Video: What's new in the graph database world? Here's a quick recap
AWS Neptune was sharp in its appointment with general availability[1] (GA). While speculation was haywire, AWS sources were very specific about Neptune going GA[2] in late May. So, now that it's here, how much impact will Neptune have for users, and will it 'Amazon[3]' the graph database landscape?
The good: Neptune tries to get the best of two worlds, looks production ready
Even before the announcement, AWS emphasized two key points: Neptune would enable users[4] to seamlessly go from proof of concept to production, and there was great interest by many major clients. Its people were confident about the GA timeplan and how AWS clients using Neptune pre-GA would be able to go to production upon GA.
Read also: Neo4j and NASA: When graph database technology really is rocket science[5]
The names included in yesterday's press release[6] do not disappoint: Samsung Electronics, Pearson, Intuit, Siemens, AstraZeneca, FINRA, LifeOmic, Blackfynn, and Amazon Alexa. Their use cases range from fraud detection to medical research, and AWS says that was precisely what drove Neptune's development and is reflected in Neptune's profile.
Neptune has a dual nature, as it supports both prevalent graph database models, RDF, and Property Graphs[7] (PG). AWS says they wanted to give customers choice, and adds that "which model should I use" was a common question among early adopters.
AWS notes that, in its experience, people coming from a relational background seemed to find PG easier to work with. AWS has therefore geared PG, exposed through the Gremlin traversal API[8], toward interactive applications. For example, each user action when clicking