Olofson explained that this is why Spanner might not “really be in a position to challenge” specialty graph databases, such as Neo4j, OrientDB, TigerGraph, and Aerospike Graph, supporting pure graph deployments in terms of performance.
Multi-model databases vs specialty databases
Google’s move to add graph processing capabilities to Spanner is consistent with the trend of DBMS firms, who want to be seen as providing strategic database support in helping enterprises consolidate their database needs, add multi-model capabilities or capabilities that are offered by specialty databases, Olofson said.
One such example is the addition of vector capabilities by cloud database providers, such as Oracle, AWS, Microsoft, Google, and MongoDB. Previously, vector capabilities were just offered by specialty databases, such as Pinecone, Weaviate, and Milvus.