Back to the future: Does graph database success hang on query language?
If the history of relational databases is any indication, what is going on in graph databases right now may be history in the making.
Fifty years ago, relational databases were neither ubiquitous nor standardized. The story of how we went from the relational model introduced by Edgar F. Codd to the SQL databases and language we all know today may be a bit different depending on who you ask.
One thing is certain, however — it was a bumpy ride. Ideas, people, and vendors vied for domination, before settling and coalescing around SQL, the by now de-facto query language. This short trip down database memory lane may have some lessons in store for today.
The advent of NoSQL databases in the past few years has challenged the relational stronghold. Among them, it seems graph databases are the ones enjoying the widest popularity right now. Proponents claim graph is the most natural way to model the world, and every major database vendor today has graph in its arsenal.