May 2020 Summaries

MongoDB has been rated as the database most wanted by developers for four consecutive years, according to Stack Overflow's annual developer survey. The survey results show that relational databases are not what developers love and want to work with, but rather non-relational databases like MongoDB. Developers are under increasing pressure to compress engineering cycle times and continuously integrate new business functionality, requiring technologies that can handle more complex data structures and distribution. To attract and retain developers, organizations should take a good look at the databases they use and consider using non-relational databases like MongoDB, which enables developers to build faster and better meet modern application demands through its document data model, query language, fully managed Atlas service, and Data Platform. The survey also highlights the importance of developer-defined economy where technologies are chosen based on what developers want to work with, rather than traditional relational databases.

Monica Lu, a Senior Analyst, Sales Analytics on MongoDB's Sales Operations team, shares her experience as an Asian American woman in tech. She recounts how her parents' cultural background and their decision to immigrate from Singapore to the US had a significant impact on her life. Monica learned to navigate cultural differences, adapt to a new environment, and overcome stereotypes that often affect Asian Americans. Her journey highlights the importance of role models, embracing one's heritage, and breaking down barriers in the tech industry. As she continues to grow professionally, Monica aims to be a leader and make an impact at MongoDB while inspiring other young Asian American women to pursue careers in tech.

Building a Customer Success (CS) program at MongoDB required careful planning and prioritization. The team started by defining what would drive their program, recognizing that CS meant different things to different people. They focused on three main drivers: ensuring successful first-time deployments, continuously assessing subscription value, and addressing the lack of product usage telemetry for on-premise customers. To start small, they used customer segmentation to prioritize areas of focus before hiring new team members. Measuring progress was crucial, so they looked beyond renewal rates and tracked adoption of key product features instead. Finding the right A-player CSM required balancing relationship-building and technical expertise skills. The program became self-funded by working with finance teams to define investment philosophies and identifying ROI. Finally, being mindful of constant change in the CS world was essential, as the team had to adapt to new insights, customer trends, and shifting priorities.

Introducing MongoDB for VS Code` is an extension that allows developers to quickly connect to MongoDB and MongoDB Atlas and work with their data directly in VS Code. The extension provides features such as connecting to a cluster, navigating through databases and collections, creating playgrounds for prototyping CRUD operations and MongoDB commands, and launching the MongoDB Shell. It also offers tools like syntax highlighting, intelligent autocomplete, and code snippets to make development more productive. Additionally, it supports Terraform configuration for Atlas resources, making it easier to set up and configure infrastructure. The extension is open-source under the Apache 2 license and can be easily installed from the VS Code Marketplace or by searching directly in VS Code.

Accenture has developed an Accelerator named Smart Data Mover (SDM) as part of its Data on Cloud initiative, a toolkit designed to transition data from on-premise data warehouses to cloud data repositories. SDM now has the capability to move data from relational databases (RDBMS) to MongoDB Atlas in the cloud, enabling organizations to easily migrate applications and data to the cloud. Accenture sees growing demand for cloud migration solutions and is investing in expanding its capabilities using MongoDB as a target platform. The partnership between MongoDB and Accenture aims to help customers modernize their data management approach by consolidating and organizing enterprise data on the cloud, unlocking data from legacy systems to drive new applications and digital systems without disrupting existing backends.

Why Now is a Cool Time to Be Different: A Q&A with Steph Johnson Steph Johnson, VP Corporate Communications at MongoDB, shares her experiences of living with Tourette Syndrome and how it has impacted her life and career. Growing up with Tourette's, Steph learned to make people like her by making them laugh, which became a valuable skill in her communications career. Despite the challenges that came with having a neurological disorder, Steph found ways to work around them and even leveraged her condition to excel in her job. As a mentor and professional, Steph is fascinated by people's differences and struggles, and encourages others to be open about their own experiences. She believes now is a cool time to be different and values the unique perspectives that people with neurodiverse conditions bring to the table. With her career path taking her from radio and TV studies at Michigan State University to leading communications teams at DigitalOcean and MongoDB, Steph is proud of creating an environment where people feel comfortable being themselves at work.