5 Vector Search Challenges and How We Solved Them in Astra DB

Vector search is an essential component in generative AI tools due to its ability to incorporate real-time information while avoiding hallucinations. However, selecting the right vector search product or project can be challenging given the numerous options available. Key challenges include handling high dimensional vectors, scale-out replication and partitioning, garbage collection, concurrency, effective use of disk, and composability. DataStax tackled these issues in its implementation of vector search for DataStax Astra DB and Apache Cassandra by leveraging SAI (Storage-Attached Indexing) and developing JVector, an open-source embedded vector search engine. These solutions allow developers to seamlessly integrate classic CRUD database features with vector search capabilities, improving productivity and accelerating time-to-market for generative AI applications.