Greetings! I don't know the exact level of resources available to Steemit, but given that ned's and the steemit account bot hold many millions of dollars worth of currency - it is safe to say that enough is available to build a reliable, dedicated solution.

My only experience has been using Solr, along with custom written code to integrate it into the Elgg Social Networking Framework I use for my own social network. The main task involved is to define how Solr will index the site and to test it all to make sure it works correctly. There is an indexing engine that does all the hard work, so that needs to be health checked as any server service does. Additional UI changes would be needed for Steemit.com too - but nothing challenging.

Overall, I'd say it is a relatively simple challenge when compared to some of the complex challenges that have already been overcome in the development of Steem.

In terms of success, it should be absolutely fine as far as I am aware.