Azure Cosmos DB Visualization with Graphlytic

Azure Cosmos DB is a globally distributed, multi-model database service from Microsoft. Its graph capabilities are exposed through the Gremlin API, which provides a property graph model and a traversal language for navigating connected data. Teams running graph workloads on Azure typically face a common challenge: Cosmos DB stores and scales graph data efficiently, but exploring relationships interactively requires either writing Gremlin queries or building custom visualization tooling — neither of which is accessible to most analysts.

Graphlytic solves this by connecting to Cosmos DB's Gremlin endpoint and providing a visual interface for exploration, querying, and collaboration — without requiring Gremlin knowledge from end users.

How Graphlytic connects to Azure Cosmos DB

Graphlytic connects to Cosmos DB using the Gremlin WebSocket endpoint provided by Azure. You configure your Cosmos DB account endpoint, the database name, graph (container) name, and authentication credentials. One detail that differs from a standard Gremlin setup: Cosmos DB's Gremlin endpoint uses port 443 (not the default Gremlin port 8182), so make sure to set this correctly in Graphlytic's connection settings.

Authentication supports both the primary access key and Azure Managed Identity, depending on how your Cosmos DB account is configured. For the Partition Key — a Cosmos DB concept that determines how vertices are distributed across physical partitions — Graphlytic lets you specify the partition key property in the connection settings so it can be included correctly in write and lookup operations.

The connection works with both serverless and provisioned throughput tiers. For large graphs, Graphlytic uses query-scoped loading — you explore a specific subgraph rather than loading the entire dataset, which keeps the interface responsive even with millions of vertices and helps control RU (Request Unit) consumption.

Why visualize Cosmos DB graph data with Graphlytic

Gremlin query templates for non-technical users

Graphlytic lets you save Gremlin queries as parameterized templates and share them across your team. An analyst can run a "show all transactions connected to this account within 30 days" query by filling in a form field — the Gremlin syntax stays behind the scenes. This makes graph data accessible to fraud analysts, compliance officers, and domain experts who would otherwise be blocked by the query language barrier.

Interactive visual exploration

Expand a vertex's neighbors with a click, apply filters by property value, and navigate multi-hop paths visually. Node styling (color, size, shape) can be mapped to vertex properties — for example, marking high-risk vertices red based on a risk score property stored in Cosmos DB. Multiple graph layout algorithms are available to best fit your data structure.

Controlling query cost with the Threads parameter

Cosmos DB charges for queries in Request Units (RUs). Graphlytic's Cosmos DB connection exposes a Threads parameter (1–20) that controls how many parallel Gremlin requests Graphlytic sends to Cosmos DB at once. Setting this higher speeds up graph loading but increases RU consumption; a lower value reduces costs on provisioned throughput accounts. This makes it practical to tune Graphlytic's behavior for your specific throughput allocation.

Multi-user collaboration

Graphlytic projects support multiple users with role-based access. Different teams — risk analysis, compliance, data engineering — can share the same Cosmos DB connection but work in isolated project spaces with their own saved queries, visual configurations, and annotations.

Azure-native deployment compatibility

Graphlytic Server can be deployed on Azure VMs or Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS), keeping all traffic within your Azure environment. This simplifies network security configuration and satisfies data residency requirements common in regulated industries.

Use cases with Azure Cosmos DB and Graphlytic

• Financial crime investigation — trace money flows across transaction graphs stored in Cosmos DB at global scale, with automatic geographic distribution across Azure regions
• Supply chain and logistics — model and visualize dependencies between suppliers, facilities, and shipments; identify single points of failure in the supply network
• Identity and access management — map relationships between users, roles, resources, and permissions in distributed enterprise environments
• Recommendation engines — explore the graph structure underlying product or content recommendations to understand and debug recommendation logic
• Infrastructure topology — visualize Azure resource dependencies and connectivity across subscriptions and regions

Advantages of Graphlytic with Azure Cosmos DB

• Correct port by default — Graphlytic knows Cosmos DB uses port 443 (not standard Gremlin port 8182), avoiding a common connection misconfiguration
• Partition Key support — configure the partition key property in the connection settings for correct vertex operations on distributed Cosmos DB containers
• Tunable RU consumption — the Threads parameter (1–20) lets you balance query speed against Request Unit costs
• Azure Managed Identity support — connect without storing access keys where your Cosmos DB account uses managed identity
• Scales to large graphs — query-scoped loading keeps the visualization responsive regardless of total graph size

See the Graph Connections documentation for Cosmos DB Gremlin endpoint configuration details.