Forward Together: How MongoDB Invests in (and Helps Grow) Modernization Consultancies for Our Customers

Alan Chhabra, Oliver Pearce, and Prasad Pashte
April 7, 2022 | Updated: July 24, 2023
#Partners

At MongoDB, our partners are critical to our ability to care for our customers. For example, our Global Systems Integrator (GSI) partners help MongoDB customers modernize, migrate, and manage their data infrastructure in the cloud at scale.

Notwithstanding the continued success of our GSI partners, many of our customers and the GSI themselves expressed the need for assistance that was highly tailored to their specific industry or that addressed an extremely complex technical challenge. As a result of this feedback, MongoDB has launched a modernization investment program focused on specialist system integrators, which we are calling Boutique Systems Integrators (BSIs).

This post explains our rationale behind the program and offers key details on how it functions. Even though this article is focused on our system integrator program, our customers may also appreciate understanding our thought process behind a key partner initiative that strives to deliver continued customer value.

Why did we create the BSI program?

Many BSIs offer smaller and more specialized consultancy services, enabling us to expand MongoDB’s global reach in a focused and thoughtful manner. Furthermore, since these BSIs are specially suited to particular industries or sectors within those industries, they help us care for customers in businesses that have historically been difficult to move off of their legacy infrastructure. This approach has allowed us to improve the MongoDB customer experience while also creating beneficial opportunities for our partners.

In addition to the need for industry-specific expertise, it was also evident that both our customers and our GSI partners (which tended to be larger corporations) were looking for smaller, more specialized organizations to complement their efforts. For instance, if a GSI didn’t possess the necessary expertise for a given use case, then a BSI could provide help to deliver and implement a solution jointly.

Our BSI program immediately delivered value to our customers and GSI partners. It was a great solution to a difficult problem. However, we quickly realized that customer demand for BSI services exceeded capacity. We needed to determine how to accelerate our BSI program and scale our existing partners in order to best support our customers.

In the winter of 2020 during some of the most difficult periods of the pandemic, we launched an initiative in which we directly invested and took equity stake in a handful of BSIs. Our investments allowed the BSIs to rapidly accelerate the onboarding of highly skilled consultants, launch additional go-to-market offerings, drive marketing programs, and remain maniacally focused on driving modernization value for our customers.

How did we create the BSI program — and how are things going?

To select the most appropriate partners to invest in, we created a simple but effective request for proposal (RFP) process. The criteria focused on straightforward qualifications; we sought out organizations led by founders or executives with extensive enterprise experience, established organizations with 50 employees or fewer looking to scale, and aspiring partners with existing MongoDB skills and a proven track record of success in modernization.

The vetting process took a wide range of factors into consideration, including growth potential and customer references. Essentially, MongoDB screened for organizations with strong foundations, which took the form of seasoned leadership, finely honed business processes, and the ability to scale with us. We also assessed competence in related areas like training and team development, overall organizational alignment on goals, industry expertise, and recruiting.

To take things one step further, the most promising companies were selected to become investment partners, a higher tier of the BSI program. Today, after more than a year of hard work, five investment partners have joined our program: PeerIslands, Exafluence, Gravity 9, Wekan Enterprise Solutions, and Clarity Business Solutions. In total, our investment partners can field over 300 modernization consultants — all of whom are thoroughly familiar with MongoDB — and empower customers to fully leverage the potential of the MongoDB platform.

Where we are with each of our investment partners

Let’s review some of the exceptional work these Six BSI partners have done over the past year.

PeerIslands won the BSI Partner of the Year Award in 2021. A strong organization that has excelled across all of our success criteria, PeerIslands possesses strong delivery skills in the independent software vendor (ISV) replatform and retail segments. The company has a very capable team of ex-Cognizant leaders with close alignment to MongoDB products. Customers love the company’s onshore-offshore model, and we are happy to empower PeerIslands to expand its headcount and organizational abilities — and thrilled to see where the team will go next.

Exafluence is a leader in modernizing payments and healthcare platforms, with a particular focus on Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR). Given the documented compatibility problems between healthcare information solutions, Exafluence is in an excellent position to facilitate the transformation of obsolete, legacy technology — and help improve vital outcomes for patients and providers alike.

Wekan Enterprise Solutions, based in India and the United States, specializes in IoT, mobile development and modernization, and fleet logistics. This creates a natural alignment with Realm, MongoDB’s toolkit for application developers, which includes key services, app logic, and data sync. Wekan, the strongest partner in our ecosystem with Realm expertise, has excelled in reimagining mobile and backend data infrastructure for its customers.

Gravity9, headquartered in the U.K., has considerable expertise in accelerating clients’ transformation journeys by modernizing applications for the cloud, developing operational data stores, and creating single-view solutions. As a result, the company possesses deep technical capabilities and is well qualified to bring MongoDB to a new slate of enterprises.

Clarity Business Solutions specializes in application modernization for U.S. government agencies. With its experienced team (many of whom already possess top security clearances and other federal qualifications), Clarity is well positioned to help public sector customers get more from their MongoDB and FedRAMP investments.

