Neo4j adds GenAI and accelerates graph adoption to Aura

Neo4j has announced a major transformation of its Aura cloud database management system (DBMS). The new features come as a response to increased customer demand for Aura and the use of graph technology. The company claims it will make it easier for enterprises to adopt graph technology for analytics and GenAI.

The announcement comes as Neo4j prepares to start its annual enterprise event, GraphSummit, in New York.

Sudhir Hasbe, Chief Product Officer, Neo4j, said, “Today’s announcement marks a pivotal leap forward in our mission to empower enterprises with the industry’s most robust, scalable, and performant graph database management solution.

“Simultaneously, these innovations lower adoption barriers for graph technology and GraphRAG for GenAI, enabling organizations to push the envelope on what’s possible for their data and their business.”

What is in the new release of Aura?

This new release of Aura aims to strengthen Neo4j’s lead in the graph database market. The company already claims to have more than 65 graph algorithms, which puts it ahead of all its competitors. It also has extensive community support.

Among the new capabilities it is announcing are:

1. New Aura console with GenAI co-pilot as a unifying hub: Adding a GenAI co-pilot simplifies many of the tasks for administrators and developers. In addition to making it easier to work with Aura, the co-pilot will also operate across all of Neo4j’s offerings and tools. GenAI means that they can use natural language queries rather than use the Cypher query language.
2. NeoDash: This is a no-code / low-code interactive dashboard builder that makes it easier to visualise data for analysis. It can also build interactive graphics that allow users to drill down and interpret results more easily. While previously available to developers using Neo4j Labs, it is now a wider enterprise tool.
3. Neo4j AuraDB Business Critical: A new self-serve solution priced at 20% less than AuraDB Enterprise. Its target is high availability workloads that require advanced security. It comes as a response to customer demand for cloud products.
4. 15x scale improvements in real-time read capacity: The need for real-time data analysis is growing. This increase in performance will meet customer demand and set a new benchmark for graph databases.
5. Advanced enterprise control, audit, and compliance capabilities: This includes Customer Managed Encryption Keys used by customers to encrypt and protect their data. It also has Security Log Forwarding so customers can stream and audit security logs in real-time. This takes advantage of Neo4j achieving SOC 2 Type 2 and HIPAA compliance.

Enterprise Times: What does this mean?

Neo4j has aggressively added capabilities, partnerships and collaborations over the last two years. This, however, is the biggest change to the core product to date.

Adding a GenAI co-pilot is not surprising, as it seems every vendor is adding that to its solutions. What customers will be looking for is the savings and new usage that this unlocks. Reducing administrative load is table stakes for that technology.

Using GenAI to replace the need to know the Cypher query language is a major step forward in terms of accessibility. However, there is a wider picture here. Earlier this year the Graph Query Language was approved by ISO and the IEC.

Neo4j collaborated heavily on that work, and GQL and Cypher share significant similarities. Will the company now work on an extension to allow its GenAI to write standards-compliant GQL code?