MongoDB Events
Unstructured and structured gatherings
MongoDB is Going on a World Tour
The last three years have been a rollercoaster for the world of events. Here at MongoDB that meant we went from taking everything virtual in 2020 to embracing a hybrid approach in 2021, and then coming back in a big way in 2022 with 14 live events around the globe attended by more than 4,500 members of the MongoDB community. We were so inspired by your enthusiasm to be back in person, sharing best practices and learning from one another. As a company we constantly seek feedback from our customers and our community to improve and innovate. Over this last year, we heard loud and clear that you love connecting with other MongoDB users and getting to network, learn, and engage locally. And that’s why we are excited to announce that we are expanding our MongoDB.local event series to over 30 cities across 19 countries around the globe. Instead of hosting a single flagship event — MongoDB World — this year we’re adopting a “local-first” strategy and bringing MongoDB to you. We can’t wait to bring even more of our community together globally to hear from successful customers, developers, and industry leaders to get an inside look at how to build the next big thing with MongoDB. We want you to come away from MongoDB.local with insightful and practical tools that you can immediately apply to your work. Join us to gain new skills, understand how to overcome problems, and ultimately how to bring your ideas to life faster! Registration for each event will be announced on the MongoDB.local hub and tickets will be released on a rolling basis. Check out the hub to secure your ticket for one of our upcoming events! What to expect at MongoDB.local Each MongoDB.local event is a day-long, in-person learning conference focused on technical content delivered by a diverse range of speakers. Join the keynote as we go behind the scenes of our latest releases and most exciting customer successes. Hear directly from customers and community members in breakout sessions about how they use MongoDB to power mission-critical workloads. Get the most out of your MongoDB configuration with schema design deep dives and data modeling best practices. Learn directly from the MongoDB experts and power users about the latest features and versions and how they make innovation faster and easier. Get your technical questions answered in a complimentary 1:1 meeting at Ask the Experts ! Be sure to network with other MongoDB users and enthusiasts over food and beverages (included in your conference pass) and during the closing networking reception. Whether you are looking to start your MongoDB journey or refresh your knowledge of Atlas Search, MongoDB.local will support you in making your next project the best yet. Where we're headed From NYC skyscrapers to Sydney Harbour, MongoDB is coming to a venue near you! Our world tour will include cities across North America, Asia, Oceania, Europe, and Latin America, allowing us to meet in-person with more of our community members for a day of education, entertainment, and engagement. By bringing these events to you, we aim to support the reduction of travel time and costs, and our environmental impact. So, what are you waiting for? Gather your team and head to your nearest MongoDB.local! Check out the MongoDB.local hub to find the city nearest you. How you can get involved We are looking for sponsors and partners for each MongoDB.local. If you are interested in hearing about sponsorship opportunities, visit the MongoDB.local hub !
MongoDB Underpins Massive Digital-First Data Strategy Adoption Across Asia Pacific from Singapore
Members of MongoDB’s Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) team get set for their first MongoDB Day in Singapore. Singapore is fast becoming a strategic hub for companies across Asia Pacific as they reorient around a digital-first strategy, according to Simon Eid, senior vice president, APAC, MongoDB. During the past year, MongoDB’s team in Singapore has expanded from five people to more than 50 people to support exponential growth and demand in the region. Speaking at the first MongoDB Day ever held in Singapore, which was sponsored by AWS, Eid explained that, since COVID-19 hit in March 2020, companies, senior management teams, and executive boards have started asking how quickly they could pivot to a digital-first strategy. “Retailers had to become experts at ecommerce, gaming and streaming companies had to deal with a surge of demand, pharmacies had to figure out how to get medications to their customers, and time was of the essence — speed was critical,” said Eid. MongoDB fastest for digital transformation Simon Eid, senior vice president, APAC, MongoDB. Eid said businesses across Asia Pacific quickly learned that the fastest way to build new digital capabilities was to use MongoDB. Developers could move incredibly fast and ship quickly. Product leaders realized they could get to market faster than the competition, and company executives realized they could seize new opportunities or respond to new threats. “Our whole ethos as a company is to make developers insanely productive, and our real opportunity for Asia Pacific is now how to help customers go to the next level supporting operational productivity with data management at the heart of everything they do,” he said. Simply the most secure Amit Samdarshi, product manager, Open Government Producst, explians how his team innovates. MongoDB has been downloaded 265 million times, ten times more than the number of developers in the world, which is testament to its growing global reputation. Locally in Singapore and across Asia Pacific, more and more customers are choosing MongoDB, and specifically Atlas, for its simplicity, flexibility, and robust security. “Regulators, financial institutions, and the Singapore government now recognize that MongoDB and Atlas provide the most secure data management system and service available in the market — you only have to look at Singapore’s FormSG within Open Government Products as a perfect example,” said Eid. Forms for public good Presentation at MongoDB Days Singapore Open Government Singapore has a dedicated team of 100 people working for FormSG, a department credited with revolutionizing government forms digitally with MongoDB Atlas on AWS. FormSG chose MongoDB because they required the highest level of security for data encryption as well as the confidence that they would not be impacted by downtime or performance issues with many users accessing forms simultaneously. “They describe themselves as “Forms for public good,” having touched the lives of millions of people during COVID-19, streamlining how members of the public engage with the multitude of government forms, and MongoDB is the backbone of this initiative,” said Eid. “We’re very proud of what they have achieved, held up as a shining example of data management excellence by the Singapore government now being showcased to other countries around the world,” he said. Poised for further growth From healthcare to social media analytics, digital banking and food delivery services, MongoDB is powering some of the most innovative growth companies to emerge across the region: A recent example is Greenline Synergy Co. Ltd (GLS) in Thailand using MongoDB Atlas to transform healthcare for the country’s leading hospital group, Bangkok Dusit Medical Services (BDMS). Also in Thailand, Computerology is unlocking the value of social media management and social listening via analytics. Indonesian FinTech Amar Bank is the pioneer of digital banking providing microloans to people who wouldn’t be able to get financial services from traditional banks. Woowa Brothers Vietnam introduced its food delivery app, BAEMIN, to local users in May 2019, and it scaled rapidly throughout the pandemic to become one of the leading food technology companies across the country. Woowa Brothers Vietnam introduced its food delivery app BAEMIN to local users in May 2019 and it scaled rapidly throughout the pandemic to become one of the leading food technology companies across the country. Another interesting story from the wider APAC region is TableCheck, the world’s premiere booking and guest platform. TableCheck's CTO Johnny Shields was also on site at the event and presented on how MongoDB has been a fit for TableCheck's developer workflow since they were founded in 2013. He explained that MongoDB allowed them to work with their data easily and quickly while building out their APIs and application. We'll be having a full blog on their use case coming soon. MongoDB continues to invest in its Asia Pacific operations with Singapore now firmly established as the regional ASEAN hub for customers and partners. “Singapore is a highly regulated, highly secure market, which gives customers and partners confidence when working through their digital transformation strategies and the vendor partners they require. We are excited to have partnered with AWS for our first MongoDB day, which reinforces our close alignment to cloud providers who are an integral part of our customer digital transformation plans,” Eid said. Learn more about MongoDB Atlas and try for free today .
