Democratizing Data Access With Plain English, Cogram, and MongoDB

Marcus Eagan and Ricardo Wölker
April 22, 2022 | Updated: April 25, 2022
#Startups

Access to information is important for our world and the applications that power it. Today, the disparity in access has narrowed, but not enough. The proliferation of the document database and its flexible data model has unlocked a velocity and freedom that SQL systems will never unlock. It’s time to remove the burden of query languages for users early in their journey.

That’s why we are launching an early pilot with Cogram, the startup building the world’s first Mongo Query Language (MQL) generation platform for natural language. The early-stage company is on a mission to democratize data access by allowing users to query data irrespective of their technical background. Cogram is working toward a future in which humans can access and manipulate any data through natural language.

Cogram is partnering with MongoDB to enable language-driven data exploration. While it is still early days, users can log in to the tool, enter an English-language question for five collections from our sample dataset, and execute the generated MQL to see the results.

Here are some questions to get you started on the Sample Supply Store dataset:

  • Find one sale.

  • What's the average customer satisfaction in Denver?

  • What's the percentage of customers in Denver who used a coupon?

  • How many users have an email address that contains ‘em.uy’?

  • Find two sales.

  • Get the last inserted sale.

  • Show all store locations.

  • Show all unique tags.

  • What are the top five tags?

  • Find all customers who use gmail.

  • Show me all customer email addresses that end on ‘.sh’

  • What are the three most common store locations?

  • What's the average price of all items?

  • How many customers used a coupon?

  • How many times was each item sold?

Additionally, we’re excited to have Cogram included in MongoDB for Startups, our program for early-stage, high-growth startups. Designed to help founders and CTOs build and grow data-driven organizations with MongoDB, the program provides a wide range of resources, including MongoDB’s best-in-class data platform, personalized technical advice, and access to our robust developer community.

Get a first look by signing up for a Cogram account and testing it out.

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Celebrating Earth Day With Three MongoDB Customers

Every April 22nd, citizens across the globe come together to celebrate the environmental movement on Earth Day. This year’s official theme is " Invest in our Planet ." According to the Earth Day organization, “for Earth Day 2022, we need to act (boldly), innovate (broadly), and implement (equitably). It’s going to take all of us. All in. Businesses, governments, and citizens — everyone accounted for, and everyone accountable. A partnership for the planet.” On this important day, we’re highlighting three MongoDB customers that have taken great strides to make a positive impact on our environment. They are shining examples of the power of MongoDB and what it means to be eco-friendly. University of Bremen At Germany’s University of Bremen , the Collaborative Research Center (CRC) initiative Farbige Zustände is a cross-disciplinary effort to reinvent an entire field of research: the discovery of new materials. “It’s not just harder, lighter, strong materials,” Dr. Nils Ellendt, CEO of the CRC, says. “It’s finding materials that need less refining, that are more compatible with a sustainable environment. How few elements can we use, not how many.” When the CRC first planned its data infrastructure, the company looked at standard structured databases, but it quickly realized that the datasets researchers would be using were quite heterogeneous and better suited to unstructured database techniques. That’s where MongoDB came in. MongoDB proved it could handle unstructured data at scale, so the CRC built its entire testing process around it. Soon after, the company determined that MongoDB was well suited for its unique approach. The Centre has its sights on pioneering a complete revolution in materials science, not simply in the creation of a massive new catalog of potential engineering materials, but also in pioneering data and automation in creative engineering. Read our full profile of the CRC “Farbige Zustände.” Journey Foods Journey Foods is a machine learning–powered software platform for food companies, designed to revolutionize the future of food. Just a few years after its launch, Journey Foods has raised more than $2.5 million from investors and partnered with global consortiums such as Future Food Network, FoodTank, and the University of Chicago on sustainability and data. “We are trying to focus on developing our service to accurately provide nutrition insights, sustainability insights, and help save our customers money,” said Riana Lynn, CEO. “We are prioritizing partnerships that will help us build out a big and dynamic ecosystem.” Lynn said the company chose MongoDB because of its seamless user experience, ease of scalability, and recommendations from other companies. She cited the consistent and always available support and follow-up from MongoDB; because of that, her developers appreciate how easy it is to use the platform, and to share and collaborate on different projects. Read our full interview with Journey Foods’ CEO. Kode Labs The commercial and real estate markets are being transformed by new technologies that reduce the carbon footprint of these energy-intensive businesses. Kode Labs was born because its founders recognized the importance of sustainable buildings, and how they rely on advanced software to achieve LEED and other sustainability certifications. Kode Labs launched in 2017 to provide intuitive, easy-to-use software for building management that enables sustainability, operations efficiency, and comfort. The company uses MongoDB Atlas for a fully managed database that allows it to effortlessly deploy new projects, infrastructure components, and more when starting to work with a new client or building out further projects with an existing one. “Everyone wants to be more energy efficient, healthier, and have modern places to live and work,” says Etrit Demaj, co-founder of Kode Labs. With MongoDB Atlas, "we help building managers and construction firms deliver on these growing expectations.” Read more about Kode Labs’ mission to support sustainable buildings.

