Most traditional data management products aren’t equipped to handle the increasingly complex and diverse information that is flowing into the corporate network these days. As a result, organizations are turning to new solutions like Neo4j. The widely used graph store, which sets itself apart by providing the ability to easily log the relationships among records, received a major update last week that promises to streamline large-scale analytics initiatives.

The biggest change is in the way that Neo4j synchronizes queries and information across the servers on which it’s deployed. Neo Technology Inc., the company behind the database, replaced the nearly 20-year-old PAXOS algorithm that was used for the task before with a much  newer alternative called RAFT. It also added a broad selection of security features designed to help organizations regulate the information they keep inside the system more tightly without hindering users.

Shortly after the release of the update, a cloud-based analytics startup called mParticle Inc. announced that it has closed a $17.5 million funding round led by Bain Capital Ventures. The firm will use the funds to develop new features for its hosted data warehouse, which lets brands aggregate all the activity metrics that they collect about their mobile users in a centralized environment. Marketing teams can then analyze the information using built-in business intelligence capabilities to uncover important details like what factors make the biggest impact on engagement rates.

Also last week, security analytics provider E8 Security Inc. raised $12 million from investors to spread the word about its mathematical approach to catching hackers. The startup’s namesake threat detection platform aggregates activity information from employee endpoints and runs them through machine learning algorithms to identify anomalous behavior. After completing the scan, the system displays the threats it finds in a prioritized list to let administrators tackle the most severe security problems first.

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