In an effort to enhance repeatability in performance tests on EC2 instances, the MongoDB Performance team sought to minimize noise by focusing on I/O performance, ultimately discovering that using Provisioned IOPS with EBS provided more stable performance compared to ephemeral SSDs. The team's experiments revealed that while i2 instances delivered impressive results in non-MongoDB benchmarks, they were less effective in practice due to MongoDB's handling of dirty data in RAM, leading to unstable performance. Consequently, the production configuration was switched to EBS disks, resulting in more consistent performance. Additionally, MongoDB announced a leadership transition, with CEO Dev Ittycheria stepping down and Chirantan “CJ” Desai being appointed as the new CEO. CJ Desai's experience, particularly in scaling companies, positions him to guide MongoDB through its next phase of growth, capitalizing on the rise of AI and data-intensive applications. Dev Ittycheria expressed confidence in MongoDB's future and emphasized the importance of timely leadership changes to strengthen the company, while also sharing personal reflections on his journey with MongoDB and plans to remain involved as a board member.