MongoDB highlights from AWS re:Invent 2022
Since its inception a decade ago, AWS re:Invent has become one of the preeminent conferences for the global cloud community — and a venue for inspiration, exploration, and innovation. This year, MongoDB attended and hosted talks, workshops, and sessions; met with customers and partners; and connected with developers and potential and current customers in the expo hall. MongoDB is the AWS Marketplace Partner of the Year - EMEA MongoDB was awarded the AWS Marketplace Partner of the Year for the Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) region. Since 2021, MongoDB Atlas on AWS has grown by 173 percent among EMEA users, a result of a deeper collaboration with AWS and increased attention to the customer experience. For instance, we’ve simplified the purchase and pricing of MongoDB on AWS; partnered with AWS Marketplace Vendor Insights for increased security, compliance, and confidence; helped customers accelerate their migrations to MongoDB on AWS; and more. For more details, read “ MongoDB and AWS: How a decade-old collaboration got even better in 2022 .” MongoDB customers were everywhere at AWS re:Invent Many MongoDB customers trust AWS for their cloud computing needs, making AWS re:Invent an ideal opportunity to better understand customer needs and use cases, strengthen relationships, and plan for the new year. We were happy to see how many MongoDB customers were mentioned in AWS CEO Adam Selipsky’s keynote address . In between debuting new AWS features and capabilities, Selipsky also mentioned many AWS and MongoDB customers, including Intuit , Okta , Palo Alto Networks , Expedia , and Epic Games . In fact, two-thirds of the brands mentioned across all four keynotes use and trust MongoDB. Additionally, joint MongoDB and AWS partners Vercel and BigID , as well as customers TEG/Ticketek and Midland Credit Management , were featured on the Voice of the Customer series . The videos should be posted on the Amazon Partner Network channel soon . MongoDB customer and partner live streams from re:Invent From fashion startups to telecommunications providers, MongoDB customers span a wide range of industries, sizes, and business models. To help them share their diverse experiences, we also live-streamed conversations with leaders from four innovative MongoDB customers and partners: Okta/Auth0 , VEERUM , Alloy Automation , and Vercel . For our first livestream, MongoDB developer relations lead Shane McAllister sat down with Okta VP of engineering Andrew Yu for a conversation on how Okta became the preferred identity provider of tech teams across a range of industries and sectors. MongoDB developer relations lead Shane McAllister discusses the meteoric rise of Okta with Okta VP of engineering Andrew Yu. Next, MongoDB senior developer advocate Jesse Hall spoke with VEERUM CTO Rob Southon about their unique “digital twin” technology that allows remote site visits, enabling VEERUM customers to reduce time, money, and environmental impact. MongoDB senior developer advocate Jesse Hall and VEERUM CTO Rob Southon discuss VEERUM's innovative asset management model and how it reduces costs and carbon footprint. Afterward, Gregg Mojica, co-founder of Alloy Automation , spoke to MongoDB principal developer advocate Mike Lynn about his tech journey, including Alloy’s participation in the MongoDB for Startups program , overcoming the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the successful completion of a Series A funding round. MongoDB principal developer advocate Michael Lynn talks to Alloy Automation co-founder Gregg Mojica about Alloy’s journey. Shane McAllister also sat down with Vercel CEO Guillermo Rauch for a discussion about the MongoDB integration in the Vercel Marketplace , new announcements for Next.js 13 , and the latest World Cup win for Argentina ⚽️. MongoDB developer relations lead Shane McAllister speaks with Vercel CEO Guillermo Rauch on all the new Vercel announcements at AWS re:Invent 2022. MongoDB executives on prime time MongoDB CEO Dev Ittycheria and CISO Lena Smart were featured on theCube by SiliconANGLE , a leading tech news site. Ittycheria discussed some of current data trends, including the link between productivity and innovation, how consolidating tech stacks accelerates the release cycle, and how the MongoDB developer data platform empowers teams to make decisions faster and shorten time to market. MongoDB CEO Dev Ittycheria sits down with interviewers from SiliconANGLE’s theCube talk show to talk about today’s rapidly evolving data landscape. In her interview on theCube , Smart covered a variety of subjects, including new security features like Queryable Encryption , how to turn security from an obstacle to an opportunity, and the evolution of MongoDB. She also compared and contrasted emerging security challenges (from AI to quantum computing) with past crises like Y2K. In this episode of SiliconANGLE’s theCube, MongoDB CISO Lena Smart reflects on past crises, the development of MongoDB, and how to turn security from obstacle to opportunity. Lastly, SVP of product management Andrew Davidson spoke with Patrick Moorhead and David Newman from Futurum Research on The Six Five on the Road at AWS re:Invent 2022 show . Davidson began with an explanation of the data landscape, defining and discussing transactional data before explaining how MongoDB’s innovative document data model empowers developers with its flexibility and ease of use. MongoDB was named as a leader in The Forrester Wave™: Translytical Data Platforms report for 2022 . By bridging the gap between transactional and analytical data, translytical data enables teams to build smarter apps, get faster business insights, increase innovation, and outpace competitors. Security and "The Rise of the Developer Data Platform" In CISO Lena Smart’s re:Invent fireside chat with MongoDB’s Karen Huaulme, Principal Developer Advocate; Andrew Davidson, SVP, Products; and Krista Braun, Executive Keynote Advisor; Smart discussed how security innovations played an important role in the growth of the MongoDB Atlas developer data platform , an integrated set of data and application services that share a unified developer experience. MongoDB CISO Lena Smart presents “The Rise of the Developer Data Platform,” before joining MongoDB employees Andrew Davidson, Krista Braun, and Karen Huaulme for a panel discussion on the evolution of MongoDB. Making the most out of your data On each day of AWS re:Invent, MongoDB hosted lightning talks at our in-booth theater, covering a variety of practical topics such as frontend development, real-time analytics, and more. In his two daily sessions, executive solutions architect Sigfrido “Sig” Narváez discussed different ways to maximize the value of your data. In the first workshop, Narváez and Ralph Capasso, director of engineering for MongoDB Data Lake , used real (and fictional) open source data from a Blue Origin rocket launch to demonstrate how the Atlas developer data platform can streamline tech stacks and provide real-time analytics and visualizations to boost customer engagement. Check out the rocket-analytics GitHub repo for more information. In his next workshop, Narváez discussed how to tap into data locked away in relational databases by migrating to the Atlas developer data platform. In his demo, Narváez covered several key competencies, including transforming data with the MongoDB Relational Migrator , invoking a GraphQL endpoint with Postman , and using the Realm SDK to build a mobile app enabled with cloud sync. Visit the liberate-data GitHub repo for more information, including a complete Postman collection to import into your environment. MongoDB executive solutions architect Sigfrido “Sig” Narváez presents a workshop at the in-booth theater at AWS re:Invent 2022. Demystifying the edge Following up on a MongoDB World presentation, “ Building Your First Edge Computing App with MongoDB Atlas Device Sync, Realm, & Verizon 5G Edge ,” MongoDB solutions architect and Realm specialist Mark Brown put together a practical, step-by-step tutorial on how developers can use LTE and 5G networks to bypass the physical fiber optic infrastructure of the internet, and deliver speedy, seamless service. Although Brown’s re:Invent sessions were not recorded, you can access the workshop modules for a self-guided walkthrough. Read the Mobile Edge Computing: Realizing the Benefits of 5G with MongoDB and Verizon 5G Edge white paper and blog series for more information. MongoDB solutions architect (and Realm specialist) Mark Brown hosts his workshop on bypassing physical internet infrastructure using LTE and 5G networks and edge applications. The evolution of a data-driven application In her workshop “ 10 Things You Didn’t Know Your Data Could Do for You ,” MongoDB principal developer advocate Karen Huaulme shared her experience in creating a data-driven application. Read “ Streamline, Simplify, Accelerate: New MongoDB Features Reduce Complexity ” to learn more. MongoDB principal developer advocate Karen Huaulme shares the struggles, rewards, and lessons learned from building a data-driven application. Transitioning from relational to NoSQL MongoDB developer relations director Rick Houlihan shared cultural and operational aspects of switching from relational to NoSQL. Watch the recording of his talk, " From RDBMS to NoSQL ,” or read " Relational to NoSQL at Enterprise Scale .” MongoDB developer relations director Rick Houlihan talks about the cultural shift from relational to NoSQL at AWS re:Invent 2022. If you attended AWS re:Invent 2022, we hope you had a good time, and that we’ll see you there next year. In the meantime, you can run MongoDB Atlas on AWS — just head to the AWS Marketplace to get started. Sign up for a free trial to test out all the features and abilities that you’ve heard so much about.
