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MongoDB this week announced MongoDB 3.2, a major new release of the database targeted to reach new users within the enterprise, including business analysts, data scientists and executives.
With MongoDB deployed across a wider range of an enterprise’s application portfolio, data analysts, database administrators (DBAs) and operations teams need to integrate the database within their existing processes and toolsets.
The new release features MongoDB Compass, a graphical tool for the database that enables users to quickly explore their databases, visually construct queries, inspect records and make smarter decisions about their deployments. The MongoDB Connector for BI enables users to quickly explore and gain new insights from modern applications using popular business intelligence (BI) tools to understand the data in their legacy systems.
“Compass is already proving to be a really valuable tool in my arsenal,” said Nuri Halperin, owner of Plus N Consulting, a MongoDB shop and early version 3.2 user. “The UI is excellent, making it easy to explore databases, collections, all the way to individual sub-documents. It is straightforward for anyone to build queries, without advanced knowledge of the MongoDB query language. Compass enables a much broader range of users in the organization to get value from MongoDB.”
Also with MongoDB 3.2, DBAs and operations teams can use MongoDB alongside their relational databases, preserving investments in skills and popular application performance management tools such as New Relic and AppDynamics.
“We’re consistently hearing from customers, especially the largest global businesses, that they’re eager to move mission-critical workloads from legacy infrastructure to MongoDB,” said Dev Ittycheria, president and CEO of MongoDB, in a statement. “This release is yet another major milestone in the rapid evolution of our best in class products, offering customers the features and capabilities to give them real confidence to make MongoDB their default database for both new and existing workloads.”
MongoDB officials maintain that for developers building large data-driven apps, there is no longer a “one size fits all” database storage technology that will perform optimally for every type of application. MongoDB’s flexible storage architecture now offers two new storage engines that join the existing WiredTiger and MMAPv1 engines. The company offers a new encrypted storage engine to help enterprises secure critical data for trusted access in a diverse range of regulated industries. The engine provides end-to-end encryption of data in flight and at rest, along with access controls and auditing for forensic analysis. This enables organizations to secure their data to defend against breaches that have short-term costs to their businesses and potentially catastrophic long-term costs to their brand.
MongoDB also offers a new in-memory storage engine that provides predictable throughput and low latency for essential applications such as fraud detection, ad tech and user profile management. This engine supports all MongoDB features, and complements other storage engines in mixed deployments to ensure data durability.
“Encryption and access controls for data at rest in MongoDB 3.2 allow companies to gain peace of mind that their most sensitive data is safe and in compliance with demanding regulations,” said Arun Gowda, vice president of business development at Vormetric, in a statement. “We’ve certified the Vormetric Data Security Manager as a key management solution for MongoDB. Our customers can now store their data securely in MongoDB and reduce operational overhead with a robust, standards-based platform for managing encryption keys across their entire organization.”
Meanwhile, MongoDB’s management offerings—Cloud Manager and Ops Manager—introduce new capabilities that simplify MongoDB deployments. These capabilities enable users to easily visualize query performance to quickly identify families of queries that are not meeting the performance needs of the business. These tools also provide index suggestions based on query history, and simplify the addition of new indexes to a single click with no downtime to the application.
“Today’s applications are delivered continuously to a global audience,” said Eliot Horowitz, co-founder and CTO of MongoDB, in a statement. “Users expect to have instantaneous access to applications and services at all times, no matter where they are. With MongoDB 3.2, we have simplified what it takes to deliver on the promise of ‘always on.’ Operations teams can successfully deliver systems to a global audience with far less effort than traditional databases.”
In addition, MongoDB 3.2 introduces new features related to data governance, allowing organizations to centrally define and enforce data quality rules through the database, while preserving the flexibility and speed of development that MongoDB is known for. Users no longer need to choose between the flexibility of NoSQL and the data quality provided by traditional relational databases.
“Rocket.Chat and our other applications need to be able to quickly access various types of data to provide a seamless solution for our users,” said Gabriel Engel, founder and CEO at Rocket.Chat. “With MongoDB 3.2, we will now be able to implement the data governance we’re seeking, without sacrificing agility that comes from dynamic schema. The newfound ability to use familiar MongoDB expression syntax to control document structure, rather than learning a whole new language or process, is key for us.”