Scaling Neo4j applications

Large datasets in the Neo4j world refer to those that are substantially larger compared to the main memory of the system. In scenarios with such datasets, it is not possible for the Neo4j system to cache the entire database in memory, thereby providing blazingly fast traversals on the graph, because it will eventually lead to disk operations. Earlier, it was recommended to scale the system vertically using more RAM or solid state drives that have much lower seek times for the data on the disk compared to spinning drives. While SSDs considerably increase performance, even the fastest SSDs cannot replace the RAM, which in the end is the limiting factor.

In order to service huge workloads and manage large sets of data in ...

Get Neo4j High Performance now with the O’Reilly learning platform.

O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.