Definition
An open-source, cloud-native vector database specifically engineered for managing and querying massive quantities of high-dimensional embedding vectors in RAG pipelines and agentic memory systems. It abstracts complex ANN (Approximate Nearest Neighbor) search algorithms into a scalable, distributed architecture capable of sub-second retrieval across billion-scale datasets.
Distinguish from relational databases; Milvus is optimized for similarity-based search, not exact keyword or transactional matching.
"An automated industrial warehouse where robot arms instantly locate specific inventory based on physical characteristics rather than a serial number."
- Vector Embedding(Prerequisite)
- HNSW (Hierarchical Navigable Small World)(Component)
- ANN (Approximate Nearest Neighbor)(Component)
- Similarity Metric (Cosine/L2)(Component)
Conceptual Overview
An open-source, cloud-native vector database specifically engineered for managing and querying massive quantities of high-dimensional embedding vectors in RAG pipelines and agentic memory systems. It abstracts complex ANN (Approximate Nearest Neighbor) search algorithms into a scalable, distributed architecture capable of sub-second retrieval across billion-scale datasets.
Disambiguation
Distinguish from relational databases; Milvus is optimized for similarity-based search, not exact keyword or transactional matching.
Visual Analog
An automated industrial warehouse where robot arms instantly locate specific inventory based on physical characteristics rather than a serial number.