Announcing LangChain Templates for MongoDB Atlas

Mat Keep and Prakul Agarwal
November 2, 2023 | Updated: March 10, 2025
#genAI #Vector Search

Since announcing the public preview of MongoDB Atlas Vector Search back in June, we’ve seen tremendous adoption by developers working to build AI-powered applications. The ability to store, index, and query vector embeddings right alongside their operational data in a single, unified platform dramatically boosts engineering velocity while keeping their technology footprint streamlined and efficient.

Atlas Vector Search is used by developers as a key part of the Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) pattern. RAG is used to feed LLMs with the additional data they need to ground their responses, providing outputs that are reliable, relevant, and accurate for the business. One of the key enabling technologies being used to bring external data into LLMs is LangChain. Just one example is healthcare innovator Inovaare who is building AI with MongoDB and LangChain for document classification, information extraction and enrichment, and chatbots over medical data.

Now making it even easier for developers to build AI-powered apps, we are excited to announce our partnership with LangChain in the launch of LangChain Templates!

We have worked with LangChain to create a RAG template using MongoDB Atlas Vector Search and OpenAI. This easy-to-use template can help developers build and deploy a Chatbot application over their own proprietary data. LangChain Templates offer a reference architecture that’s easily deployable as a REST API using LangServe.

We have also been working with LangChain to release the latest features of Atlas Vector Search, like the recently announced dedicated vector search aggregation stage $vectorSearch, to both the MongoDB LangChain python integration as well as the MongoDB LangChain Javascript integration. Similarly, we will continue working with LangChain to create more templates, that will allow developers to bring their ideas to production faster.

If you’re building AI-powered apps on MongoDB, we’d love to hear from you. Sign up to our AI Innovators program where successful applicants receive no-cost MongoDB Atlas credits to develop apps, access to technical resources, and the opportunity to showcase your work to the broader AI community.

← Previous
Every Operational Data Layer (ODL) Can Benefit From Search
In today's digital landscape, organizations frequently encounter the daunting challenge of managing complex data architectures. Multiple systems, diverse technologies, and a variety of programming languages become entwined, making smooth operations a significant struggle. A frequent example of this issue is seen in some major banks still relying on a banking system built in the 1970s, continuing to run on a mainframe with minimal updates. The consequence is a complex architecture as seen in Figure 1, where data is scattered across various systems, creating inefficiencies and hindering seamless operations. Offloading the data from one or more monolithic systems is a well-proven approach to increase agility and deliver new innovative services to external and internal customers. In this blog we will speak about how search can make Operational Data Layers (ODL) – an architectural pattern that centrally integrates and organizes siloed enterprise data, making it available to consuming applications – an even more powerful tool. Figure 1: Complex Data Architecture Operational Data Store (ODS) as a solution To tackle the complexities of their existing data architecture, organizations have turned to Operational Data Stores (ODS). An ODS serves as a secondary data store, holding data replicated of primary transactional systems as seen in Figure 2. Organizations can feed their ODS with change data capture technologies. Figure 2: Conceptual model of an Operational Data Layer The evolutionary path of adoption Implementing an ODS requires a thoughtful approach that aligns with the organization's digital transformation journey. Typically, the adoption path consists of several stages as seen in Figure 3. Initially, organizations focus on extracting data from one system into their Operational Data Store, allowing them to operate on a more unified dataset. Gradually, they can retire legacy systems and eliminate the need for intermediate data streams. The key benefit of this incremental approach is that it delivers value (e.g. offloading mainframe operations) to the business at every step by eliminating the need for a complete overhaul and minimizing disruption. Figure 3: Evolution of a basic ODS into a system of records Areas of application ODS are used to support the business in three different ways: Data Access Layers allow organizations