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!

← Previous

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

Next →

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.

December 19, 2024