MongoDB and AWS: How a decade-old collaboration got even better in 2022
Developers select MongoDB because it makes building with data for almost any class of application easy and fast for them. They select Amazon Web Services (AWS) because it offers a comprehensive and broadly adopted cloud platform, offering more than 200 fully featured services. Bringing together MongoDB Atlas on AWS helps developers build and ship higher quality applications faster and scale them further. MongoDB has collaborated with AWS for close to a decade now, but 2022 has seen dramatic growth in both the quantity and quality of our joint activities, resulting in a strategic collaboration agreement announced earlier this year. Our collaboration spans joint product engineering and integration so MongoDB Atlas is a first-party service on AWS, and also extends to making it easy for customers to procure MongoDB Atlas on AWS. In 2022, we have worked more closely together than ever before. In this post, we'll cover what we've achieved, and how our customers benefit. If at any point you want to stop reading about the partnership and experience it in action, we invite you to get started for free with MongoDB's fully managed, pay-as-you-go listing on the AWS Marketplace . Delivering an outstanding customer experience Since re:Invent 2021, MongoDB and AWS have jointly seen an explosion in customer success, with MongoDB for Startups becoming one of the most widely used offerings in the AWS Activate program after we launched in July. And, since launching in the AWS Marketplace with pay-as-you-go pricing in December 2021, MongoDB Atlas has become one of the most popular self-service listings, with well over 1,000 customers. More broadly, we've seen our AWS Marketplace business show triple-digit growth through significant, mutual investments across engineering, sales, and marketing. We've also found great success working with AWS' Workload Migration and Proof of Concept programs, helping many new customers accelerate their migration to MongoDB Atlas on AWS over the past 12 months. Additionally, while MongoDB works closely with AWS across the globe, we devoted increased attention to Europe this past year, resulting in a considerable increase in customer adoption. As a result, AWS named us their AWS Marketplace Partner of the Year - EMEA in November 2022. One way that we've helped to accelerate such customer success is by making it easier to procure MongoDB Atlas on AWS. Over the past year, MongoDB and AWS have significantly simplified the purchasing experience for customers. We did this across a few key areas. One thing customers love about buying through AWS Marketplace is how seamless it makes the purchasing experience. However, historically this has been slowed somewhat for MongoDB customers by the need to agree to separate legal terms. Starting in November 2022, however, all Atlas on AWS customers purchasing through the AWS Marketplace Self Service listing use AWS Marketplace’s Standard Contract for Marketplace (SCMP) terms and conditions rather than MongoDB Cloud Terms of Service, thereby further reducing friction to getting productive, faster, with MongoDB. In 2022, we also helped customers buy MongoDB with confidence through AWS Marketplace Vendor Insights . AWS Vendor Insights "simplif[ies] third-party software risk assessments by compiling security and compliance information in a unified dashboard." It's an important way we're working together to increase customer confidence, ensuring they can buy MongoDB in AWS Marketplace with security and control. Close product collaboration Behind these improvements to our joint purchasing experience were significant improvements to how MongoDB Atlas integrates with key AWS services. MongoDB has long worked seamlessly with core AWS services such as Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) and Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3), and more recently has collaborated with AWS to ensure tight integration with AWS container services like Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service (Amazon EKS) and Amazon Elastic Container Service (Amazon ECS), AWS serverless technologies like AWS Lambda, Amazon Eventbridge, and AWS Fargate; and edge computing services like AWS Wavelength . Over the past year, however, we've delved more deeply into AWS machine learning services (Amazon Comprehend, Amazon Kendra, Amazon Lex, etc.), AWS AppSync, Amazon Forecast, AWS Elastic Beanstalk, and more. In addition to direct integrations with AWS services, we made it simpler for customers to use MongoDB with important joint partners such as Datadog, Databricks, and Confluent. For Datadog, we improved MongoDB Atlas App Service to support forwarding logs on AWS to Datadog, thereby improving observability through real-time log analytics. With Databricks, we announced MongoDB as a data source within a Databricks notebook, thereby offering data practitioners an easier, more curated experience for connecting Databricks to MongoDB Atlas data. And with Confluent, we strengthened our integrations to help developers easily build robust, reactive data pipelines that stream events between applications and services in real time. Through innovations to the purchasing process and the product experience, we've helped make thousands of customers successful running MongoDB on AWS. Some joint customers, like Unqork , are upending entire industries with innovative approaches to technology and business. Others, like Volvo's Connected Solutions business , rely on MongoDB and AWS to scale their fleet management solution from tens of millions to billions of daily events. Other recent customers include Verizon , Marsello , GLS , and Shopline . Get started with MongoDB Atlas on AWS You needn't take our word for it, however. With just a few clicks — and no risk — you can get started for free with MongoDB Atlas on AWS . There's no upfront commitment, and if you choose to continue to build with MongoDB on AWS, you only pay for what you use.
