by Angela Guess
Jack Vaughan recently wrote in Search Data Management, “Graph databases and analytics systems have been quiet, ‘under the covers’ technologies for some time. Based on mathematical notions of structure, they did a pretty good job of modeling relationships between data elements in special settings, but their use has been narrow. In terms of visibility, they certainly lag the relational database, which, by some measures, is actually younger than the graph. Now, graph technology is coming into greater prominence, as a driver of many new application architectures.”
Vaughan continues, “The graph that’s most familiar is the ubiquitous Facebook friends’ network. Similar technology is behind Google initiatives, such as Knowledge Graph. A graph database underpins the Panama Papers project — the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists’ effort that made headlines when it disclosed the sundry offshore businesses connections of some world leaders. There is more. Graph technology buttresses a semantic data system for delivering better patient diagnoses at the Montefiore Health System, an academic medical center and University Hospital based in Bronx, N.Y.”
He goes on, “The general notion of graphs of information even showed up as a factor in Microsoft’s $26.2 billion purchase of LinkedIn. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella cited LinkedIn’s professional network graph as one of the jewels of the acquisition, one he hopes to closely connect to the Microsoft Graph of customers’ calendars, project artifacts, documents and so on.”
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