What is our primary use case?
I use
Stardog Enterprise Knowledge Graph Platform mostly as the semantic layer to connect and create data models, connecting data from other sources and using SPARQL queries to expose the data to business users.
In the battery manufacturing industry, we have data coming from SAP, manufacturing data, data from the quality department, and data coming from machines directly. Connecting all of them and providing insight to business users or management is really difficult. Stardog Enterprise Knowledge Graph Platform provides a platform where I can use ontology and data models to create, connect the data, and expose it to users. It is also helpful when users are not able to fetch data from connected sources. For example, a quality department staff member wants to know the status of a raw material and the details which are in SAP. Stardog helps us to connect those and expose that data.
Moreover, Stardog Enterprise Knowledge Graph Platform has an advantage for virtualization where it lets us connect directly to our data lake, Databricks. I fetch data directly through SPARQL queries without having to materialize the whole data because the size of data is substantial. Materializing it would be a very difficult task. When it comes to virtualization, it is really helpful to use Stardog Enterprise Knowledge Graph Platform.
How has it helped my organization?
Stardog Enterprise Knowledge Graph Platform has positively impacted my organization because I started working with it since Stardog was also developing. Now Stardog has grown significantly. I remember when I started working with Stardog, we were working together. Both entities were growing together. Our organization is also a startup, so hand in hand, we were also improving along with Stardog. Stardog was improving themselves with our use case and learning many things, and I was learning many things as well. I was not a professional in ontology and the semantic layer, but with Stardog, Stardog was my first interface on the semantic world. It was really helpful to learn.
A positive outcome in my organization involved a very important use case for traceability of materials and data for traceability that was really in a state of disorder. Stardog helped us to consolidate, join, and bring the data together and helped us to create the data model. Now I have good traceability for cells from raw material till cell creation and all the data on the way. This has a very positive impact in the industry, not only for now, but for the future also, because it helps from operator to management. Everyone who wants to ask a question about battery manufacturing for a particular battery has all the details on it.
For example, extracting traceability for a cell in our use case in battery manufacturing, the tools which already were in place and to take the traceability out manually from the data took almost 10 to 15 minutes, while from Stardog, after connecting everything, it takes only two minutes. I think that is a quite significant amount of time saved.
What is most valuable?
According to my use case, I think the best feature of Stardog Enterprise Knowledge Graph Platform is virtualization where it lets me access virtualized data without having to materialize everything in the semantic layer. Moreover, all the features such as Launchpad, provided by Stardog, which gives a perfect user interface to test SPARQL queries and to run the queries, to check the status of the server and everything, is really good.
Virtualization in Stardog Enterprise Knowledge Graph Platform was valuable because I did not want to materialize the whole data. That is where virtualization was really helpful. In the beginning, I was looking for a platform, for a semantic layer, where it could enable me to directly query the data lakehouse without materializing data. I wanted to connect and fetch the data, and Stardog was a perfect fit for my use case.
Launchpad has a clearly different scenario and use case, but it is really helpful when I want to test SPARQL queries. It gives a very simple user interface and is easy to understand. Stardog has three components: Explorer, Designer, and Studio. Studio is mostly helpful for me. Designer has many new features and good features, but I have not explored Designer as much because I was already relying on my self-created ontology. Explorer is also helpful in some scenarios, though it has some drawbacks.
What needs improvement?
I wish that in Launchpad, there was a feature where I could let users access the features I want them to access. I do not want to give any user the whole access to Launchpad. There are users I do not want them to access Studio, but I want them to have Explorer visible because Explorer is more analytical and it shows structured data in an easy user interface way. Without giving Studio access, if I want some users to access Explorer, it would have been really helpful.
I think Launchpad provided by Stardog Enterprise Knowledge Graph Platform has scope of improvement where more restriction on user management could be available. If someone is in Launchpad, they can access everything. I think that is a good area of improvement. Beyond that, I have been facing some issues with query performance. I do not know how everything is working in the backend, but I think there is scope of improvement in query performance.
Query performance is inconsistent. Sometimes it is performing really well, but the same query sometimes does not perform well. It is really difficult to figure out what the actual root cause is. I think Stardog could help by looking into the backend so that the performance should be consistent. I could expect the performance time or performance metric. That would be really helpful because if some query is taking three minutes, I do not know if it is a good performance or not. Maybe it is supposed to take three minutes. If Stardog could let me know that this should take a certain amount of time, it would be really easy to quantify whether this is not performing well and I can improve from my side or Stardog has to from their side. It would be really easier to understand.
Regarding Stardog Enterprise Knowledge Graph Platform's governance and security, I think the basic governance and security what Stardog is providing is up to the mark. Still, there is scope of improvement. For example, through Launchpad, there is scope of governance for the tools. I do not want to give access to everything to the users through Launchpad. I think many organizations will not want to give access to everything to the users through Launchpad. Through Launchpad, if there would be more governance, more restriction, more control of user management, it would have been great.
Regarding upcoming artificial intelligence capabilities such as Voicebox, I am still exploring it. I got it featured a few weeks back and I am exploring. I would not say I am really satisfied, but the answers which it is providing through artificial intelligence are not really bad. I think there is still scope of improvement there and I am sure because it is new for Stardog also, we both will grow together and it will be improved in the future.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Stardog Enterprise Knowledge Graph Platform for the last three years since I joined this company.
What other advice do I have?
I would rate Stardog Enterprise Knowledge Graph Platform an eight on a scale of 1 to 10. While I am really happy with how Stardog platform is growing, I still see there is a lot of scope of improvement and as mentioned before regarding the performance of the queries and performance on Launchpad. Because there is a lot of scope of improvement still there, that is the reason I am rating it an eight. The tool is not perfected for all scenarios. Keeping in mind this scope of scenarios, I am giving it an eight.
There is no specific advice regarding Stardog Enterprise Knowledge Graph Platform, but if people are looking for a semantic layer, every industry should look for a semantic layer because it has many use cases and could be useful in many areas. I would advise others to really look into Stardog Enterprise Knowledge Graph Platform. If it can help their use case to resolve some issues, it could be beneficial. Stardog Enterprise Knowledge Graph Platform is a great platform to examine. At minimum, people should try it once. It is worth trying once, and I am sure they will appreciate it and will continue with it.