Dec 30, 2013

MongoDB in 2013 -- A Year in Review

It's again that time of the year. Analysts are spending oceans of words to predict the future, companies are making plans for the next year and people are resting and enjoying the break with their families. To me, this is the perfect time to reflect on my choices, the direction I'm headed to and consider if I still love what I do.

At the beginning of the year I decided to join MongoDB (formerly 10gen). The more I think about it, the more I realize I've been wrong. Yes, it's been the worst decision in my life not to join MongoDB when I was first offered the opportunity years ago. At that time an insightful friend asked me to consider the opportunity. At that time I didn't see what I see today.

I didn't see the database world changing so quickly. I didn't see lots of new applications being built on MongoDB and an ecosystem growing around the product. I couldn't glimpse the future of it becoming the leading NoSQL database. I couldn't understand the opportunity for Document Databases and for JSON emerging as a new standard for developers... or maybe I just preferred stability over challenge.

Time has passed since then and now I'm here. How was 2013 at MongoDB? Just amazing. As a good scribe I want to capture the key developments in the MongoDB world in a single page. This is an exercise that I'm doing since years and it gives an idea of the pace of growth, how well we communicate and the level of engagement of the ecosystem.

Company
Products
Clients
Partners
I want to say thank you to all partners, customers, colleagues and users who made this journey a great one. I'm looking forward to working with all of you even more in the years to come. PKPFZ79ENW4D

Nov 29, 2013

The MongoDB Ecosystem: Energy, Commitment and Passion

Our American friends are celebrating thanksgiving and, even if I'm not, I'd like to spend a few lines to say thank you to the amazing MongoDB ecosystem.

November has been a great month. This week we've been invited by Xpand-it to a great event in Lisbon and by Jaspersoft to their JasperDirections conference in Milan. SPP42 recently hosted a MongoDB conference in Ankara and we're platinum sponsors at Codemotion Milan with Byte-code. We've also co-sponsored a Big Data conference in Israel with Trainologic.
Partners are reaching out to us with greenfield opportunities and making MongoDB the core of their business.

This is what happens each and every month when you have such great allies!

We perceive your energy, commitment and passion and rest assured that we're here to support you. To that end, we've launched the project referral form. Do you want to work with a MongoDB expert to help your customers adopt our technology? Fill the questionnaire appropriately and we'll cooperate with you on the opportunity.

Let's go and conquer the market together!

Oct 8, 2013

An Ecosystem Always Wins -- Lessons Learned from Red Hat and Pentaho Partner Conferences

Last week was intense and productive. I've had the pleasure to attend the Red Hat Partner Conference in Madrid and to speak at the Pentaho Partner Summit in Sintra. I've learned a lot of lessons, but the most important one is that an ecosystem always wins.

The world of technology is built on interactions. Interactions between customers and partners. Synergies amongst different species of partners. Even competitors are interacting with each other and the term "coopetition" has been coined to explain new and complex relationships.
The very foundation of IT is intercommunication. Systems Integrators are connecting disparate sources. Technology companies are investing in certification and integrated systems to make it easier for tools to cooperate. Cloud vendors are promising to hide the complexity behind and simplify how we interact with solutions. Channel partners are integrating different products as part of their portfolio to simplify provisioning.

I'm convinced that to win in the long run we need to build the greatest and most productive ecosystem ever. It should be easy and rewarding to do business with us. Each and every MongoDB partner we onboard should share our vision and be part of a global community. Customers working with our ecosystem should feel the difference. Ultimately, these alliances will contribute to our bottom line and make a difference.

Want to partner with MongoDB? Join our network! ... as the Red Hat guys would say: we're stronger together!


Aug 2, 2013

MongoDB Alliances ― What Happened in the Last 90 Days in EMEA? (Update)

“How did it get so late so soon? It's night before it's afternoon. December is here before it's June. My goodness how the time has flown. How did it get so late so soon?”
― Dr. Seuss

Time flies is an expression that you can fully grasp when you're doing the things you love. I started to work at 10gen three months ago and it seems like yesterday. What happened? How? Why? To force myself into writing here are my answers. I'll be focusing on our results in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA).

