There are some who would have you believe that the relational database has had its day. This is simply not the case. Devised in the 1970s as a new way to structure data for easy accessibility, the RDBMS is still a staple of the developer universe and the reliable cornerstone of many of today’s most mission critical applications.

Given the right task, the RDBMS offers a great model for handling and organizing data, storing it in a structured way using tables with predetermined columns. The trouble is that developers working on applications for the modern digital economy often need a database that does more than this, one that is geared to how we see the world in all its unstructured glory.

There are alternatives out there, such as NoSQL databases which provide a flexible non-tabular way to handle large quantities of data. But it now seems clear that the most important applications of the future could be built using a different approach entirely – the graph database. These are designed with the aim of managing not just data but the relationships between different types of data – something that developers often complain NoSQL can’t do very well and the RDBMS wasn’t designed for, despite its name.

Graph databases aren’t exactly new. They have been a favoured tool for many years among organisations that base their business proposition on the value of data relationships. LinkedIn, Google, Facebook, and PayPal are all successful early adopters.

These web giants all had to work from scratch, creating their own graph databases from the ground up. The latest generation of developers doesn’t have to go down that route, as graph database technology is now available off the shelf for immediate deployment.

This e-book from Neo4j – The Definitive Guide to Graph Databases for the RDBMS Developer – is a handbook to knowing when and how to use a graph database. It will help developers who want to tackle today’s data challenges, allowing them to add graph databases to their professional skillset. It is a vital accomplishment whether the graph database becomes an organisation’s main data store or a secondary one alongside the traditional RDBMS model.

With the relationship between different data types arguably becoming more valuable than the data itself, today’s businesses and users need a way to profit from those connections. This e-book could be the developer’s first step on the journey to meeting that need.

Click this link to find out more.

Sponsored by Neo4j.