SurrealDB vs.
data platforms

Q: How do data platforms and SurrealDB connect?

The platform enriches features in batch; the enriched data flows into SurrealDB for real-time queries; agent outcomes flow back for the next training cycle.

Q: What about context layer middleware like Honeydew or Atlan?

Context layer middleware sits between data sources and agents. SurrealDB's position is that context belongs in the database, where it stays consistent, governed, secured and transactionally unified with the knowledge that grounds it.

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Data platforms. Databricks, Snowflake and others are the analytics layer.

SurrealDB. The operational layer your applications and agents run on.

Together. Different layers for different problems, side by side.

01 |COMPLEMENTARY

Different problems, different layers. The warehouse analyses, SurrealDB operates.

Platforms

Data platforms

Batch analytics, data lakes and ML training, optimised for historical analysis.

SurrealDB

Real-time operations, agent context and transactional workloads, optimised for serving and inference.

02 |HOW THEY WORK TOGETHER

The data flow. History in the warehouse, the next step here.

Ingest

Ingest and enrich

Databricks or Snowflake turns raw data into features, segments and scores in batch.

Serve

Serve in real time

Enriched features land in SurrealDB, where agents and applications query them in sub-millisecond time.

Context

Agent context

Agents read context from SurrealDB, reason over it with Agent Memory, and write decisions back.

Feedback

Feedback loop

Outcomes and interactions flow back to the data platform for the next training cycle.

03 |HOW IT WORKS

The next step, served live. The warehouse's scores land as records here, and the application reads them with the rest of its data in one statement.

1-- The warehouse scored the customer overnight; the app decides now, in one read
2LET $profile = (SELECT taste FROM ONLY customer_features:acme);
3
4SELECT
5    name,
6    vector::similarity::cosine(embedding, $profile.taste) AS fit
7FROM product
8WHERE embedding <|10|> $profile.taste
9    AND in_stock = true
10ORDER BY fit DESC;

Context above the database vs. context in the database

Honeydew

A semantic layer compiling business logic into governed SQL. Strong governance, with static definitions to maintain by hand.

Atlan

An enterprise data graph with catalogue, lineage, governance and an MCP server. Rich metadata, bootstrapped from other systems rather than owning the transactional substrate.

RelationalAI

Decision intelligence inside Snowflake with graph, rules and predictive reasoning. Powerful analytics, tied to an analytical platform.

TRUSTED BY

Enterprise teams building on SurrealDB

See all case studies

Three data stores collapsed into one

An AI assistant for 10,000 technicians

Nine backend tools consolidated into one

Low-latency RAG, under the customer's control

45 million recommendation queries a month

Data platforms,answered

Is SurrealDB replacing my data platform?

No. Data platforms such as Databricks and Snowflake handle batch analytics, ML training and historical analysis. SurrealDB handles real-time serving, agent context and transactions. Together they form one data architecture.

How do data platforms and SurrealDB connect?

What about context layer middleware like Honeydew or Atlan?

THE PLATFORM

Everything an application and its agents know. Five surfaces, one engine.

Database

Document, graph, vector, time-series and relational in one engine.

Five data models as dotted tiles: documents, graph, vector, time-series and relational

Agent Memory

What an agent learns, with its source and its time, in the same engine.

A timeline of remembered facts, each with its source

Cloud

Managed clusters in the regions you choose, scaled on demand.

Clusters in three regions on a world map, each running or scaling

Studio

Query, explore and design the schema from the browser.

MCP

Every model that speaks MCP reaches the database and the memory directly.

Three models connected through MCP to the database and Agent Memory

IN PRODUCTION

Trusted at scale. Samsung, Nvidia, Verizon, Tencent and Walmart run on SurrealDB.

14,000+

Developers building on SurrealDB Cloud

4M+

Developers building on SurrealDB worldwide

FROM THE TEAMS

SurrealDB gives us a foundation where we can unify semantic search, knowledge graphs, and AI-driven decision making without stitching together multiple systems. Collapsing responsibility into SurrealDB has become our default engineering posture.

Justin Foley

VP of Engineering, Later

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Add the operational layer. Real-time serving for the insights your analytics stack produces.