Note: I've added a few clarifications inline on Aug 5th, 2013.

Executive Summary ― What happened? 
In the last quarter we've added more partners than in all the previous quarters together. We've seen a triple digits growth in members and a fortyfold increase in the average number of employees per partner. It's been a crazy ride and the momentum around MongoDB is unbelievable and (hopefully) unstoppable. This trend is all-encompassing and includes technology, cloud, service and channel partners.  How have we reached this goal?

A Stellar Team ― How?
A company growing so fast can make a lot of mistakes and hire the wrong people. 10gen is one of the most notable exceptions to this rule. Each and every hire brings adds exceptional skills and knowledge to an already stellar team. Sales reps, solution architects, support staff, engineers and consultants are all helping to build a great ecosystem. The MongoDB Community is contributing too. The results are due to all of us working in the same direction. However, you can't drive adoption exclusively from the inside. Partners are embracing MongoDB, but what drives them?

What's in it for Partners ― Why? 
One key reason is that the market opportunity is huge. With MongoDB you can cover 80% of the use cases of Relational plus NoSQL databases. Obviously, it doesn't make sense to "rip and replace" or migrate all your databases... if you're happy with your existing tools, keep them. However, if you're building a new application, chances are that it can be entirely built on MongoDB.

If you were to choose a new technology, what would you pick? There's a chance that you'll select the one that gives you more advantages in more cases. Partners (and customers) tends to adopt easy to use, well supported and stable technologies. Complex, fragile or incomplete solutions might hurt your reputation and your clients.

The addressable market is enormous. Let's win together. We look forward to working with leading partners in EMEA. To join our partner network, you can apply here.

May 20, 2013

How and Why Partner with 10gen, The MongoDB Company


It’s been said that “no man is an island, entire of itself” and that’s true for humans, but more than true for organizations. Companies live and thrive in complex markets only by working with a lively ecosystem. Cooperation is even more important for Open Source products.

10gen recently launched a new Partner Program, meant to help and strengthen our commercial ecosystem. We closely work with software, hardware, cloud, channel and service companies to make sure they can get the maximum out of MongoDB. 

Want to know more about the benefits of the partnership program? Interested in becoming a 10gen Partner? Working on complex Big Data projects with MongoDB and need help?

Join us on June 13th for a Webinar titled: "How Partners Can Benefit from our New Program"

Apr 29, 2013

From Oracle to 10gen, The MongoDB Company

Those who are familiar with me know I've a dream.

5 years ago I decided to leave a systems integrator where I was doing great. Why? I wanted to be in a company with the same growth prospects that Oracle had in the 80s. I dreamed to be in the Oracle of 30 years ago and, as time travel wasn't affordable, I decided to join MySQL AB to help expand the business in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
A few years later my dream came true, but in a slightly different sense. Sun acquired MySQL and was later swallowed by Oracle giving me the opportunity to join the company I wished I could have helped build.

Oracle is an amazing company and the MySQL family is full of energy and passion. The product is much better now and the opportunities are even more. MySQL is a dream that I've proudly been part of, but I decided to move on to a new adventure to keep the energy, commitment and passion that are part of me. That's why I decided to leave Oracle.

I've joined an outstanding company, with a leading solution and huge growth prospects. A company that could become the size of Oracle in less than 30 years. I'll be working with a product sitting at the intersection of Cloud, Mobile and Big Data. A document database that will shape the technology landscape in the years to come.

With an attractive partner program and a shiny new version of MongoDB just launched, it's the right time for me to join 10gen. I've accepted the exciting challenge of building the ecosystem and work with software, hardware, cloud, services and channel partners to make MongoDB the de-facto standard NoSQL database.

Interested in a partnership with 10gen? Let's talk! Reach out to me via LinkedIn or firstname.lastname at 10gen.com. ;)

My new dream starts today, and today is the time to say Thank You! to all friends, colleagues, customers and users who made the MySQL journey a great one. I look forward to working with all of you again in the future.

All the best!