ArangoGraphML

Enterprise-ready, graph-powered machine learning as a cloud service or self-managed

Traditional Machine Learning (ML) overlooks the connections and relationships between data points, which is where graph machine learning excels. However, accessibility to GraphML has been limited to sizable enterprises equipped with specialized teams of data scientists. ArangoGraphML simplifies the utilization of GraphML, enabling a broader range of personas to extract profound insights from their data.

How GraphML works

Graph machine learning leverages the inherent structure of graph data, where entities (nodes) and their relationships (edges) form a network. Unlike traditional ML, which primarily operates on tabular data, GraphML applies specialized algorithms like Graph Neural Networks (GNNs), node embeddings, and link prediction to uncover complex patterns and insights.

  1. Graph Construction: Raw data is transformed into a graph structure, defining nodes and edges based on real-world relationships.
  2. Featurization: Nodes and edges are enriched with features that help in training predictive models.
  3. Model Training: Machine learning techniques are applied on GNNs to identify patterns and make predictions.
  4. Inference & Insights: The trained model is used to classify nodes, detect anomalies, recommend items, or predict future connections.

ArangoGraphML streamlines these steps, providing an intuitive and scalable framework to integrate GraphML into various applications, from fraud detection to recommendation systems.

GraphML Embeddings

GraphML Workflow

It is no longer necessary to understand the complexities involved with graph machine learning, thanks to the accessibility of the ArangoML package. Solutions with ArangoGraphML only require input from a user about their data, and the ArangoGraphML managed service handles the rest.

The platform comes preloaded with all the tools needed to prepare your graph for machine learning, high-accuracy training, and persisting predictions back to the database for application use.

Supported Tasks

Node Classification

Node classification is a supervised learning task where the goal is to predict the label of a node based on both its own features and its relationships within the graph. It requires a set of labeled nodes to train a model, which then classifies unlabeled nodes based on learned patterns.

How it works in ArangoGraphML

  • A portion of the nodes in a graph is labeled for training.
  • The model learns patterns from both node features and structural relationships (neighboring nodes and connections).
  • It predicts labels for unlabeled nodes based on these learned patterns.

Example Use Cases

  • Fraud Detection in Financial Networks

    • Problem: Fraudsters often create multiple accounts or interact within suspicious clusters to evade detection.
    • Solution: A transaction graph is built where nodes represent users and edges represent transactions. The model learns patterns from labeled fraudulent and legitimate users, detecting hidden fraud rings based on both user attributes and transaction relationships.
  • Customer Segmentation in E-Commerce & Social Media

    • Problem: Businesses need to categorize customers based on purchasing behavior and engagement.
    • Solution: A graph is built where nodes represent customers and edges represent interactions (purchases, reviews, social connections). The model predicts the category of each user based on how similar they are to other users not just by their personal data, but also by how they are connected to others.
  • Disease Classification in Biomedical Networks

    • Problem: Identifying proteins or genes associated with a disease.
    • Solution: A protein interaction graph is built where nodes are proteins and edges represent biochemical interactions. The model classifies unknown proteins based on their interactions with known disease-related proteins, rather than just their individual properties.

Node Embedding Generation

Node embedding is an unsupervised learning technique that converts nodes into numerical vector representations, preserving their structural relationships within the graph. Unlike simple feature aggregation, node embeddings capture the influence of neighboring nodes and graph topology, making them powerful for downstream tasks like clustering, anomaly detection, and link prediction. These combinations can provide valuable insights. Consider using ArangoDB’s Vector Search  capabilities to find similar nodes based on their embeddings.

Feature Embeddings versus Node Embeddings

Feature Embeddings are vector representations derived from the attributes or features associated with nodes. These embeddings aim to capture the inherent characteristics of the data. For example, in a social network, a feature embedding might encode user attributes like age, location, and interests. Techniques like Word2Vec, TF-IDF, or autoencoders are commonly used to generate such embeddings.

In the context of graphs, Node Embeddings are a combination of a node’s feature embedding and the structural information from its connected edges. Essentially, they aggregate both the node’s attributes and the connectivity patterns within the graph. This fusion helps capture not only the individual properties of a node but also its position and role within the network.

How it works in ArangoGraphML

  • The model learns an embedding (a vector representation) for each node based on its position within the graph and its connections.
  • It does not rely on labeled data – instead, it captures structural patterns through graph traversal and aggregation of neighbor information.
  • These embeddings can be used for similarity searches, clustering, and predictive tasks.

Example Use Cases

  • Recommendation Systems (E-commerce & Streaming Platforms)

    • Problem: Platforms like Amazon, Netflix, and Spotify need to recommend products, movies, or songs.
    • Solution: A user-item interaction graph is built where nodes are users and products, and edges represent interactions (purchases, ratings, listens). Embeddings encode relationships, allowing the system to recommend similar items based on user behavior and network influence rather than just individual preferences.
  • Anomaly Detection in Cybersecurity & Finance

    • Problem: Detecting unusual activity (e.g., cyber attacks, money laundering) in complex networks.
    • Solution: A network of IP addresses, users, and transactions is represented as a graph. Nodes with embeddings that significantly deviate from normal patterns are flagged as potential threats. The key advantage here is that anomalies are detected based on network structure, not just individual activity logs.
  • Link Prediction (Social & Knowledge Graphs)

    • Problem: Predicting new relationships, such as suggesting friends on social media or forecasting research paper citations.
    • Solution: A social network graph is created where nodes are users, and edges represent friendships. Embeddings capture the likelihood of connections forming based on shared neighborhoods and structural similarities, even if users have never interacted before.

Key Differences

FeatureNode ClassificationNode Embedding Generation
Learning TypeSupervisedUnsupervised
Input DataLabeled nodesGraph structure & features
OutputPredicted labelsNode embeddings (vectors)
Key AdvantageLearns labels based on node connections and attributesLearns structural patterns and node relationships
Use CasesFraud detection, customer segmentation, disease classificationRecommendations, anomaly detection, link prediction

ArangoGraphML provides the infrastructure to efficiently train and apply these models, helping users extract meaningful insights from complex graph data.

Metrics and Compliance

ArangoGraphML supports tracking your ML pipeline by storing all relevant metadata and metrics in a Graph called ArangoPipe. This is only available to you and is never viewable by ArangoDB. This metadata graph links all experiments to the source data, feature generation activities, training runs, and prediction jobs, allowing you to track the entire ML pipeline without having to leave ArangoDB.

Security

Each deployment that uses ArangoGraphML has an arangopipe database created, which houses all ML Metadata information. Since this data lives within the deployment, it benefits from the ArangoGraph SOC 2 compliance and Enterprise security features. All ArangoGraphML services live alongside the ArangoGraph deployment and are only accessible within that organization.