MongoDB at AWS re:Invent: Workshops, Talks, Parties, and More
Join us at AWS re:Invent 2022 in Las Vegas. At our re:Invent booth and in our sessions, we'll show how MongoDB Atlas on AWS lets you build applications that are highly available, performant at global scale, and compliant with the most demanding security and privacy standards. MongoDB Atlas on AWS also provides the convenience of consolidated billing and simplified procurement through your AWS account. Learn how developers can use AWS and MongoDB features together to build the next big thing in AI, application modernization, serverless analytics, or any number of use cases. As the flagship conference of one of the leading cloud providers (and a close MongoDB Partner), AWS re:Invent features more than 1,500 workshops, presentations, and demos, and draws more than 50,000 attendees. AWS re:Invent runs from November 28 through December 2 at six properties on the Las Vegas strip: The Venetian, the Wynn and the Encore at the Wynn, Caesars Palace, MGM Grand, and Mandalay Bay. AWS re:Invent is a great place to experience next-generation products firsthand, connect with other like-minded peers, thought leaders, and more. Read on to learn what MongoDB has planned for this event, and to plan ahead for your own AWS re:Invent journey. The MongoDB booth at AWS re:Invent 2021. This year, find us at Booth #1611, located in the Expo Hall at The Venetian. Meet, learn, and engage at MongoDB locations For questions about specific use cases and to meet with MongoDB experts, visit Booth #1611, located in the Expo Hall at The Venetian, or check out our after hours events, hosted at The Emerald Lounge at Sugarcane Raw Bar Grill at The Venetian. This year, the MongoDB booth includes interactive demo kiosks showcasing MongoDB Atlas , our fully managed developer data platform, and to check out guided workshops on security, mobile app development, and more. The MongoDB booth will also include a series of lightning talk sessions on a variety of subjects, from data modeling to Queryable Encryption . These lightning talks and tutorials cover specific topics, such as using MongoDB alongside AWS products such as Wavelength, and may also include an interactive component. To attend, head to our in-booth theater, where seats are available on a first-come, first-served basis. In the evenings, check out our events hosted at Sugarcane. On Tuesday night from 6-8 p.m. PST, MongoDB, Vercel, and PluralSight will host the Gamer’s Paradise Pub Crawl , where you can mingle and play arcade, board, and video games. On Wednesday night at 9 p.m. PST, stop by for our Desert Disco , co-hosted with our partner, Confluent, and featuring DJ Malibu Cathy, top shelf drinks, and food. RSVP now to reserve your spot. The 2021 party at the Sugarcane Raw Bar Grill. Join us this year for our Gamer’s Paradise Pub Crawl and our Desert Disco. Listen to MongoDB speakers MongoDB experts and executives will be featured at AWS re:Invent, hosting breakout sessions on the growing partnership between MongoDB and AWS; the evolving data landscape; how these dynamics affect developers, applications, and users; and the rise of edge computing. First, CISO Lena Smart will give a talk on “ The Rise of the Developer Data Platform ,” highlighting the concept of a product ecosystem built around a common API, enabling developers to easily build more reliable, scalable applications, and to drive innovation. Smart will also touch on how this new digital paradigm has affected security, and how the developer data platform serves as a unifying philosophy for all MongoDB features and releases. Afterwards, Smart will join MongoDB Principal Developer Advocate Karen Huaulme, Senior Vice President of Products Andrew Davidson, and Executive Keynote Advisor Krista Braun for a fireside chat and live Q&A on the developer data platform. In her talk on “ 10 Things You Didn’t Know Your Data Could Do for You ,” Principal Developer Advocate Karen Huaulme will discuss how developers can avoid being overwhelmed by the abundance of data today. She’ll also dig into how to put data to work, whether it’s deriving analytical insights, powering diverse workloads, or developing practical functionality. Huaulme will draw on her extensive background to share common mistakes and teachable moments, so you can avoid the same pitfalls. Developer Relations Director Rick Houlihan will cover going from RDBMS to NoSQL , introducing NoSQL in a new light—not just as a technology, but as a philosophy. Transitioning from relational to non-relational doesn’t only involve migrations, but also requires a shift in mindset in areas such as data modeling and everyday operations. As the former head of Amazon’s NoSQL Blackbelt team, Houlihan speaks from experience, as he led Amazon’s migration from relational to NoSQL, and played a pivotal role in modeling thousands of production workloads and retraining more than 25,000 developers on this new paradigm. Alongside AWS team members, Realm Specialist Solutions Architect Mark Brown will deliver a talk on architecting and delivering applications at the edge with AWS hybrid cloud and edge computing services. Brown and his AWS collaborators will explain the unexpected challenges of edge computing and demonstrate possible solutions. Be sure to bring your laptop! Learn how MongoDB can empower you to build apps on AWS faster and easier To try MongoDB and AWS products for yourself, deploy and manage Atlas from your AWS environment through AWS Quick Start , as well as through AWS CloudFormation . From there, you can connect a wide range of AWS services with MongoDB tools for any use case. For instance, you can build serverless, event-driven applications with MongoDB Application Services (formerly known as Realm) and Amazon Eventbridge, migrate legacy applications with MongoDB Atlas on AWS , ingest and analyze streaming data with Amazon MSK and MongoDB, and more. For a more detailed list of AWS and MongoDB integrations, check out our Managed MongoDB on AWS resource . If you’re eager to try out Atlas with AWS today, check out the AWS marketplace . Atlas is available in AWS regions across the world . To learn more about what MongoDB has planned for AWS re:Invent, check out our event web page .
Skunkworks 2022: A Week of Building for MongoDB Engineers
MongoDB’s 2022 internal Skunkworks hackathon wrapped up in July, and it was a bustling time of hacking, building, and developing. For MongoDB engineers, Skunkworks is a week of no meetings and no interviews—engineers can have fun and work alongside co-workers from different teams to build side projects, proof of concepts, or anything else imaginable. Many companies do one- or two-day hackathons, maybe once per year. We do one-week hackathons about every eight to ten months. Why? Hackathons are an important part of our engineering culture and embody our values of “Think Big, Go Far” and “Build Together.” We find that dedicating an entire week to the hackathon leads to significant innovation. With more than 115 projects submitted, this year’s Star Trek -themed event was one of the best and largest hackathons yet. Building from some of the newest MongoDB 6.0 features, let’s look at a few winning projects and the people behind them. Charts Slack Integration Team: James Wang, Ryan Nguyen, Andrew McMenemy, and Muthukrishnan Krishnamurthy We work on the Charts team and genuinely love our product; plus, it’s always fun taking complete ownership of it for a week. Reporting is a big ticket item for any data visualization tool. It’s something we’ve always had in the back of our minds, and users seem really keen on it. Variations of this request have been asked on our User Voice page since 2019 , along with a request for a Slack integration with Charts since 2020 . This feature is built on top of our Embedded Charts SDK . We updated the URL used to fetch an embedded Chart/Dashboard to take on a new query parameter for screen grabbing. This new URL will trigger an AWS Lambda instance we wrote for the project, which will make use of our embedding SDK to embed and take a screenshot of the chart. Skunkworks is our favorite time of the year. Learning software through projects is so much easier said than done, especially once you start a full-time career in software. MongoDB’s hackathon improves us as engineers, provides a break from the standard work week, and allows us to work on whatever we want, whether it’s a solo project or helping to make someone's dream a reality. It inspires us to always be looking for the next best idea, along with it being a great mental health week. MongoDB Carbon Footprint Calculation Team: Nellie Spektor, Maya Raman, Cathy Wang, Rohan Chhaya, and Tiffany Feng Our team was inspired by a previous Skunkworks hackathon project focused on sustainability within MongoDB Atlas. We decided to do a deep dive on carbon footprint measurement within MongoDB. We began by investigating the carbon efficiency of various parts of MongoDB, from drivers to Atlas. For testing Atlas, we first set up multiple clusters, each varying in either location, cluster size, and sharding status. Then, using an atlas-co2 calculator script that a MongoDB Developer Advocate made, we were able to test how much carbon each cluster was emitting. Finally, we were able to display our findings about different cluster sizes and cloud providers and their carbon footprints. While investigating drivers, we tested 100 insert/find/update/delete operations on 7 of our drivers and calculated the time taken and the wattage used, which was used to calculate carbon footprint and rank the drivers in terms of efficiency. The biggest takeaway for us was the sheer difference in carbon emissions that a simple choice can make. For example, using the Rust driver instead of Java uses 144 times less electricity and therefore emissions. Simply shifting your cluster from one cloud provider in the Virginia region to a different cloud provider in the Iowa region saves over 3kg of carbon a week. MongoDB is collaborating with a third-party vendor to get more robust carbon emission calculations, while tangentially understanding how we can provide a more efficient, sustainable product. Efforts like these help us to better refine our overall corporate emissions calculations. The Skunkworks hackathon is a great initiative that shows engineers how much MongoDB values creativity and personal growth. It's amazing that we are actually encouraged to put aside our regular work and try out anything we’d like. While some people work on personal development projects, other people take the opportunity to tackle some tech debt or explore new features without the constraints of the normal product development process. Furthermore, it allows us to integrate our outside interests into our work, which makes us even more passionate and motivated. Atlas Static Site Search Team: Ben Perlmutter, Joon Young Lee, Shibi Balamurugan, Marcus Eagan, and Nick Larew Our project was inspired by Algolia DocSearch . They’ve done a great job