Introducing graph processing

As the number of users increases to millions in large organizations, traditional relational database performance will be degraded while finding relationships between these users. For example, finding relationships between two friends results in a simple join SQL query. But, if you have to find a relationship with a friend of a friend, six levels deep, you have to join the tables six times in a SQL query which leads to poor performance. Graph processing finds relationships without performance degradation as the size of the graph grows. In relational databases, relationships are established only by joining tables. In graph databases, relationships are first-class citizens. Let's understand what a graph is and how they are created and processed.

What is a graph?

A graph is a collection of vertices connected to each other using edges as shown in the following Figure 9.1. Vertex is a synonym for node, which can be a place or person with associated relationships expressed...