Making It Matter: Amplifying Voices at the MongoDB World IDEA Lounge

MongoDB
June 1, 2022

MongoDB World — an event for the creators, disruptors, and transformers of tomorrow — is more than just a technology conference. People are at the heart of transformation, digital or otherwise, and that’s why MongoDB World is hosting its first IDEA Lounge, whose purpose is to engage with the issues of inclusion, diversity, equity, and accessibility (IDEA). The lounge aims to amplify historically marginalized voices as well as provide accessibility accommodations to attendees.

At the IDEA Lounge, attendees can learn from and socialize with other tech professionals who represent the LGBTQIA+, women in tech, and BIPOC communities. Over the course of the three days of MongoDB World, the lounge will welcome all attendees to enjoy talks, workshops, and entertainment. It will also provide a quiet space to decompress between sessions.

Sharing different perspectives

Building Databases Using Python, With Rob Koch of Deaf in the Cloud
June 7 at 3 p.m. and June 8 at 1 p.m.

Rob Koch is a Seattle-based principal data engineer who is deaf. After years of experience as an AWS Data Hero and Kubernetes aficionado, Rob founded Deaf in the Cloud, a virtual user group that welcomes all deaf people and signers; he also runs an engineering blog and teaches coding to deaf children.

During his IDEA lounge sessions, Rob will use American Sign Language to show attendees his course on how to connect to both a relational database (SQLite) and a document database (yours truly, MongoDB). The course will walk learners through steps to make their Python code connect to a database. This is useful to help you start your first data-related project or if you need to see how it is done using Python.

#iamremarkable Executive Panel
June 8 at 8:20 a.m.

Join Google Cloud and our partner executives to discuss how Google is empowering women and other underrepresented groups — and how to celebrate their achievements in the workplace and beyond.

The panel will consist of:

Google Cloud’s Kayla Spiess, head of North America partner, field, and solutions marketing
Susan Kunz, director of American field marketing for Confluent
Naomi Klamen, head of customer engineering, New York financial services, Google Cloud, and #IamRemarkable Cloud Lead U.S.
Rett Monson, director of global strategic marketing at MongoDB

Listening to distinct viewpoints

Our Journey: Being Black in Tech
June 7 at 1:30 p.m.

This panel discussion, featuring MongoDB employees Garaudy Etienne, Isabella Nyakundi, Lakuan Smith, Bryan Spears, and Courtney Turner and hosted by MongoDB’s employee resource group TUPOC (The Underrepresented People of Color), will provide an open and transparent discussion about similarities and differences in the experiences of Black professionals in technology.

The Many Crossroads of Intersectionality
June 8 at 3:30 p.m.

MongoDB’s Séan Carroll and Cara Silverman will lead a panel discussion along with May Petry, VP of digital and growth at MongoDB, and Bryan Spears, senior technical recruiter at MongoDB, on intersectionality — exploring what it is and how it can bring better insights into being a better ally. This session will include time for an extended Q&A with the panelists and moderators, as well as an interactive activity.

Mix and mingle

Also on the agenda for the IDEA Lounge are trivia sessions, a dueling pianos performance, a book club with Ania Kowalcuzk, and Happy Hour Drag Bingo with Megann Reigns at 4:30 p.m. on June 7.

All events will take place on various floors within New York City’s Javits Center. If you have questions about where to locate the IDEA lounge or need assistance, an IDEA lounge concierge will be available throughout the conference to help.

Register for MongoDB World and use code MDBW22BLOG to save 25% off your tickets. We hope to see you in NYC from June 7 to June 9!

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2022 MongoDB Corporate Sustainability Report Published

Environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) has become a buzz phrase in today’s hyperactive equities market. But at MongoDB, the values encapsulated in ESG — sustainability, employee engagement, diversity and inclusion, cybersecurity, and environmental impact — are more than corporate window dressing. They’re core values that we embody through the diversity of our backgrounds, lived experiences, perspectives, and approaches to problem-solving. Today we published our second Corporate Sustainability Report . Here are a few of the highlights from the report that illustrate our commitment to corporate sustainability. Future of work Our results validate our commitment to corporate responsibility. We continue to add thousands of new MongoDB Atlas customers every year, driving tremendous revenue to our bottom line, and necessitating the rapid growth of our employee base. At the same time, as we continue to identify and hire exemplary talent to fill critical roles across the organization, we’re adapting our work model to suit remote, hybrid, and flexible schedules where it’s appropriate for the business and our employees. While we established a “return to work” strategy prior to the rollout of the first COVID-19 vaccines, we’ve maintained flexibility in adjusting it as new epidemiological data emerges. We delayed our return to office date several times due to the emergence of the Delta and Omicron variants, and officially implemented our future of work framework starting on April 4, 2022. Going forward, we believe that the future of work will be hybrid. During the pandemic, employees in all industries have come to appreciate the flexibility that comes with remote work. Our employees don’t need to be in the office five days a week, but we do value in-person interaction as an important tool for building our company culture. In-person contact helps build stronger relationships, facilitates a deeper connection to a company’s mission and goals, and improves collaboration, mentorship, and development. We believe that companies that find the right balance between in-person and remote work will have a competitive advantage in the market for talent. Embracing the power of differences It’s only through the expression of diverse opinions that great ideas can emerge. Since our founding in 2007, we’ve been committed to attracting, retaining, and developing diverse talent. But it’s not enough to attract top talent — we have to create an environment where all employees feel like they have a seat at the table and that their voices will be heard. We believe this is the right approach from a corporate and personal responsibility perspective, and from a business perspective. Organizations with higher levels of diversity also display higher rates of innovation and growth. We don’t just advocate for diversity, we invest in it through diversity sourcing teams, recruitment marketing campaigns, and by building key external partnerships to help us find and develop high-potential employees from underrepresented groups. We’ve also signed the Corporate ParityPledge®, and in doing so committed to interviewing at least one qualified female candidate for every open role at the vice president level and above, as well as for every additional directorship on our Board of Directors. As a Nasdaq-listed company, MongoDB meets the diversity criteria of the Nasdaq Board Diversity Rules. These rules impose disclosure requirements on companies to have, or publicly disclose why they do not have, at least two diverse directors, including at least one self-identified female director and one director who self-identifies as an underrepresented minority or LGBTQ+. The rules also require companies to publicly disclose board diversity statistics using a standardized format on an annual basis. These requirements have been standard operating procedure at MongoDB since we've been a public company, before the rules were even codified. We’re also proud of our employee-led affinity groups, which play an important role in our overall company culture. Affinity groups bring together employees with similar backgrounds, interests, and goals to build community and connections, and offer networking and professional development opportunities to their members. They also help us raise awareness of issues unique to their members’ experiences, and they partner with management to build an inclusive work environment. Finally, as part of our commitment to pay equity, we design compensation packages based on market data that includes job role, experience, geographic market, and performance. And we’re constantly reviewing our compensation practices and processes for fairness and efficacy. Commitment to privacy and security We take great care in the security of customer data in our services and infrastructure. That’s why we submit to annual independent verifications of our platform security, privacy, and compliance controls, and we strive to improve our security posture daily. Our engineering and operating procedures are regularly audited by independent third parties. As a result of our efforts to adhere to the highest cybersecurity standards, we received several new certifications and attestations from a number of industry bodies in 2022, including ISO/IEC 27017:2015 and 27018:2019 certifications, which focus on cloud-specific security and personal data protection, and Cloud Security Alliance (CSA) Security, Trust, Assurance, and Risk (STAR) Level 1 and Level 2 certifications. Our strong and growing focus on standards conformance and compliance is also meant to help our customers meet their regulatory and policy objectives. We adhere to the GDPR principles of privacy by design and privacy by default. We have a highly qualified global Privacy Counsel and Data Protection Officer with expertise in the rapidly evolving global landscape of privacy law, policy and practice, including not only GDPR in Europe but also existing and emerging privacy regimes in the United States, Canada, Brazil, and elsewhere. Our Audit Committee receives regular updates on cybersecurity threats to our business and mitigation processes. In addition, on a quarterly basis, certain members of our Board of Directors meet with our Chief Information and Security Officer and other senior technology executives to perform in-depth reviews of relevant cybersecurity matters and report back to the Board as a whole regarding the matters reviewed. Environmental footprint Although our direct impact on the environment is relatively small, we strongly believe that we have a role to play in environmental sustainability. We continue to evaluate our direct and indirect emissions footprint and are designing programs to reduce the impact that our broader value chain has on the environment. MongoDB, as a software company, produces limited carbon emissions. The vast majority of our carbon footprint is attributable to emissions related to our value chain. The largest contribution comes from our cloud partners’ data centers, including Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud. Our major cloud partners are all actively working to reduce their carbon footprints, and those efforts will help reduce MongoDB’s own. For a more detailed breakdown of MongoDB’s commitment to diversity, inclusion, sustainability, social responsibility, and privacy, read MongoDB's 2022 Corporate Sustainability Report .

