ISO GQL: A Defining Moment in the History of Database Innovation
Last Friday, ISO published a new database query language: ISO GQL. It’s a peer language to SQL and the first new ISO database language since 1987 — when the first version of SQL was released.
The GQL standard is for and about graphs. Graphs are a way of working with data that you already have. They excel with exactly the type of data that the world is creating more of, building applications around, and increasingly finding ourselves needing to analyze and make sense of.
Database management systems (DBMSs) that work with your data as a graph are called graph databases. The ISO GQL (Graph Query Language) standard uses a particular type of graph called a property graph. Its design dates back over two decades, and it has gained significant popularity in recent years across a wide range of applications – spanning a multitude of use cases in just about every industry.
Having an international standard for graph databases adds immense value to a landscape where data is increasingly dynamic and interconnected. That ISO has invested more than five years in creating this standard says something about the importance of this technology.
