Graph Data Model Visualization
A knowledge graph stores entities as nodes and relationships as edges, and both can carry properties. This interactive graph models a small IT infrastructure - business services, applications, infrastructure hosts, and databases - so you can explore how those entities connect and what happens downstream when one of them changes.
Interactive Demo
To embed this MicroSim in your own page, use the following iframe:
1 | |
Overview
Each node type has its own shape and color:
- Business Service - blue hexagon (for example, Customer Portal)
- Application - green rectangle (Web App, API Gateway)
- Infrastructure - gray diamond (VM-Web-01, Cache-01, VM-API-01)
- Database - orange cylinder (Customer DB, Auth DB)
Edges encode the relationship type: solid red DEPENDS_ON, dashed blue HOSTS, and dotted green CONNECTS_TO. Edge thickness reflects criticality, and node size reflects degree centrality (how many connections a node has).
Interactions:
- Hover a node to read its properties; click an edge to read the relationship's properties.
- Click a node to highlight its immediate neighbors; double-click to expand a multi-hop dependency tree.
- Use the type-filter checkboxes to show or hide whole categories of nodes.
- Drag the traversal depth slider to control how many hops the analysis follows.
- Show Critical Path highlights every critical DEPENDS_ON relationship.
- Impact Analysis turns the next click into a blast-radius query: click a node to see everything downstream of it.
Lesson Plan
- Read the model: Have students name the four node types and three edge types from the legend alone.
- Properties everywhere: Hover nodes and click edges to show that both carry properties - a defining feature of the property-graph model.
- Trace dependencies: Ask which business services break if Customer DB goes down, then verify with Impact Analysis.
- Centrality: Discuss why larger nodes (more connections) tend to be riskier to change.