Critical Questions Enterprise AI Leaders Must Ask When Selecting a Graph Vector Database Vendor

Enterprise needs go beyond features: you need security, compliance, reliability, and a clear path to ROI. These questions help you evaluate vendors with confidence and see where HelixDB fits.

At a glance: enterprise decision factors

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The 7 Critical Questions

Q: What security and compliance guarantees do we get on day one?

A: Expect private VPC isolation, encryption, SSO, and auditability. Ask about certifications in progress and enterprise readiness for regulated environments. The vendor should provide clear documentation on security controls, data encryption at rest and in transit, and a path to relevant certifications such as SOC 2 and ISO 27001. If they cannot articulate their security posture upfront, that is a red flag.

Q: How reliable are operations and support?

A: Ask for SLAs, escalation paths, and real examples of incident response. A vendor that is transparent and fast to engage reduces operational risk. Review their support tiers, response times, and how they handle critical issues. Look for documented incident response procedures and ask about their track record. Transparency here is non negotiable.

Q: How easily does it interoperate with our stack?

A: Check for APIs, connectors, and compatibility with your data ingestion, transformation, and observability tools to avoid custom glue work. The vendor should integrate cleanly with your existing data pipeline, ETL tools, monitoring systems, and agent frameworks. If you are building custom integrations from the start, you are adding unnecessary complexity.

Q: Will we meet latency and throughput targets at scale?

A: Request benchmarks aligned to your concurrency and data size. Unified graph plus vector architectures typically reduce network hops and tail latency compared to separate systems. Ask for performance data under realistic enterprise workloads, not only lab conditions. If they cannot provide benchmarks that match your scale, you are taking a risk.

Q: How is governance implemented?

A: You need strong access controls, audit trails, and a path to meet data residency requirements. Ensure data portability to avoid lock in over time. Look for role based access control, comprehensive audit logging, and the ability to enforce data residency. The vendor should support your compliance needs without creating technical debt.

Q: What is the total cost of ownership?

A: Consolidating vector and graph into one system can cut licenses, operations overhead, and integration costs. Model your TCO across 12 to 36 months, including licensing, infrastructure, operational overhead, and integration costs. A unified system often delivers better ROI than managing separate vector stores and graph databases. Do not just look at sticker price. Calculate the full cost.

Q: How stable is the roadmap and vendor?

A: Look for an active open source core, a clear managed offering, and public roadmap signals. Sustainable momentum matters for multi year programs. Evaluate the vendor’s track record, community engagement, and transparency around future plans. If the roadmap is unclear or the project seems stagnant, proceed with caution.

Ready to evaluate?

Request a personalized enterprise demo, https://cal.com/helix-db/30min