April 21, 2022
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MongoDB’s 2024 Year in Review

It’s hard to believe that another year is almost over! 2024 was a transformative year for MongoDB, and it was marked by both innovation and releases that further our commitment to empowering customers, developers, and partners worldwide. So without further ado, let’s dive into MongoDB’s 2024 highlights. We’ll also share our executive team’s predictions of what 2025 might have in store. A look back at 2024 MongoDB 8.0: The most performant version of MongoDB ever In October we released MongoDB 8.0 , the fastest, most resilient, secure, and reliable version of MongoDB yet. Architectural optimizations in MongoDB 8.0 have significantly improved the database’s performance, with 36% faster reads and 59% higher throughput for updates. Our new architecture also makes horizontal scaling cheaper and faster. Finally, working with encrypted data is easier than ever, thanks to the addition of range queries in Queryable Encryption (which allows customers to encrypt, store, and perform queries directly on data). Whether you’re a startup building your first app, or you’re a global enterprise managing mission-critical workloads, MongoDB 8.0 offers unmatched power and flexibility, solidifying MongoDB’s place as the world’s most popular document database. Learn more about what makes 8.0 the best version of MongoDB ever on the MongoDB 8.0 page . Delivering customer value with the MongoDB AI Applications Program AI applications have become a cornerstone of modern software, and MongoDB is committed to equipping customers with the technology, tools, and support they need to succeed on their AI journey. That’s why we launched the MongoDB AI Applications Program (MAAP) in 2024, a comprehensive program designed to accelerate the development of AI applications. By offering customers resources like access to AI specialists, an ecosystem of leading AI and tech companies, and AI architectural best practices supported by integrated services, MAAP helps solve customers’ most pressing business challenges, unlocks competitive advantages, and accelerates time to value for AI investments. Overall, MAAP’s aim is to set customers on the path to AI success. Visit the MongoDB AI Applications Program page or watch our session from AWS re:Invent to learn more! Advancing AI with MongoDB Atlas Vector Search In 2024, MongoDB further cemented its role in the AI space with enhancements to MongoDB Atlas Vector Search . Recognized in 2024 (for the second consecutive year!) as one of the most loved vector databases , MongoDB continues to provide a scalable, unified, and secure platform for building cutting-edge AI use cases. Recent advancements like vector quantization in Atlas Vector Search help deliver even more value to our customers, enabling them to scale applications to billions of vectors at a lower cost. Head over to our Atlas Vector Search quick start guide to get started with Atlas Vector Search today, or visit our AI resources hub to learn more about how MongoDB can power AI applications. Search Nodes: Performance at scale Search functionality is indispensable in modern applications, and with Atlas Search Nodes, organizations can now optimize their search workloads like never before. By providing dedicated infrastructure for Atlas Search and Vector Search workloads, Search Nodes ensure high performance (e.g., a 40–60% decrease in query times), scalability, and reliability, even for the most demanding use cases. As of this year , Search Nodes are generally available across AWS, Google Cloud, and Microsoft Azure. This milestone underscores MongoDB’s commitment to delivering powerful solutions that scale alongside our customers’ needs. To learn more about Search Nodes, check out our documentation or watch our tutorial . Looking ahead: MongoDB’s 2025 predictions After the excitement of the past few years, 2025 will be defined by ensuring that technology investments deliver tangible value. Organizations remain excited about the potential AI and emerging technologies hold to solve real business challenges, but are increasingly focused on maintaining a return on investment. “Enterprises need to innovate faster than ever, but speed is no longer the only measure of success. Increasingly, organizations are laser-focused on ensuring that their technology investments directly address critical business challenges and provide clear ROI and competitive advantage—whether it’s optimizing supply chains, delivering hyper-personalized customer experiences, or scaling operations efficiently,” said Sahir Azam, Chief Product Officer at MongoDB. “In 2025, I expect to see organizations make significant strides in driving this innovation and efficiency by applying AI to more production use cases and by maturing the way they leverage their data to build compelling and differentiated customer experiences.” Indeed, we expect to see organizations make more strategic investments in emerging technologies like gen AI—innovating with a sharp focus on solving business challenges. “In 2025, we can expect the focus to shift from ‘what AI can do’ to ‘what AI should do,’ moving beyond the hype to a clearer understanding of where AI can provide real value and where human judgment is still irreplaceable,” said Tara Hernandez, VP of Developer Productivity at MongoDB. “As we advance, I think we’ll see organizations begin to adopt more selective, careful applications of AI, particularly in areas where stakes are high, such as healthcare, finance, and public safety. A refined approach to AI development will be essential—not only for producing quality results but also to build trust, ensuring these tools genuinely support human goals rather than undermining them.” With more capable, accessible application development tools and customer-focused programs like MAAP at developers’ fingertips, 2025 is an opportunity to make a data-driven impact faster than ever before. "Right now, organizations have an opportunity to leverage their data to reimagine how they do business, to more effectively adapt to a changing world, and to revolutionize our quality of life,” said Andrew Davidson, SVP of Products at MongoDB. “By harnessing our latest technologies, developers can build a foundation for a transformative future." Head over to our updates page to learn more about the new releases and updates from MongoDB in 2024. Keep an eye on our events page to learn what's to come from MongoDB in 2025!

December 19, 2024