Forrester has just released its inaugural evaluation, The Forrester Wave™: Vector Databases, Q3 2024, marking a significant milestone in this rapidly evolving category. The vector database market is buzzing, and nearly all other database vendors are racing to offer vector support. While native vector databases have had a head start over the past few years, traditional database vendors are now setting aggressive timelines to catch up. We haven’t witnessed this level of excitement in the database landscape in decades. Vector databases are becoming essential for businesses, and Forrester anticipates that most organizations will have them in production by 2026.
Vector databases are attracting significant attention thanks to the rise of generative AI (genAI), resulting in a surge of new use cases. They play a vital role in delivering reliable and enriched data to support genAI applications, enhancing the accuracy and contextual relevance of responses from large language models. Additionally, vector databases provide an effective means of detecting data anomalies by analyzing deviations from expected norms and generating valuable insights. Forrester expects widespread growth in vector database initiatives across diverse industries, including financial services, retail, healthcare, manufacturing, and energy in the coming years.
Choosing A Vector Database Requires Looking Beyond Basic Capabilities
There are two main types of vector databases: native and multimodel. Native vector databases are purpose-built to excel at managing complex, multidimensional vector data at scale. In contrast, multimodel databases were not originally designed for vectors but are now increasingly integrating vector capabilities, such as vector storage, indexing, and querying. In our recently released Forrester Wave evaluation, we closely examined 14 leading vector databases from over 100 available in the market. While we currently have two vendors recognized as Leaders, we anticipate that more will emerge next year as their solutions mature. Organizations should also consider other vendors in the Strong Performers category that align with their specific requirements, particularly regarding performance, scale, hybrid search, and integration with non-vector data. To meet current and future needs, organizations should focus on three key differentiators of vector databases — specifically, their ability to:
- Ensure comprehensive core vector capabilities. Look for vector database vendors that provide advanced indexing, diverse distance metrics, real-time vector updates and deletion, extensive dimensionality support, flexible metadata storage, and hybrid search functionality.
- Streamline data management for vectors. Look for vector vendors with extensive data management capabilities that accommodate both vector and non-vector data. Additionally, prioritize those that provide a user-friendly, persona-based interface to simplify deployments, along with robust APIs for agile development.
- Deliver performance and scale at the speed of your business. Look for vendors offering a range of indexing algorithms, including hierarchical navigable small world (HNSW), IVF, and DiskANN, tailored to your specific workload. Additionally, consider those that provide GPU integration, which can deliver significant performance improvements over regular CPUs. Since many vector databases are still evolving their ability to scale, speak to customers or conduct benchmarks if your use cases require 100 million vectors or more.
Vector capabilities are coming to a database near you. Kick off 2025 with a pilot project that leverages retrieval-augmented generation use cases to enhance conversational AI, customer service applications, content creation and summarization, enterprise search, and personalized recommendations. The Forrester Wave evaluation will provide insights into how 14 vector database vendors compare across 25 criteria, including functionality, strategy, and market presence. Readers can also customize the Wave scorecard to align with their specific priorities. Forrester clients can schedule a guidance session or inquiry with us to discuss vendor selection and trends in this market.
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