to free their data from the limitations imposed by data silos and technological variations. Organizations consolidate data from different sources that often use different data storage technologies and paradigms, creating a unified view that simplifies data access and analysis. This pattern is mainly used to enable modern APIs, speed up development of new customer services, and improve responsiveness and resiliency. Operational Data Layer (ODL): The ODL is an internal-focused layer that aids in complex processing workflows. It serves as a hub for orchestrating and managing data across various stages of processing. The ODL empowers organizations to enrich and improve data iteratively, resulting in more powerful and accurate insights. It provides a holistic view of data and process information, an improved customer experience, and reduced operational costs. Developer ODL: Building a developer-focused ODL can provide significant advantages during the development cycle. By making data readily available to developers, organizations can accelerate the development process and gain a comprehensive understanding of their data structures. This, in turn, helps in identifying and addressing issues early on, leading to improved data models and better system performance. In a nutshell, this pattern helps reduce developer training time, streamlines development and speeds up testing and test automation. The power of search in ODS So how can every ODL benefit from search capabilities and how can MongoDB Atlas Search help? Atlas Search plays a crucial role in maximizing the value of an ODS. When we have questions or are searching for an answer, our natural interaction with information is primarily through search. We excel at interpreting imprecise queries and extracting relevant information from vast datasets. By incorporating search capabilities with Atlas Search into an ODS, organizations can empower their users to explore, analyze, and gain valuable insights from their data. Consider the example of a banking organization with a complex web of interconnected systems. Searching for specific transactions or identifying patterns becomes a daunting task, especially when dealing with numeric identifiers across multiple systems. Traditionally, this involved manual effort and navigating through numerous systems. However, with a search-enabled ODS, users can quickly query the relevant data and retrieve candidate matches. This greatly streamlines the process, saves time, and enhances efficiency. Practical examples: Leveraging ODS and Atlas Search Let's explore a few practical examples that demonstrate the power of ODS and the Atlas Search functionality. Operational Data Layer for Payments Processing: A financial institution implemented an ODS-based operational layer for processing payments. By aggregating data from multiple sources and leveraging search capabilities, they achieved faster and more accurate payment processing. This enabled them to investigate issues, ensure consistency, and deliver a superior customer experience. Customer 360 View: Another organization leveraged an ODS to create a comprehensive view of their customers, empowering relationship managers and bank tellers with a holistic understanding. With search functionality, they could quickly locate customer information across various systems, saving time and improving customer service. Post-trade Trading Platform: A global broker operating across 25 different exchanges utilized an ODS to power their post-trade trading platform. By leveraging search capabilities, they simplified the retrieval of data from various systems, leading to efficient and reliable trading operations. Conclusion In the dynamic world of data management, Operational Data Stores (ODS) have emerged as a crucial component for organizations seeking to streamline their data architectures. By adopting an incremental approach and leveraging search functionality such as Atlas Search , organizations can enhance data accessibility, improve operational efficiency, and drive valuable insights. The power of search within ODS lies in its ability to simplify data retrieval, accelerate development cycles, and enable users to interact with data in a more intuitive and efficient manner. By embracing these practices, organizations can unlock the true potential of their data, paving the way for a more productive and data-driven future. For more information on Atlas Search, check out the following resources: Watch this MongoDB.local talk which expands on this blog: Every ODS Needs Search: A Practical Primer Based on Client Experiences Discover MongoDB’s search functionalities Learn how Helvetia accelerates cloud-native modernization by 90% with MongoDB Atlas and MongoDB Atlas Search
November 1, 2023