making it super easy to add search to a website. We wanted to make something similar with the MongoDB Atlas developer data platform, and we knew Atlas had the tools we needed to make this possible. It was just a question of writing some code to connect these services and creating a streamlined developer experience. We called the project Atlas Static Site Search, and it has the following distinct components: A website scraper that pulls site data and adds it to MongoDB built using Atlas Triggers. A search index built with Atlas Search using the site data. An Atlas Function that queries Atlas Search. A React component that you can add to a website that uses the Realm Web SDK to call the Atlas Function that performs search. A CLI that you can use to set up the whole backend (site scraper, search index, and search query function) with one command. The biggest challenge was getting all the different cloud services to work together well. Since it is a one week hackathon, we didn’t have time to write proper integration tests to validate that things were working as expected before deploying them. There was a lot of deploying code, praying it would work, it not working, and hotfixing. The Skunkworks hackathon is one of our favorite parts of working at MongoDB. Whether you are an intern or an experienced engineer, you’re given the freedom to work on a passion project or learn something new. It speaks to the respect that MongoDB leadership has for the engineering and product teams. A lot of great ideas and innovative products have come out of hackathons in the past. We’ll see what happens with Atlas Static Site Search! Simulating Common Customer Workloads Team: Xiaochen Wu, Kyle Suarez, and Nishith Atreya Our team recognized how replicating customer workloads has a myriad of benefits and can directly or indirectly help build a better testing environment, empower our support team, and identify potential improvement opportunities in our own product portfolio. We tried to replicate two different workloads—one transactional and one in-app analytical. After identifying these workloads, we brainstormed how to use MongoDB features and products to support them. Then, we identified important characteristics of each workload and began replicating them using available datasets. Following this, we monitored how each workload performed in the MongoDB platform and collected insights and recommendations for our internal teams. One of the biggest challenges was trying to figure out the important characteristics of each workload we were trying to replicate. For example, it was more difficult than expected to think of the most commonly used queries, search, and recommendation patterns that would appropriately represent the transactional customer workload. After the completion of our project, we created a recommendation for MongoDB to build a workload suite consisting of workloads that cover a variety of customer industries. This would allow our engineering organization to test major upgrades, perform product research, and identify improvement opportunities in our platform. $semanticSearch Aggregation Stage Team: Thomas Rueckstiess and Steve Liu At MongoDB Labs, we're always exploring how new technologies can be integrated with MongoDB. We read a paper that was published by a few researchers from Meta describing a novel architecture for semantic search and thought this could be a cool week-long project. We made four key changes: Built a web service that was the API interface to the model Introduced an aggregation pipeline called $semanticSearch that communicated with the API Deployed the web service on AWS Built a Star Trek themed front end using React The Skunkworks hackathon helps us explore the creativity of MongoDB engineers. Every project submitted looked well polished and innovative. We walked away inspired by the talent that's evident in the business. Hackathons provide a creative outlet for engineers away from the day-to-day tickets and helps build a meritocratic culture where any project can receive recognition and reward. Join us for the next hackathon: We’re actively hiring and looking for more talented, creative, and passionate engineers who want to build the next generation of MongoDB products and features!
Submit Your Nominations for the 2023 MongoDB APAC Innovation Awards
Nominations are now open for the 2023 MongoDB APAC Innovation Awards. This regional awards program aims to celebrate and recognize organizations in the Asia-Pacific region that are pioneering new ways to use data, expanding the limits of technology, and enhancing their businesses with MongoDB. We invite you to nominate an APAC organization that is building something dynamic, interesting, or innovative with MongoDB. Innovation is critical to business success. Recent research shows a high correlation between innovation and profitability . As a company that's committed to fostering innovation by making it easier to work with data, we want to celebrate organizations that embody the innovative spirit in the products and services they bring to market. Nominations will only be considered for organizations that are headquartered within the Asia-Pacific region, or for global organizations where work with MongoDB has been predominantly completed within the Asia-Pacific region. See the full terms and conditions . 2023 MongoDB APAC Innovation Awards Winners will receive a physical trophy for their display cases, a customer feature story on MongoDB.com, and inclusion in our 2023 APAC Innovation Awards press release and blog post. Winners will also have the opportunity to participate in webinars, media opportunities, and more if desired. View terms and conditions . Submissions will be accepted through November 1, 2022, and winners will be notified by the MongoDB team by the end of November. Read more about each of the award categories below. We look forward to receiving your nominations! Award Categories Customer-Focused: For organizations that create a more meaningful, personalized, and improved customer experience. Positive Impact: For innovators solving challenging issues for society and the planet. From Batch to Real-Time: For organizations building event-driven architectures and surfacing insights in real time. Industry Disruptor: For businesses reinventing industries by transforming customer experiences through new technologies. Heroes in Health: For trail blazers embracing the power of technology to solve the challenges of the pandemic. Organizational Transformation: For organizations shedding legacy systems and using data to uncover new operational efficiencies. Digital Native: For emerging stars and unicorns with both feet in the cloud and high potential for outsized growth. Best in Search: For organizations that have proven to be highly skilled with search capabilities at scale. Submit Your Innovation Awards Nominations Today
Network, Build, and Learn at MongoDB.local Events — Now Free to Attend
Panel Discussion at MongoDB.local London, 2021 Every year, MongoDB hosts popular MongoDB.local events in major cities around the world. Packed with workshops, talks, and keynotes, these one-day, in-person gatherings bring together engineers, entrepreneurs, and executives from the surrounding area. This year, for the first time, admission to MongoDB.local events is free. (Note that admission is granted on a first-come, first-served basis, limited only by seating capacity.) Five upcoming events Five MongoDB.local events are scheduled for the remainder of 2022, and you can register for the .local event near you through the links below or through the MongoDB.local hub page . Frankfurt , September 27, 2022 San Francisco , October 20, 2022 Dallas , October 27, 2022 London , November 15, 2022 Toronto , December 15, 2022 From sessions on the future of serverless to demos of next-generation technology, here’s what to expect at a MongoDB.local event near you. Learn from the experts Whether you attend keynote presentations or participate in customer discussions, you can tap into a wealth of knowledge from people and organizations that are thoroughly familiar with today’s technology landscape. You’ll learn from MongoDB experts, who will share hard-earned knowledge, practical solutions, and technical insight based on firsthand experience with common issues. You can also attend talks from MongoDB customers, which are generally centered around a specific use case and solution — a sort of shared retrospective for the public. At .local Frankfurt, for example, an engineer from Bosch will discuss the company’s evolution from individual documents to time series data in an IoT environment. All MongoDB.locals include sessions for a wide array of skill levels and specialities, such as a deep dive into the new Queryable Encryption feature or an introduction to building a basic application using Atlas Device Sync and React. These workshops offer practical, actionable advice that you can implement immediately upon returning to your office. Expand your professional network MongoDB.local events also offer many opportunities to expand your personal and professional network. In particular, these gatherings are a great way to connect with members of your local MongoDB User Group, who are likely working with the same technologies (or facing similar challenges) that you are. Whether you’re searching for a new job or business opportunity, looking for tips and techniques to implement in your own environment, or just browsing for inspiration, you’ll likely find what you seek at MongoDB.local. Explore the latest products Product booths are another highlight of MongoDB.local events. Staffed by MongoDB product teams, these booths are where you can pick up limited edition stickers, discuss the latest developments with expert engineers, and see new MongoDB features in action. Every event also features booths where third-party partners, vendors, and allies demonstrate cutting-edge technology, show how their platforms and services work in tandem with MongoDB, and answer any questions you may have. Stop by these booths to explore the next big thing in data, see how MongoDB can provide new solutions for pressing problems, and come away with helpful, personalized advice for your own challenges. Enjoy a one-of-a-kind experience From Frankfurt’s Klassikstadt to London’s Tobacco Dock , MongoDB.locals are held at unique, memorable venues. Step inside refurbished historical sites, such as a former factory turned automobile museum or a shipping wharf converted into a top-tier event space. In addition to a full day of talks and tutorials, attendees can enjoy breakfast, lunch, snacks, and drinks served at MongoDB.locals. Join us for a day packed with learning and networking opportunities in a venue near you. Whether you’re a decision-maker or a developer, you’ll find something interesting, enlightening, or useful at MongoDB.local. Learn more about our upcoming MongoDB.local events in Frankfurt , San Francisco , Dallas , London , and Toronto , and register for your free ticket.
