What is a graph database? Vendors, use cases and customers explained
Summary
Graph database technology played a crucial role in enabling journalists to wade through immense datasets, quickly making connections between individuals, institutions and tax havens. "Graph has always made sense, it is theoretically superior, but relational [database technology] has been so good it needed to catch up and now it is at the tipping point,” says Jarred McGinnis, managing consultant at semantic web company Ontotext. "So when we first went into business [with Neo4j] for the Swiss Leaks the first reaction of my reporters was ‘I didn’t know this connection’.” “This was very difficult to find in documents because our brains are not wired like that visually and it requires a lot of work if you have to do this by hand. In the Panama Papers that was even more interesting because it allowed us to see patterns we couldn’t find before.” According to Forrester the graph database vendor market is small but ripe for growth. The use cases may be far more narrow than a traditional, relational database, but they apply to big data problems that are plaguing digital companies and the money men in financial services.
