Register here<\/a><\/em><\/strong>\n\t<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n
Graph databases<\/a> have enabled companies to launch complex, multi-layered queries which can be answered instantly, whereas traditional SQL databases would find it extremely difficult to answer such queries. Complex queries are returning unprecedented and valuable insights. Graph databases are being used in many industries such as social media<\/a>, healthcare and online dating. The graph database, it seems, is providing a new way of looking at data.\n<\/p>\n A graph database is used to store information about different entities<\/a>, map relationships across entities and query relationships between entities. In this context, entities can be a lot of things such as human beings, companies, animals and cars. An entity can have a specific relationship with another entity. For example, Martin, an entity, is a friend of Jim, another entity. Martin can own a BMW car. In both examples, Martin, Jim and the BMW are the entities with specific relationships between them. “Martin is a friend of Jim” means friendship is the relationship between the two entities. Similarly, “Martin owns a BMW” means ownership is the relationship between Martin and his BMW. In graph database parlance, relationships are known as edges. The relationships are shown in the form of a graph and hence, the concept is known as a graph database. (To learn more about graph databases, see How Graph Databases Bring Networking to Data<\/a>.)\n<\/p>\n The concept of the graph database is being implemented across industries such as healthcare, social media and e-commerce<\/a>. The examples given earlier in this article are simple and straightforward, but the use cases implemented in the industries are highly complex. Take the example of an e-commerce website that provides recommendations to customers. How does the website provide product recommendations that are suitable for a customer? How does the website know the needs and preferences of the customer? The key lies in the product the customer is viewing. If the customer is viewing a book on human resource management, the reccommendation logic<\/a> of the website looks for other customers who have viewed or purchased the same book. At the same time, the logic also determines other similar or related books that other users with similar interests have viewed or purchased, and similar books are recommended to the user.\n<\/p>\n Let us take a closer look at graph databases with the help of an example. Let’s assume that a smartphone<\/a> maker wants to launch a smartphone with several advanced features. The product management will decide on the features after determining the needs and preferences of its target audience, which is corporate executives. The smartphone maker has one or more databases<\/a> that collects and stores data on executive profiles from multiple data sources<\/a>. Now, the product managers<\/a> create a graph data structure based on the data which looks like the one below:\n<\/p>\n From the image above, the product managers derive the following conclusions or business decisions:\n<\/p>\n The above example shows how graph data can be used to solve business problems.\n<\/p>\n The case studies below show how graph databases have helped solve complex problems in the online dating and online career search industries.\n<\/p>\n Problem:<\/strong> Online dating portals want to find suitable matches for their subscribers. To do that, the portals need information on other members of the website who might have similar tastes, preferences, backgrounds and other information.\n<\/p>\n Solution:<\/strong> Many online portals have used graph databases to travel through the details of millions of members and scour information. Based on that, the website prepares matches based on tastes, education, hobbies and other details. The website determines that these profiles are most likely to be a good match with a particular profile and provides recommendations accordingly.\n<\/p>\n Problem:<\/strong> Professional networking websites such as LinkedIn<\/a> want to recommend the most suitable connections and jobs based on a number of parameters such as profile<\/a>, connection views, profile views and group membership, which reflects interests and preferences.\n<\/p>\n Solution:<\/strong> To do this, such networking websites travel through multiple layers of connections such as connections of connections of connections and so on. Then, the graph logic finds common professional interests, careers, job profiles, group membership and other information and based on the findings, provides recommendations on both networks and jobs.\n<\/p>\n The facts and figures given below show how much the graph database has been adopted industry-wide:\n<\/p>\n The graph database represents a new way of looking at big data. There are two clear benefits of graph data:\n<\/p>\n It seems that it is only a matter of time before other industries that deal with huge amounts of data such as banking and finance, pharmaceuticals, defense and intelligence will also be using graph databases. In fact, detecting crimes and identifying insurance fraud with the help of networks, relationships and entities with graph data is sure to be an interesting task.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The importance of big data has been on the rise. However, to make the most of the data, companies need to be able to find actionable insights from it. To find powerful insights, there need to be both deep queries and good analytics on the data returned. Traditional SQL queries face limitations when it comes […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7870,"featured_media":49558,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[557,552,586,592],"tags":[],"category_partsoff":[],"class_list":["post-49557","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-data-management","category-database","category-emerging-technology","category-identity-access-governance"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nWhat Is a Graph Database?<\/span><\/h2>\n
How a Graph Database Works<\/span><\/h2>\n
![\"Graph](\"\/\/www.techopedia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/0d2fcc9af21d4da8b1718b6e3027d53f.png\")
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Case Studies<\/span><\/h2>\n
Case Study \u2013 Online Dating
\n<\/h3>\nCase Study \u2013 Professional Networking Websites<\/h3>\n
Facts and Figures from the Industry<\/span><\/h2>\n
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Conclusion<\/span><\/h2>\n
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