What is Neo4j? | Sailesh Verma

What is Neo4j?

Neo4j is an open-source, NoSQL, native graph database that provides an ACID-compliant transactional backend for your applications that has been publicly available since 2007. Neo4j is offered as a managed service via AuraDB.

Neo4j is written in Java and Scala, and the source code is available on GitHub.

media

Neo4j is a native graph database, which means that it implements a true graph model all the way down to the storage level. The data isn’t stored as a "graph abstraction" on top of another technology, it’s stored just as you whiteboard it.

What is graph database?

A graph is a pictorial representation of a set of objects where some pairs of objects are connected by links. Graph database is a database used to model the data in the form of graph. In here, the nodes of a graph depict the entities while the relationships depict the association of these nodes.

media
Some Other Popular Graph Databases : Oracle NoSQL Database, OrientDB, HypherGraphDB, GraphBase, InfiniteGraph, and AllegroGraph .

Advantages Of Neo4j:

Flexible data model − Neo4j provides a flexible simple and yet powerful data model, which can be easily changed according to the applications and industries.

Easy retrieval − Using Neo4j, you can not only represent but also easily retrieve (traverse/navigate) connected data faster when compared to other databases.

High availability − Neo4j is highly available for large enterprise real-time applications with transactional guarantees.

Connected and semi structures data − Using Neo4j, you can easily represent connected and semi-structured data.

Real-time insights − Neo4j provides results based on real-time data.

Cypher query language − Neo4j provides a declarative query language to represent the graph visually, using an ascii-art syntax.

No joins − Using Neo4j, it does NOT require complex joins to retrieve connected/related data as it is very easy to retrieve its adjacent node or relationship details without joins or indexes.

Where and How is Neo4j Used?

Neo4j is used today by thousands of startups, educational , and large enterprises in all sectors including financial services, government, energy, technology and manufacturing. From innovative new technology to driving businesses, users are generating insights with graph, generating revenue and improving their overall efficiency.

media