strict network requirements.

Dive Deep

The feature is now available across 11 regions:

• US: N. Virginia, Ohio, Oregon
• Asia Pacific: Mumbai, Singapore, Sydney, Tokyo
• Europe: Frankfurt, Ireland, Spain, Stockholm

To use it, your VPC-enabled domain needs to be running OpenSearch version 2.19 or later. From there, you can just create an index with a semantic enrichment field configuration, no changes to your existing VPC setup required.

Wrap-up

• Automatic semantic enrichment now works on VPC-enabled domains
• No changes needed to your existing VPC setup, you get better search relevance without touching your security posture
• Available in 11 regions, requires OpenSearch 2.19 or later

If you're running OpenSearch Service in a private network environment, this is the update you've been waiting for!