Hear From the MongoDB World 2022 Diversity Scholars
The MongoDB Diversity Scholarship program is an initiative to elevate and support members of underrepresented groups in technology across the globe. Scholars receive complimentary access to the MongoDB World developer conference in New York, on-demand access to MongoDB University to prepare for free MongoDB certification, and mentorship via an exclusive discussion group. This year at MongoDB World, our newest cohort of scholars got the opportunity to interact with company leadership at a luncheon and also got a chance to share their experience in a public panel discussion at the Community Café. Hear from some of the 2022 scholars, in their own words. Rebecca Hayes, System Analyst at Alliance for Safety and Justice I did an internal transition from managing Grants/Contracts to IT and just finished a data science certificate (Python, Unix/Linux, SQL) through my community college. My inspiration for pursuing STEM was wanting to understand how reality is represented in systems and how data science can be used to change the world. What was your most impactful experience as part of the Diversity Scholarship? Most impactful were the conversations I had with other attendees at the conference. I talked to people from all sectors who were extremely knowledgeable and passionate about shaping the future of databases. The opportunity to hear from MongoDB leaders and then understand how the vision behind the product was being implemented made me feel inspired for my future in STEM. How has the MongoDB World conference inspired you in your learning or your career path? MongoDB World inspired me to understand the real world applications of databases. I left knowing what's possible with a product like MongoDB and the limits of SQL and traditional databases. After the conference, I wrote this article on Medium reflecting on what I learned at the conference. What is your advice to colleagues pursuing STEM and/or on a similar path as you? Embrace what makes you unique. Just because things take time doesn't mean they won't happen. When learning programming and data science, think about how your work relates to the real world and share those thoughts with others. Seek out new perspectives, stay true to yourself, and keep an open mind. Delphine Nyaboke, Junior Software Engineer at Sendy I am passionate about energy in general. My final year project was on solar mini-grid design and interconnection. I have a mission of being at the intersection of energy and AI What inspired me to get into tech is the ability to solve societal problems without necessarily waiting for someone else to do it for you. This can be either in energy or by code. What was your most impactful experience as part of the Diversity Scholarship? My most impactful experience, apart from attending and listening in on the keynotes, was to attend the breakout sessions. They had lovely topics full of learnings and inspiration, including Engineering Culture at MongoDB; Be a Community Leader; Principles of Data Modeling for MongoDB; and Be Nice, But Not Too Nice just to mention but a few. How has the MongoDB World conference inspired you in your learning or your career path? MongoDB World has inspired me to keep on upskilling and being competitive in handling databases, which is a key skill in a backend engineer like myself. I will continue taking advantage of the MongoDB University courses and on-demand courses available thanks to the scholarship. What is your advice to colleagues pursuing STEM and/or on a similar path as you? STEM is a challenging yet fun field. If you’re tenacious enough, the rewards will trickle in soon enough. Get a community to be around, discuss what you’re going through together, be a mentor, get a mentor, and keep pushing forward. We need like-minded individuals in our society even in this fourth industrial revolution, and we are not leaving anyone behind. Video: Watch the panel in its entirety Raja Adil, Student at Cal Poly SLO Currently, I am a software engineer intern at Salesforce. I started self-teaching myself software development when I was a junior in high school during the COVID-19 pandemic, and from there I started doing projects and gaining as much technical experience as I could through internships. Before the pandemic I took my first computer science class, which was taught in C#. At first, I hated it as it looked complex. Slowly, I started to enjoy it more and more, and during the pandemic I started learning Python on my own. I feel blessed to have found my path early in my career. What was your most impactful experience as part of the Diversity Scholarship? My most impactful experience was the network and friends I made throughout the four days I was in New York for MongoDB World. I also learned a lot about the power of MongoDB, as opposed to relational databases, which I often use in my projects. How has the MongoDB World conference inspired you in your learning or your career path? The MongoDB World conference was amazing and has inspired me a ton in my learning path. I definitely want to learn even more about MongoDB as a database, and in terms of a career path, I would love to intern at MongoDB as a software engineer down the line. What is your advice to colleagues pursuing STEM and/or on a similar path as you? My advice would be to network as much as you can and simply make cool projects that others can use. Evans Asuboah, Stetson University I am an international student from Ghana. I was born and raised by my dad, who is a cocoa farmer, and my mum, who is a teacher. I got into tech miraculously, because my country's educational system matches majors to students according to their final high school grades. Initially, I wanted to do medicine, but I was offered computer science. I realized that computer science could actually be the tool to help my community and also use the knowledge to help my dad on the farm. What was your most impactful experience as part of the Diversity Scholarship? The breakout room sessions. As scholars, we had the chance to talk to MongoDB employees, and the knowledge and experiences changed my thoughts and increased my desire to persevere. I have learned never to stop learning and not to give up. How has the MongoDB World conference inspired you in your learning or your career path? Meeting these amazing people, connecting with the scholars, being at the workshops, and talking to the startups at the booths has made me realize the sky is the limit. I dare to dream and believe until I see the results. What is your advice to colleagues pursuing STEM and/or on a similar path as you? 1. Explore MongoDB; 2. You are the only one between you and your dream; 3. Take the initiative and meet people; 4. Never stop learning. Daniel Erbynn, Drexel University I love traveling and exploring new places. I am originally from Ghana, and I got the opportunity to participate in a summer program after high school called Project ISWEST, which introduced me to coding and computer science through building a pong game and building an Arduino circuit to program traffic lights. This made me excited about programming and the possibilities of solving problems in the tech space. What was your most impactful experience as part of the Diversity Scholarship? My most impactful experience was meeting with other students and professionals in the industry, learning from them, making lifelong connections, and getting the opportunity to learn about MongoDB through the MongoDB University courses. How has the MongoDB World conference inspired you in your learning or your career path? This conference has inspired me to learn more about MongoDB and seek more knowledge about cloud technology. What is your advice to colleagues pursuing STEM and/or on a similar path as you? Don’t be afraid to reach out to people you want to learn from, and create projects you are passionate about. Build your skills with MongoDB University's free courses and certifications . Join our developer community to stay up-to-date with the latest information and announcements.
