As analysts predict massive global acceleration of graph tech, Cape Town-based software firm Locstat is tipping graph technology as the next frontier in digital transformation.
This, as the company launched its graph analytics platform, Locstat LightWeaver, which it says enables organisations to scale next-generation data intelligence solutions.
The platform has customer-driven industry and point solutions, incorporating graph-based artificial intelligence, analytics and event processing.
There is growing anticipation by analysts that adoption of graph tech will accelerate over the next three years.
In its 2021 market guide for graph database management solutions, research firm Gartner predicts: “By 2025, graph technologies will be used in 80% of data and analytics innovations, up from 10% in 2021, facilitating rapid decision-making across the enterprise.”
Locstat COO Hallam Ford comments on the growing use of the technology in SA and other regions: “Graph database technology is fast becoming an essential technology in any organisation’s technology stack, because, different to other databases, a graph database treats the relationship between data points and data sets with the same, if not greater, importance as the data points themselves.”
This, he says, is why the giant global platforms (Facebook, Google, Netflix, Amazon, LinkedIn, GPS, etc) all use it, because those data connections (relationships) are essential.
“Once data is in a graph database, the power of graph querying and graph analytics is immense, and in most cases so much more computationally efficient than most legacy technology systems.”
In an interview with ITWeb this week, Ford said graph tech is ideally suited for a large volume and highly-connected data environment with disparate data sources and “where complex questions are expensive to answer. It is computationally efficient in delivering complex queries at scale, compared to SQL join queries.”
In SA, Locstat has deployed its graph-powered technology for different use cases, including real-time analytics, supply chain intelligence, fraud prevention, and network and operations mapping.
Ford says: “Unlocking the value hidden in connected data is the next frontier in digital transformation. Current data platforms cannot deal adequately with the highly-connected nature of data and therefore the next database evolution is graph databases.
“Graph databases and graph computational platforms provide the ideal solution for storing and analysing highly-connected data points in complex environments. Graph analytics rapidly discover hidden patterns and trends, and the applications thereof are almost endless, ranging from fraudulent transactions monitoring, to tracing proteins in vaccine development.
“We do have global aspirations and will in the near future commence with expansion beyond SA, and we have initiated plans for partnerships and other channel options to assist in this expansion. We know that South African software companies have already made global impact and we are proud to be a part of that cohort.
“We continue development of our product roadmap to meet customer requirements, have plans in place to accelerate growth in SA and raise further funds to expand globally,” says Ford.
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