[jandrewrogers]

A simple key-value model is a very low-scalability, low-performance method of implementing a graph database. The key to graph database performance is maintaining consistent locality over traversals, which is no small trick from a computer science standpoint. I know a lot of graph databases work using naive key-value lookups but it is not recommended.

Most modestly scalable graph databases are implemented as traditional relational-style engines with highly optimized equi-join recursion. The most scalable implementations use topological methods that are beyond the scope of this post but definitely not simple key-value designs.