What is Amazon Neptune?
Amazon Neptune is a fully managed graph database specifically designed for highly connected data structures. Unlike relational databases, Neptune models data as graphs with nodes (entities) and edges (relationships).
Graph databases are optimal when relationships between data points are as important as the data itself. Neptune supports Property Graphs with Gremlin and RDF graphs with SPARQL.
Core Features
- Dual-Model Support: Property Graphs (Gremlin) and RDF (SPARQL) on one platform
- Neptune Serverless: Auto-scaling without capacity planning
- Multi-AZ High Availability: Automatic failover in under 30 seconds
- Neptune ML: Machine Learning predictions directly in graph queries
- Neptune Analytics: Batch analytics on large datasets
Typical Use Cases
Social Networks: Relationships between users are the central data structure. Neptune enables queries like “Find friends of friends” 10-100x faster than relational databases.
Recommendation Systems: Graph traversals across product and user relationships enable collaborative filtering and content-based recommendations in real-time.
Fraud Detection: Fraud networks show characteristic patterns in graphs: ring detection, identity fraud, and money laundering are detected in milliseconds.
Benefits
- Optimized for relationship queries with complex traversals
- Fully managed with automatic backup and patching
- Flexible scaling with Serverless or Reserved Instances
- Integration with AWS services like Lambda and SageMaker
Integration with innFactory
As an AWS Reseller, innFactory supports you with Amazon Neptune: We help with graph data modeling, query development with Gremlin/SPARQL, and migrating from relational databases to graph models.
Available Tiers & Options
On-Demand Instances
- Flexible scaling without upfront commitment
- Ideal for variable workloads
- No minimum contract term
- Higher costs for constant utilization
Reserved Instances
- Up to 69% savings vs. On-Demand
- 1 or 3 year terms
- Predictable costs
- Upfront commitment required
Typical Use Cases
Technical Specifications
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Amazon Neptune?
Amazon Neptune is a fully managed graph database supporting Property Graphs (Gremlin) and RDF graphs (SPARQL). It is optimized for use cases where relationships between data points are central.
When should I use Neptune instead of a relational database?
Graph databases are optimal for highly connected data: social networks, recommendation systems, fraud detection, and knowledge graphs. For complex relationship queries, they are up to 1000x faster than relational databases with JOINs.
Which graph models are supported?
Neptune supports Property Graphs with Apache TinkerPop Gremlin (ideal for application development) and RDF graphs with SPARQL (W3C standard for semantic data). Both models can be used on the same database.
What is Neptune Serverless?
Neptune Serverless automatically adjusts capacity based on workload. You only pay for used capacity. Ideal for unpredictable workloads and development environments.
How does Amazon Neptune scale?
Storage scales automatically up to 128 TiB. Compute scales by adding up to 15 Read Replicas. Neptune Global Database provides replication across AWS regions.