Explore the practical realities of managing billion-scale vector databases in this 45-minute conference talk that moves beyond semantic search demonstrations to address real-world implementation challenges. Learn proven strategies for scaling vector databases using Elasticsearch and OpenSearch, with hands-on examples covering performance optimization, cost management, and scalability solutions. Discover how to handle the complexities that arise when deploying semantic search systems at massive scale, including relevance tuning, complex sentence analysis, and synonym detection across billions of embeddings. Gain practical knowledge and tools for tackling large-scale vector database deployments, whether you're currently managing billion-vector systems or preparing for enterprise-level implementation of semantic search technologies.