May 31, 2022

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MongoDB Database Observability: Integrating with Monitoring Tools

This post is the final in a three-part series on leveraging database observability. Welcome back to our series on Leveraging Database Observability! Our previous post showcased a real-world use case highlighting how MongoDB Atlas’s observability tools effectively tackle database performance challenges. Whether you’re a developer, DBA, or DevOps engineer, our mission is to empower you to harness the full potential of your data through our observability suite . Integrating Atlas metrics with your central enterprise observability tools can simplify your operations. By seamlessly working with popular observability tools, our approach helps teams streamline workflows and enhance visibility across systems. Integrating MongoDB Atlas with third-party monitoring tools MongoDB’s developer data platform combines all essential data services for building modern applications within a unified experience. Our purpose-built observability tools for Atlas environments offer automatic monitoring and optimization, guiding diagnostics tailored specifically for MongoDB. Additionally, we extend Atlas metrics into your existing enterprise observability stack, enabling seamless integration without replacing your current tools. This creates a consolidated, single-pane view that unifies Atlas telemetry with other tech and application metrics, ensuring comprehensive visibility into both database and full-stack performance. This integration empowers you to monitor, receive alerts, and make data-driven decisions within your existing workflows, driving greater efficiency. Below is a quick guide to modifying integration settings through the Atlas UI and the popular integrations we support: Navigate to the Project Integrations page in Atlas. Choose the organization and project you want to configure from the navigation bar. On the Project Integrations page, select the third-party services you’d like to integrate. Configure the chosen services with the required API keys and regions. Critical integrations for your observability platform With Atlas’s Datadog and Prometheus integrations, you can send critical MongoDB metrics to these platforms, empowering detailed, real-time monitoring. Through Datadog , you can track database operation counts, query efficiency, and resource usage, ideal for pinpointing bottlenecks and managing resources. Similarly, Prometheus enables you to monitor essential metrics like query times, connection rates, and memory usage, supporting flexible tracking of database health and performance. Both integrations facilitate proactive detection of issues, alert configuration for resource thresholds, and a cohesive view of Atlas data when visualized in Grafana. Atlas’s integration with PagerDuty streamlines incident management by sending metrics like performance alerts, billing anomalies, and security events directly to PagerDuty. This integration records incidents automatically, notifies teams upon alerts, and supports two-way syncing, ensuring resolved alerts in Atlas are reflected in PagerDuty. It enables efficient incident response and resource allocation to maintain system stability. With Atlas integrations for Microsoft Teams and Slack, you can route key metrics—such as query latency, disk usage, and throughput—to these channels for timely updates. Teams can use these insights for real-time performance monitoring, incident response, and collaboration. Notifications through these platforms ensure your team stays informed on database performance, storage health, and user activity changes as they occur. Use case: Centralized observability with MongoDB Atlas, Datadog, and Slack Let’s walk through a hypothetical scenario for ShopSmart, an e-commerce company that leverages MongoDB Atlas to manage its product catalog and customer data. As traffic surges, the DevOps team faces challenges in monitoring application performance and database health effectively. To tackle these challenges, the team leverages MongoDB Atlas’ integration with Datadog and Slack, creating a powerful observability ecosystem. Integrating MongoDB Atlas with Datadog: The team pushes key MongoDB Atlas metrics into Datadog, such as query performance, connection counts, and Atlas Vector Search metrics. With Datadog, they can visualize these metrics and correlate overall MongoDB performance with their other applications. Out-of-the-box monitors and dedicated dashboards allow the team to track metrics like throughput, average read/write latency, and current connections. This visibility helps pinpoint bottlenecks in real time, ensuring optimal database performance and improving overall application responsiveness. Setting up alerts in Datadog: The team configures alerts for critical metrics like high query latency and increased error rates. When thresholds are breached, Datadog instantly notifies the team. This proactive approach allows the team to address potential performance issues before they impact customers. Integrating Datadog with Slack: To ensure fast communication, alerts are sent directly to the dedicated Slack channel, “ShopSmart-Alerts.” This integration fosters seamless collaboration, enabling the team to discuss and resolve issues in real-time. With these integrations, ShopSmart’s engineering team can monitor performance quickly and address issues efficiently. The unified observability approach enhances operational efficiency, improves the customer experience, and supports ShopSmart’s competitive edge in the e-commerce industry. By leveraging MongoDB Atlas, Datadog, and Slack, the team ensures scalable performance and drives continuous innovation. Conclusion MongoDB Atlas empowers developers and organizations to achieve unparalleled observability and control over their database environments. By seamlessly integrating with central enterprise observability tools, Atlas enhances your ability to monitor performance metrics and ensures you can do so within your existing workflows. This means you can focus on building modern applications confidently, knowing you have the insights and alerts necessary to maintain optimal performance. Embrace the power of MongoDB Atlas and transform your approach to database management—because your applications can thrive when your data is observable. And that wraps up our Leveraging Database Observability series! We hope you learned something new and found value in these discussions. Sign up for MongoDB Atlas , our cloud database service, to see database observability in action. To dive deeper and expand your knowledge, check out this learning byte for more insights on the MongoDB observability suite and how it can enhance your database performance.

November 14, 2024