Kamal Shannak (@shannakam) and his team have been building IBM Graph since 2015. In that short time, they've become part of a growing group of enthusiasts and fans of graph databases - a relatively new database technology.

In this interview, Kamal and podcast host Kamille Nixon (@kamillenixon) discuss the beginnings of IBM Graph and the important role of Apache TinkerPop™ in building the service (5:43), the most common cases where graph excels (13:11), how graph databases fit into a multi-DB approach (16:41), and graph's role as a persistence layer for other services, including Watson (27:12).

To learn more about graph databases, listen to the "New Builders Episode 12: Of Graphs and Gremlins," featuring Alaa Mahmoud.

You can find new episodes of The New Builders on developerWorks TV and SoundCloud. Find out more about IBM Cloud Data Services at IBM.biz/forbuilders. Contact hosts Doug Flora and Jim Young on Twitter (@DSFlora, @JW_Young) or email ([email protected], [email protected]). The show’s music is provided by School for Robots. Check them out at schoolforrobots.bandcamp.com!