10 Things We Learned at MongoDB World 2022
When you return to a normal routine after a long break, you find out how much you miss your old routine. After hosting MongoDB World remotely for two years, we were happy to get back to seeing people in person — almost 3,000 of them. Here’s a quick rundown of the top 10 things we learned at MongoDB World 2022. 1. Queryable Encryption was a hit How many times have you been to a concert and the opening act winds up being as good as the band you actually went to see? Queryable Encryption was like that at MongoDB World 2022. While a lot of attendees came to learn about MongoDB Atlas Search or Atlas Serverless Databases , they were equally intrigued by the ability to encrypt data in use and perform rich, expressive queries on encrypted data. This groundbreaking innovation is the result of a collaborative effort between Brown University cryptographer Seny Kamara, his longtime collaborator Tarik Moataz, and MongoDB. 2. Developers are in the driver's seat Starting with the opening keynote by MongoDB CEO Dev Ittycheria, MongoDB World reinforced the notion that developers are the key to the future success and productivity for today’s organizations. “Every product we build, every feature we develop, is all geared toward developer productivity,” Ittycheria said. In fact the entire event centered on powerful new tools that are now available in our developer data platform. In the Partner Promenade, dozens of vendors showed how they’re helping developers become faster and more productive. As Søren Bramer Schmidt, chief architect and founder of Prisma, explained, “New generations of developers are much bigger, and we can invest in better tooling for them. It’s an exciting time to be building tools for developers.” As the world increasingly goes digital, developers will be the key to companies’ success. Services, products, and advancements are inherently tied to the ability of developers to quickly build, iterate, and release. 3. Everyone's data is in motion The volume of data moving to the cloud is unprecedented. In a session titled “Connecting Distributed Data to MongoDB With Confluent,” Joseph Morais, cloud partner solutions architect for Confluent , cited a study that predicted 75% of all databases would be on a cloud platform by 2022. MongoDB senior vice president of product management, Andrew Davidson, said, “MongoDB has really broken through with the MongoDB Relational Migrator at the perfect time, since so many enterprises are accelerating their efforts to get off legacy relational databases and legacy on-premises estates to move to MongoDB Atlas.” 4. Public cloud security is not as easy as some people think While scores of businesses are increasing their cloud footprints with new cloud-native services and applications, securing them is becoming increasingly complex. Steve Walsh, senior solutions architect at MongoDB, gave a session titled “Securing Your Application's Data in the Public Cloud” and cited constantly changing cloud deployments and security policies in multi-cloud environments as reasons why security can be three times more complex in a multi-cloud environment. According to an ITRC study that Walsh cited, failure to configure cloud settings properly caused 30% of data breaches in 2021. MongoDB Atlas is designed to be secure by default , which simplifies the process of restricting access to sensitive data. 5. Ray Kurzweil might be even more prescient than he realizes On Day 3 of MongoDB World 2022, best-selling author, pioneering inventor, and futurist Ray Kurzweil delivered a wide-ranging keynote address covering everything from computational power to vaccine trials to life expectancy and literacy rates. In the address, Kurzweil said it was likely that an AI would pass a Turing test by 2029. Just days later, news reports came out about a Google engineer who’d been fired after claiming that an artificial-intelligence chatbot the company developed had become sentient , though the company dismissed the claims. 6. Attendees were eager to try MongoDB It’s easy to assume that everyone who came to MongoDB World was already using it and wanted to know about new features and capabilities. But in the Learn Booth at the event, plenty of visitors weren't using MongoDB at all — they were there to discover and evaluate. In the Ask the Experts booth, roughly one in 10 people asked about how to prepare to migrate to MongoDB. One of the most common questions we heard was, "How do I convert relational schemas to the document model?" We have tools like Relational Migrator to help with that. We also recommend training for developer and ops teams, including our MongoDB for SQL Pros university course and our Developer-Led Training programs to ramp them up on what makes MongoDB different from SQL. 7. Developer friction comes in many forms The opening keynote address and product announcements set the stage for many of the conversations we had over the next few days. We consistently heard from developers about the friction points that we could help eliminate for them, and how reducing developer friction results in real benefits — apps and services get launched that could not have existed otherwise because of the toll that complexity takes on development teams’ bandwidth. Atlas Serverless databases are going to be a big part of getting those new services off the ground because it’s one less thing developers have to worry about. And the MongoDB CLI allows developers to interact with our services using the method they’re familiar with — especially advanced developers who prefer control and speed over a more visual interface. 8. @MarkLovesTech draws the crowds MongoDB CTO Mark Porter was the center of the action at the event. Wherever he went, a crowd would gather, eager to meet, exchange thoughts, and ask questions. His talks during the Builder’s Fest were standing room only. Mark Porter delivers a short talk on scaling and managing teams at MongoDB World 2022. Photo by Eoin Brazil. 9. Every software company needs custom track jackets Our field marketing team knocked it out of the park with the custom track jacket. After MongoDB CEO Dev Ittycheria debuted the jacket during the Day 1 keynote , it immediately became the most desired piece of swag of the show. A few lucky contestants won their own track jackets during the Builder’s Fest. Developers are either highly fashion-conscious or avid joggers. 10. There's no replacement for in-person gatherings For almost three years, we’ve been getting by with remote events and Zoom calls, but we learned at least two more things from MongoDB World 2022: There’s no replacement for real-life, in-person experiences, and remote interactions actually require a different set of skills. “It is not impossible to talk with people on Zoom. But it requires so much more intentionality,” Mark Porter said. “My takeaway from MongoDB World is making sure that in this new hybrid world, we can talk with people! But even on Zoom, we must become much more focused on the intentionality of talking with them because it is so much different."