Pureinsights is a leading provider of search consulting and cutting-edge technologies, delivering exceptional search-based applications. Pureinsights leverages MongoDB Atlas and Atlas Search to build powerful search applications. From simple document search to advanced AI-driven content analytics, Pureinsights has the capabilities to implement a wide range of use cases, meeting the evolving expectations of today's users.

How our customers have benefited from this program

Our investment partners work with clients to:

  • Accelerate their modernization journeys with MongoDB

  • Provide access to highly skilled modernization consultants with expertise in the MongoDB stack and the cloud

  • Bring in industry specialization for MongoDB use cases

  • Deliver end-to-end solutions using MongoDB's products and services

Dr. Narendra Kini, the chief medical officer at our customer VitalProbe Inc., says, “Converting an array of healthcare data (structured, unstructured, and semi-structured) across critical variables into formats that can be stored and accessed for advanced analytics to drive better health outcomes is the core competency of Exafluence."

Further, says Dr. Kini, "They are able to achieve this interoperability through their MongoDB Atlas–centric data platform, with FHIR APIs being accessed through mobile apps that leverage MongoDB Realm sync technology. Our company is a great example of a customer that benefits from Exafluence’s expertise and more specifically from the FHIR platform built by them,” he says.

“Three years ago, when we decided to transform our data engineering and ML workloads to the cloud and build the world’s best revenue cycle management platform for healthcare providers, we needed a partner who could step up to the challenge. PeerIslands came our way then,” says Sriram Upadhyayula, the CTO at CloudMed.

“We have since worked with them for over three years, and I have been more than satisfied with the solutions PeerIslands has developed and delivered. They have grown to be recognized for their experience in digital transformation and for their expertise in MongoDB. The quality of talent at PeerIslands is among the best I’ve worked with,” says Upadhyayula. “They go above and beyond to deliver quality results, time and again.”

Where we go from here

Going forward, MongoDB looks to grow our modernization investment program for BSIs and continue to empower our existing investment partners as we seek to jointly care for customers. With the help of our talented partners, we aim to support MongoDB adoption — and provide a better data experience — for many more customers across various industries and time zones.

If you are a customer interested in using one of our investment partners for a modernization project or would like to become one of our BSIs, please contact us at partners@mongodb.com. We look forward to hearing from you!

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Introducing Gap Filling for Time Series Data in MongoDB 5.3

At MongoDB we are all about letting developers innovate with data. Time series is the fastest-growing data-intensive workload, and our native time series capabilities let you build applications faster and get more insight from time series data with less cognitive load. It’s common for time series data to have gaps, such as when an IoT sensor goes offline. But in order to perform analytics and ensure correct results, time series data needs to be continuous. You may also want to create histograms or correlate data sets to enable more complex operational analytics in the context of app development. Gap filling , now available in MongoDB 5.3 Rapid Release , in combination with the densification we introduced in MongoDB 5.1, helps you better handle missing data to easily create and surface valuable insight. The two new aggregation stages create a simple, streamlined way to deal with missing data across time series and regular collections powering analytics for any use case. The $densify stage creates new documents to eliminate the gaps in the time or numeric domain at the required granularity level, and $fill sets values for the fields when a value is null or missing. Filling missing values can be done with a constant or using linear interpolation, carrying over the last observation or carrying backward the next observation. Input documents: tracking of temperature, motion, and inventory in a storage room This function produces an hourly view of the metrics for each storage room. When temperature data is missing it should be interpolated linearly, motion should default to 0, and quantity of inventory should be carried over from the last known point. Output: The second document was generated based on the two surrounding documents. Previously these types of complex analytics were possible only in specialized systems such as dedicated time series databases or data warehouses. Architecturally, technology practitioners had to make the no-win trade-off between a niche, often immature technology dedicated solely to time series workloads and disconnected from systems of record containing the full complement of enterprise data and exporting time series data into data warehouses, thereby making it hard to operationalize insights. Both involve managing multiple data silos and fragile ETL pipelines driving up complexity and cost. Workarounds to these approaches often involve developers building complex data pipelines to fill in the gaps, potentially at the application layer, leading to poor query performance or limiting analytics to small data sets. With MongoDB 5.3, developers can build rich analytics on time series data in flight and deliver operational insight to their users as part of the application experience. MongoDB 5.3 is available now. If you are running Atlas Serverless instances or have opted in to receive Rapid Releases in your dedicated Atlas cluster, then your deployment will be automatically updated to 5.3 starting today. MongoDB 5.3 is also available as a Development Release for evaluation purposes only from the MongoDB Download Center. Consistent with the new release cadence announced last year, the functionality available in 5.3 and the subsequent Rapid Releases will roll up into MongoDB 6.0, our next Major Release scheduled for delivery later this year. For a more in-depth explanation on gap filling for time series, check out our article on the MongoDB Developer Hub . Safe Harbor Statement The development, release, and timing of any features or functionality described for our products remains at our sole discretion. This information is merely intended to outline our general product direction, and it should not be relied on in making a purchasing decision. Nor is this a commitment, promise, or legal obligation to deliver any material, code, or functionality.

April 6, 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