Next →
Modernizing Telecom Legacy Applications with MongoDB
The telecommunications industry is currently undergoing a profound transformation, fueled by innovations in 5G networks, the growth of Internet of Things applications, and the rapid rise of AI. To capitalize on these technologies, companies must effectively handle increasing volumes of unstructured data, which now represents up to 90% of all information, while also developing modern applications that are flexible, high-performance, and scalable. However, the telecommunications industry's traditional reliance on relational databases such as PostgreSQL presents a challenge to modernization. Their rigid structures limit adaptability and can lead to decreased performance as table complexity grows. With this in mind, this blog post explores how telecom companies can modernize their legacy applications by leveraging MongoDB’s modern database and its document model. With MongoDB, telecom companies can take advantage of the latest industry innovations while freeing their developers from the burdens of maintaining legacy systems. Navigating legacy system challenges Legacy modernization refers to the process of updating a company’s IT infrastructure to align it with the latest technologies and workflows, and ultimately advancing and securing strategic business goals. For telecom companies, this modernization involves overcoming the limitations of their legacy systems, which hinder adjustment to changing market conditions that demand greater system scalability and availability to run real-time operations. The main drawbacks of legacy technologies like relational databases stem from their design, which wasn’t built to support the data processing capabilities required for modern telecom services. These limitations, as illustrated in Figure 1 below, include rigid data schemas, difficulty handling complex data formats, limited scaling ability, and higher operational costs for maintenance. Figure 1. The limitations of legacy systems. Expanding on these limitations, relational databases depend on a predefined schema, which becomes difficult to modify once established, as changes entail extensive restructuring efforts. In telecommunications, handling growing data volumes from connected devices and 5G networks can rapidly become burdensome and costly due to frequent CPU, storage, and RAM upgrades. Over time, technology lock-in can further escalate costs by hindering the transition to alternative solutions. Altogether, these factors hold back modernization efforts urging telecoms to transform their legacy systems to newer technologies. To overcome these challenges, telecom companies are replacing these legacy systems with modern applications that effectively provide them with greater scalability, enhanced security, and high availability, as shown in Figure 2. However, achieving this transition can be a daunting task for some organizations due to the complexity of current systems, a lack of internal technical expertise, and the hurdles of avoiding downtime. Therefore, before transforming their outdated systems, telecom companies must carefully select the appropriate technologies and formulate a modernization strategy to facilitate this transition. Figure 2. Characteristics of modern applications. Getting onboard with MongoDB Enter MongoDB. The company’s document-oriented database offers a flexible data model that processes any information format, easily adapting to specific application requirements. MongoDB Atlas —MongoDB’s unified, modern database—delivers a robust cloud environment that efficiently manages growing data volumes through its distributed architecture, ensuring seamless connectivity and enhanced performance. Moreover, as telecom providers prioritize cybersecurity and innovation, MongoDB includes robust security measures—comprising encryption, authentication, authorization, and auditing—to effectively protect sensitive information and ensure regulatory compliance. Additionally, leveraging MongoDB’s document model with built-in Atlas services like Vector Search , Atlas Charts , and Stream Processing allows telecommunications organizations to streamline advanced industry cases, including single customer view, AI integrations, and real-time analytics. Figure 3. Core MongoDB modernization features for Modernization. Recognizing these benefits, leading telecom companies like Nokia , Swisscom , and Vodafone have successfully modernized their applications with MongoDB. However, selecting the right technology is only part of the modernization process. In order to ensure a successful and effective modernization project, organizations should establish a comprehensive mod Data-driven modernization: this approach transfers all data from the legacy system to the new environment and then migrates applications. Application-driven modernization (all-or-nothing): this approach executes all reads and writes for new applications in the new data environment from the start, but leaves the business to decide when to retire existing legacy applications. Iterative modernization (one-step-at-a-time): this approach blends the previous paths, starting with the modernization of the least complex applications and incrementally moving forward into more complex applications. Read this customer story to learn more about telecoms migrating to MongoDBL With this overview complete, let's dive into the migration process by examining the iterative modernization of a telecom billing system. Modernizing a telecom billing system Telecom billing systems often consist of siloed application stacks segmented by product lines like mobile, cable, and streaming services. This segmentation leads to inefficiencies and overly complex architectures, highlighting the need to simplify these structures. With this in mind, imagine a telecom company that has decided to modernize its entire billing system to boost performance and reduce complexity. In the initial stage, telecom developers can assess the scope of the modernization project, scoring individual applications based on technical sustainability and organizational priorities. Applications with high scores undergo further analysis to estimate the re-platforming effort required. Later on, a cross-functional team selects the first component to migrate to MongoDB, initiating the billing system modernization. This journey then follows the steps outlined in Figure 4: Figure 4. The modernization process. First, developers analyze legacy systems by examining the codebase and the underlying architecture of the chosen billing system. Then, developers create end-to-end tests to ensure the application functions correctly when deployed. Later, developers design an architecture that incorporates managerial expectations of the desired application. Next, developers rewrite and recode the legacy application to align with the document model and develop APIs for MongoDB interaction. Following this, developers conduct user tests to identify and resolve any existing application bugs. Finally, developers migrate and deploy the modernized application in MongoDB, ensuring full functionality. Throughout this process, developers can leverage MongoDB Relational Migrator to streamline the transition. Relational Migrator helps developers with data mapping and modeling, SQL object conversion, application code generation, and data migration—corresponding to steps three, four, and five. Additionally, telecom companies can accelerate modernization initiatives by leveraging MongoDB Professional Services for dedicated, tailored end-to-end migration support. Our experts work closely with you to provide customized assistance, from targeted technical support and development resources to strategic guidance throughout the entire project. Building on this initial project, telecom companies can progressively address more complex applications, refining their approach to support a long-term modernization strategy. Next steps By revamping legacy applications with MongoDB, telecom companies can improve their operations and gain a competitive edge with advanced technology. This shift allows telcos to apply the latest innovations and free developers from the burdens of maintaining legacy systems. Start your journey to migrate core telecom applications to MongoDB Atlas, by visiting our telecommunications solutions page to learn more. If you would like to discover how to upgrade your TELCO legacy systems with MongoDB, discover how to start with the following resources: Visit our professional services to learn more about MongoDB Consulting YouTube: Relational Migrator Explained in 3 minutes White paper: Unleash Telco Transformation with an Operational Data Layer White paper: Modernization: What’s Taking So Long?
March 17, 2025