Compose for JanusGraph arrives on Bluemix
Bluemix is home to some of the most powerful databases in the world. Today, we are expanding that range of databases and are proud to announce that JanusGraph is arriving on Bluemix. It is coming as one of the Compose databases, bringing with it the power of fully open source graph databases.
JanusGraph is a new player in databases with a deep heritage. It builds on a fork of the previous leader in open source graph databases, Titan graph database. The JanusGraph code is capable of being plugged into a number of different database back-ends. It’s all then integrated with the database-agnostic Apache Tinkerpop graph framework. The JanusGraph project itself is organized under the Linux Foundation and led by developers from Expero, Google, GRAKN.AI and IBM. And it’s all open source with new companies joining the community to enhance JanusGraph.
JanusGraph, Compose and Bluemix
At Compose, we’ve worked with IBM’s JanusGraph developers to combine Compose’s one-click deployment, high-availability, managed database platform with JanusGraph.
A great graph database demands a great back-end. We’ve teamed JanusGraph with Scylla, the high-performance Cassandra compatible database for best reliability. Then we added our automated backup system, private VLAN configuration, HAProxy managed access and on-demand scaling to give peace of mind.
A great graph database also demands a great front-end. Therefore we have introduced the Data Browser, an easy to use online tool for turning Gremlin graph database queries into visual graphs and enhanced JSON tables. It’s ideal for starting your graph data exploration journey. The Data Browser works with the Compose Bluemix console.
We have taken that technology and integrated it with Bluemix’s powerful application cloud to give it a reliable host environment with many services available for applications to use with JanusGraph.
This means that from today, Bluemix users can deploy the industry leading graph database from their Bluemix account.
Why a graph database?
Graph databases model the world as vertices and edges, or nodes and directed connections as graph theory calls them. Vertices represent entities while edges are the connections between those entities. Both can have properties associated with them. Both are equal elements in how the database is managed and queried and a query on a graph database can start at a point and explore the connections around it so you can say “I’m looking for any person who likes brand X who has a friends or friends of friends who buy brand Y and Z”.
Relational databases typically treat relations as a simple connection between one row and another or demand that you add another table to associate data with the relationship. That means that when you want to query across relationships and examine the network that exists, you have to do a lot of expensive queries.
With a graph database, every query is a built from a simple yet powerful traversal of the network, selecting vertices and then following edges between vertices which fit the search criteria. A Graph database as part of your data layer allows you to understand and explore relationships and networks within your data without compromising the performance of your production relational and document stores.
Users will find Compose for JanusGraph on Bluemix is available now in beta and can be provisioned immediately from the Bluemix catalog.