Resource policies in MongoDB Atlas, now available in public preview, aim to reconcile the need for rapid innovation with the demands of security and compliance, providing developers with self-service access while maintaining organizational standards. These policies act as automated guardrails, preventing unauthorized configurations and ensuring compliance with regulations such as GDPR by dictating which cloud providers and regions can be used for data storage. Resource policies are created using Cedar, an open-source policy language, and can be managed programmatically through tools like Terraform or CloudFormation, streamlining policy management across an organization. This enables developers to focus on application development without navigating complex compliance processes, while platform teams can centrally manage policies to maintain consistent configurations. The introduction of resource policies supports MongoDB's strategic direction under its upcoming leadership transition, with Dev Ittycheria stepping down and Chirantan “CJ” Desai taking over as CEO, bringing a fresh perspective and growth-at-scale experience to guide MongoDB into its next phase, known as MongoDB 3.0.