MongoDB is walking a tightrope between openness & enterprise

Jun 3, 2015 13:23 GMT  ·  By

MongoDB, the highly successful NoSQL database engine that came out of nowhere to rival Google, Amazon, and Apache, just had its annual conference, MongoDB World, in New York the past days, and some interesting news came out of it.

First and foremost, a new version of MongoDB will be out in the coming weeks, version 3.2, which is packed with lots of useful features that specifically target the enterprise level.

Security and ease of use are the main focus of MongoDB 3.2

The new version of MongoDB will feature Data at Rest encryption support, meaning all information will be safely stored inside the database, a feature included thanks to the recent acquisition of WiredTiger.

While this may put database administrators back in their chairs with relief and happiness, the slew of DBA-friendly features doesn't end here.

The MongoDB team is also working on its own database GUI, a project dubbed MongoScout, that's going to simplify database administration operations even more, providing a visual assistant for coders with lesser technical skills.

On top of this, the company also announced MongoDB integration with data visualization software like Microsoft Excel, IBM Cognos, SAP Business Objects, Qlik, and Tableau.

These integrations are available as separate MongoDB connectors, allowing the software to present the data, all while MongoDB does all the processing and filtering.

No official MongoDB Cloud service is in the works

The second major news that came out of the conference is that MongoDB, Inc. ain't preparing its own cloud database service, as most industry experts believe it would.

Apparently, the company isn't generally focusing on monetizing the database right now outside its Enterprise Advanced plan.

This doesn't mean the database can't be run in a cloud environment, but only that MongoDB, Inc. realized it hadn't achieved success by putting system scaling over performance, and there's no need for that yet.

"Looking at MongoDB versus today's DBaaS offerings, a customer has to choose 'do I want this ease of use, this elasticity, or do I want a bunch of great features in my database?'," said Kelly Stirman, VP of Strategy and Product Marketing at MongoDB, for IP PRO.

Currently, the MongoDB team is actually helping DBAs and businesses deploy and manage MongoDB in other cloud services (mainly Amazon), all via its MongoDB Management Service (or MMS).