Highlights From MongoDB World 2022, Day 3
As we said on Day 1 , MongoDB World is a developer-focused event. And on Day 3, we really set out to prove it. The day got going with a keynote from best-selling author, pioneering inventor, and futurist Ray Kurzweil. His encyclopedic knowledge covers a wide range of topics and subject areas, and his talk was equally broad and freewheeling, touching on everything from computational power to vaccine trials to life expectancy and literacy rates. Kurzweil’s general viewpoint was overwhelmingly positive. He cited global poverty and literacy rates, per capita income, and the spread of democracy as examples of how the world is steadily becoming a better place to live. Not shy of making predictions, Kurzweil anticipates computational power roughly doubling each year, bringing AI ever closer to emulating human intelligence. In fact, he predicts that some AI systems will be able to pass the Turing test by 2029. And he sees humans eventually connecting directly to AI systems, expanding our emotional and intellectual intelligence far beyond our current state. He refers to this eventuality as the “ singularity ” and with it, human life will be changed forever. Minds were blown, but not so much that the developers in attendance weren’t ready to get down to doing what they love to do: building apps and writing code. Immediately after the keynote, Builder’s Fest kicked into gear in the Partner Promenade. The floor of the Jacob Javits Center was transformed by dozens of pods where MongoDB experts, partners, and customers gave hands-on tutorials showing how their services and applications integrated with the MongoDB developer data platform. Booming over the main sound system was a super-sized, four-person Mario Kart battle royale, where the victors won prizes like a Nintendo Switch. Another pod hosted a Price is Right–style game show, The Database is Right, where contestants drawn from the audience answered trivia questions about MongoDB, document databases, and database functions. Adjacent to the Bob Barker cosplay, MongoDB senior product manager Rob Walters gave an eager audience a live demo of how to configure the MongoDB Connector for Apache Kafka to use MongoDB as a source or a sink. Our Kafka connector enables developers to build robust, reactive data pipelines that stream events between applications and services in real time. Over on the Google Cloud Coding Stage, four developers competed to see who could build the closest version of the Google homepage in 20 minutes — without previewing their work. The blind coding test resulted in some fairly primitive approximations of the real thing, but all four contestants were praised for their high pressure creations. The winner of each round took home a limited edition MongoDB track jacket. MongoDB CTO Mark Porter joined in a number of Builder’s Fest activities, delivered several short talks, and often drew a crowd for impromptu Q&A. At one point he gave a “Chaos Presentation” — an improvised talk guided by randomly selected imagery — about the outages that inevitably occur in the public cloud, despite the exceptionally resilient infrastructures and high service levels. “Mirror image is an illusion,” Porter said. “A laptop is not staging, staging is not production, and production is not production.” Different regions have different hardware and configuration patterns that can build up over time, he said. “Staging has had far more rollbacks than production,” he said. “Find weaknesses in your architecture by doing post-mortems after an outage. Make staging environments reproducible by blowing them away from time to time. By making staging more predictable, over the course of a few years, you can make production more predictable.” In response to an audience question about what’s more important, implementing a culture of committing to rollbacks or automating it, he said, “The culture of rollbacks is what’s important, but at scale — meaning a couple thousand engineers — culture won’t be enough. You’ll need to automate some of it. But make it so rollbacks are not a bad thing.” A few pods over, developer advocate from Prisma , Sabine Adams, gave a talk entitled, “Giving MongoDB Guardrails.” His talk included step-by-step instructions, using the brand new MongoDB Atlas CLI , on how to ensure data consistency by providing an easy-to-read schema and a type-safe database client. First, he set up a MongoDB cluster in the CLI, then he initialized a TypeScript project with Prisma to model the data, and then used the Prisma CLI to create and retrieve some data. The Prisma client provides an API for reading data in MongoDB, including filters, pagination, ordering, and relational queries for embedded documents. If you want more highlights about MongoDB World 2022, read our Day One and Day Two recaps. For all those who attended the event, we’re happy you made it. For anyone who missed it, we hope to see you at next year's event.
Highlights From MongoDB World 2022, Day 2
Day Two of MongoDB World 2022 was all about the breakout sessions — more than 80 were on tap for the day. Things kicked off shortly after 8 a.m. with a discussion on empowering women and other underrepresented groups in the workplace, held in the IDEA Lounge . The 9 a.m. slot was packed with 10 sessions that ranged from building a sustainable ecosystem to the principles of data modeling to using Rust to build applications. Steve Westgarth, senior director of engineering at GSK (formerly GlaxoSmithKline) dove into the weighty topic of morality in the digital world and what developers ought to do when the software they build leads to unintended consequences. All too often, there’s immense pressure to release MVPs early — before all potential vulnerabilities have been vetted. Westgarth’s session sprang from a rhetorical question: “Do we as engineers have an ethical and moral responsibility to anticipate unintended consequences and how much personal responsibility should an individual take to ensure ethical management of data?” His discussion answered that with a Yes — developers do have to weigh the risk of unintended consequences, such as data breaches, versus the desire to maximize market opportunity. Westgarth urged developers to ask themselves what the unintended consequences are of the software they have in production, and to raise awareness of these issues in their organizations. A 15-minute lightning talk followed, with a session name that made it a popular draw for fans of worst-case scenarios: “Strange Cases From the Field.” Adam Schwartz, MongoDB director of technical services in EMEA, walked attendees through some especially challenging real-life technical support stories. He gave a detailed account of such curious cases as The Mistaken Hypotheses and The Unsuccessful Mitigations, and shared lessons he learned during years in the trenches as a support specialist. Closing on a positive note, he assured attendees that problem cases are rare, most cases have straightforward solutions, and exceptional cases are always a learning experience. Day One saw Mark Porter announce the MongoDB Relational Migrator , including a live demo of the product. On Day Two, lead product manager Tom Hollander did a deep dive into use cases, justifications, and future capabilities for the tool. MongoDB Relational Migrator imports and analyzes relational database schemas, maps them to an appropriate MongoDB schema, and transforms and migrates the data into MongoDB. Hollander said organizations can experience a 3x to 5x increase in development velocity and up to 70% in cost reductions by migrating away from relational models in favor of a more modern deployment such as MongoDB Atlas . Hollander said he anticipates future capabilities to include continuous replication, Kafka integration, application code generation, schema recommendations, and more. One company thriving in its legacy modernization efforts is Vodafone. The global head of engineering and transformation, Felipe Canedo, described Vodafone’s transition from a traditional telecommunications company to a Telco-as-a-Service (TaaS) provider. At the core of this transition was the creation of a scalable and open platform for the company’s engineers to innovate with complete freedom and flexibility. Canedo said Vodafone chose MongoDB because of its security, cloud-native high availability, support for multi-region and multi-cloud deployments, agile delivery, professional services, and ease of integration. The ultimate goal, Canedo said, was to provide Vodafone engineers with the best software experience possible. Day One also saw MongoDB CPO Sahir Azam announce the general availability of MongoDB Atlas serverless instances . On Day Two, MongoDB advisory solutions architect Carlos Castro gave a live demo of deploying a serverless database. In 15 minutes, starting from the Atlas dashboard, Castro took the audience step-by-step through the process of selecting a cloud provider, spinning up the instance, creating an app service, authentication, and users, and then setting up rules to allow users to access data on the instance. Serverless instances always run the latest version of Atlas, include always-on security, and enable customers to only pay for operations they run. Day Two also featured several discussions with leading experts and MongoDB partners. MongoDB senior vice president, product management, Andrew Davidson hosted a panel with three leaders in the effort to close the Developer Experience Gap : Peggy Rayzis, senior director of developer experience for Apollo GraphQL; Lee Robinson, director of developer relations for Vercel; and Søren Bramer Schmidt, chief architect and founder for Prisma. Rayzis cited Apollo’s supergraph as one way it's helping developers be more productive by unlocking their flow state. “When you’re in that flow state, you’re writing better code, making better decisions, and developing better value for consumers,” she said. Schmidt pointed out how the newest generation of developers stand to benefit the most from the proliferation of developer tools. “New generations of developers are much bigger and we can invest in better tooling for them,” Schmidt said. “It’s an exciting time to be building tools for developers.” Lee emphasized the important role the open source community plays in these tools. “People hear about Vercel through Next.js,” Lee said, “and we invest to give back to the open source community.” As gratifying and fun the first two days of World were, we really have something special in store for Day Three. It kicks off with a final keynote address by best-selling author, pioneering inventor, and futurist Ray Kurzweil. Day Three also features our Builder’s Fest , where even MongoDB CTO Mark Porter is expected to lend his considerable expertise to a few promising projects. With live game shows, chaos presentations, nerd battles and more, MongoDB World 2022 will finish on a high note. Check back tomorrow for more highlights from MongoDB World 2022.