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Neo Technology, creator of the Neo4j graph database, has launched a new global partner program aimed at system integrators, independent software vendors (ISVs) and original equipment manufacturers (OEMs).
The program is designed to boost awareness of graph databases, while building a solid community of expert partners able to meet burgeoning business demands for graph databases. Forrester Research predicts a quarter of enterprises worldwide will be using graph databases in some capacity by 2017. A graph database is a database that uses graph structures for semantic queries with nodes, edges and properties to represent and store data.
Neo’s partner program will target resellers, ISVs and OEMs across all industry sectors and provide enhanced support, training and education on the roles graph databases can play in solving a range of business challenges including: fraud detection, recommendations, graph-based search, master data management, networking and IT management and identity and access management.
“Graph databases are a unique tool for fraud detection because they have the ability to connect a ring of perpetrators and their activities to detect fraud instances as they happen,” said Emil Eifrem, founder and CEO of Neo Technology. “Collusions previously hidden are now obvious when you look at them with a system designed to manage connected data. Simply put, Neo4j stops the bad guys at the front door. This is the most sophisticated way of identifying fraud and makes organizations much more agile.”
Neo Technology’s new program offers two primary partner levels. The first is the Neo4j Solution Partner level, which is aimed at partners looking to resell Neo4j licenses and provide higher-level customer support. To qualify, partners complete a new certification process that tests their graph database technical skills, knowledge and expertise to become a fully certified partner. The second level is Neo4j OEM Partner, which is targeted at start-up to enterprise-size OEMs with extensive experience in graph technology. They are interested in delivering the value and support of an integrated Neo4j solution. OEM solutions can be white labeled or branded as Neo4j.
“We partner with Neo4j to offer an innovative and multi-functional graph database solution to our U.S. government customers,” said John Mark Suhy, CTO at Purethink, in a statement. “The company is always on hand to support us and proved invaluable in the early stages, when we were getting to grips with the scope of the technology.”
Solution Partners and OEM Partners will have access to extensive resources on the partner portal, along with discount training, event and wider marketing support to enhance brand awareness and expertise in this area, so they can increase revenues from this technology.
In addition, there is a free, entry level tier, Neo4j Membership for prospective resellers to learn more about and try out Neo4j.
“We already have a network of 160 partners, but there’s definitely a growing appetite from businesses to learn more about graphs,” Erik Nolten, director of Alliances & Channel at Neo Technology, in a statement. “In response, we are launching a more scalable program that provides specialist guidance and support, so our partners can really champion this technology. This involves educating partners on the types of business issues that graphs can help overcome. Ultimately, we want to accelerate the graph database market worldwide—having a wider network of partners will enable this.”
In January, Neo Technology received $20 million in Series C funding led by Creandum with Dawn Capital. Current investors Fidelity Growth Partners Europe, Sunstone Capital and Conor Venture Partners all participated in the round. Neo officials said the company would use the investment to innovate further, drive open source community growth, and expand its U.S. and international footprint in response to increasing demand for graph databases.
“As an investor, we share a common vision of the role that Neo Technology plays in helping businesses leverage data relationships in real time,” said Haakon Overli, general partner at Dawn Capital, in a statement. “The current set of RDBMS and NoSQL technologies falls short when it comes to modeling, storing and retrieving both data and relationships in real time. Any application where the value comes from insights based on data relationships will need a graph database, and Neo4j is the only enterprise-grade graph database on the market.”
Eifrem said there are two strong forces propelling Neo Technology’s growth. One is the overall market’s increasing adoption of graph databases in the enterprise. The other is proven market validation of Neo4j to support mission-critical operational applications across a wide range of industries and functions, he said.
The technology has shown strong momentum with more than 500,000 downloads since the launch of Neo4j 2.0 last year, thousands of production deployments, a thriving community of developers worldwide and record turnout for Neo’s GraphConnect San Francisco 2014 last year.
Large enterprises like Wal-Mart, eBay, Earthlink, CenturyLink, Pitney Bowes and Cisco as well as start-ups like Medium, CrunchBase, Polyvore, Zephyr Health and Elementum use Neo4j to unlock business value from data relationships in applications that include real-time pricing, online product and service recommendations, fraud detection, graph-based search and the Internet of Things (IoT).