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With a nod to enterprises with established business intelligence (BI) processes, MongoDB today announced a new connector for BI and visualization that connects MongoDB to industry-standard BI and data visualization tools.
MongoDB’s connector is designed to work with every SQL-compliant data analysis tool on the market, including Tableau, SAP Business Objects, Qlik and IBM Cognos Business Intelligence. The technology is now in preview release and is expected to become generally available in the fourth quarter of 2015. MongoDB announced the connector at the MongoDB World 2015 conference here.
“This connector provides MongoDB with another way of ‘fitting in’ to enterprise environments that already have established standards in place,” Kelly Stirman, vice president of strategy at MongoDB, told eWEEK.
The new connector enables users to analyze the data being managed in MongoDB for their modern applications, along with the traditional data in their SQL databases and spreadsheets, using BI and visualization tools deployed on millions of enterprise devices. Previously, organizations had to move data from MongoDB into relational databases for analysis and visualization, resulting in added time-to-insight, cost and complexity, the company said.
However, with the emergence of new data sources, such as social media, mobile applications and sensor-equipped Internet of things networks, organizations can extend BI to deliver real-time insight and discovery into such areas as operational performance, customer satisfaction and competitor behavior.
“For many years now, MongoDB has provided extensive aggregation and analytical capabilities native to the database,” Eliot Horowitz, co-founder and CTO of MongoDB, said in a statement. “However, users have been unable to capitalize on the rich ecosystem of SQL-based data analysis and visualization tools. With this new connector, MongoDB opens up a huge new realm of possibilities for everyone, from executives to business analysts to data scientists to line-of-business staff. This is a lightweight connector with heavyweight capabilities. The possibilities are endless.”
Initially, MongoDB has been working with joint customers of Tableau Software to define the critical feature set and to validate the performance and scalability of the integration.
During the keynote at MongoDB World, Tableau joined MongoDB onstage to demonstrate the two technologies working together to an audience of more than 2,000. Tableau and MongoDB combined U.S. Federal Aviation Administration flight data with information about the conference attendees to visualize how likely the attendees were to make it home on time following the event.
“We are continually working with our partners to make it easier for our customers to better see and understand their data,” Dan Jewett, vice president of product management at Tableau Software, said in a statement. Jewett noted that Tableau was incented to work with MongoDB to develop this integration, as it will enable the companies’ mutual customers to explore their non-relational data using the same intuitive interface they use for all their other data.
MongoDB will soon announce the availability of an advanced beta program, and is expecting to include these capabilities as part of the MongoDB 3.2 release, scheduled for availability in the fourth quarter of 2015.