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Harmony in Pixels: Picdmo's Leap into Seamless Photo Management with Zilliz Cloud

Harmony in Pixels: Picdmo's Leap into Seamless Photo Management with Zilliz Cloud

Dec 27, 20233 min read

Today’s world is saturated with digital images, and the quest for efficient photo management is a universal struggle. It was precisely this frustration that inspired Alex Alexander and Gerry Speranza to establish Picdmo in 2020. Their mission was clear: to reform photo management through an AI-powered solution, creating what they envisioned as an "everything app" available on both Android and iOS.

At the core of Picdmo's innovation is its advanced AI engine, painstakingly developed and patented over three and a half years. In this blog, we’ll delve into how Picdmo strategically leverages Zilliz Cloud's vector search technology to overcome challenges and elevate its AI-powered platform to new heights.

The battle with lagging search performance

Building an advanced photo management application was a challenging feat for Picdmo. A pivotal moment arose when the team aimed to implement a natural language search feature, pushing the boundaries of their existing database. The obstacle was apparent — search queries languished in an 8 to 10-second abyss, far from the user's appetite for instantaneous results.

Picdmo initially set up its servers with Milvus, an open-source vector database, which did improve the response times. However, this endeavor was labor-intensive and financially burdensome, with unexpected spikes in response times demanding week-long efforts to diagnose and rectify configuration issues. Therefore, the Picdmo team sought a more straightforward solution to operate and maintain.

The turning point: Zilliz Cloud

Picdmo's pursuit of efficient search performance led them to Zilliz Cloud, a fully managed Milvus service. The results were astounding — response times plummeted from 8 seconds to less than 1 second, even under extreme data loads. Zilliz Cloud offered the scalability essential to maintaining efficiency, aligning seamlessly with Picdmo's vision for a streamlined and responsive photo management experience.

Picdmo integrated Zilliz Cloud into its infrastructure.

Collaborating closely with Zilliz's technical experts, Picdmo integrated Zilliz Cloud into their infrastructure. The Picdmo smartphone app now effortlessly uploads images to the Picdmo cloud, where the AI engine analyzes and generates embeddings. These embeddings are stored in Zilliz Cloud and form the bedrock of Picdmo's technological media representation. When users initiate searches, Picdmo's AI engine expertly transforms search phrases into embeddings and sends them to Zilliz Cloud for vector similarity searches. This architecture consistently delivers subsecond responses, ensuring a swift and efficient photo management experience.

Zilliz Cloud brings enhanced search, reduced operational burden, and better user experience.

The adoption of Zilliz Cloud brought transformative results for Picdmo. Beyond technical wizardry, the impact resonated across various operational facets.

Sub-second search responses

With Zilliz Cloud, the overall search performance dramatically improved. The once agonizing 8-second wait for search results transformed into a subsecond symphony, orchestrating an unparalleled user experience.

Substantial time and cost savings

From a business standpoint, integrating Zilliz Cloud brought efficiency and substantial time and cost savings. The managed vector database service on the cloud eliminated the need for manual setup, streamlining technological infrastructure and reducing operational complexities.

Responsive support from the Zilliz team

Zilliz's responsive support proved instrumental in navigating challenges spurred by Picdmo's rapid growth, ensuring minimal downtime and a seamless user experience.

Charting the course ahead

As Picdmo evolves into a comprehensive multimedia application encompassing photos, videos, and an array of capabilities, the collaboration with Zilliz remains a cornerstone. Specialized technology meetings are on the horizon, ensuring a harmonious alignment of Zilliz Cloud with Picdmo's vision for future features.

Fendy Feng
Fendy Feng is the Technical Marketing Writer at Zilliz. She has extensive experience developing and enhancing the impact of open-source projects in various global markets by producing high-quality, tailored content. Before joining Zilliz, Fendy worked as a Content Strategist at PingCAP, a fast-growing E-Series startup renowned for its open-source distributed SQL database.