We had a kick off call with our new client 10Gen yesterday.
You may not have heard of 10Gen before, but if you’re a developer you’ve certainly heard of mongoDB, the document data store, the business is looking to commercialise. MongoDB maps extremely well to applications using JSON (Javascript Object notation, a protocol which allows for the transmission of structured data between client and server without the overhead XML creates), which helps to explain its explosive growth.
Mongo really is the new hotness. Or as Stephen put it – MongoDB is the new MySQL. Its achieved an amazing mindshare position in a very short space of time. If you talk to 24 year old Web developers and architects today they invariably argue that Mongo is the only database worth considering. My colleague Donnie, for example, who mentors some Google Summer of Code projects, says many of the young developers he is working with want to use Mongo, whether or not it is the right tool for the job. Nice problem to have, huh?
Given that for the last 30 years developers have put everything in Oracle databases, regardless of how appropriate they are for the job in hand, it should not surprise us that a data store would be seen in this light. NoSQL. Meet the new boss…
10Gen’s plan is to build a business by offering commercial support for MongoDB – offering training, support and management tooling. What I hand’t realised was how far along they are in terms of building a European business. I was surprised to find out they already have nearly 10 people in an office near Saint Pauls, including technical, pre sales, and support. They also have an office in Ireland.
On the Enterprise side 10Gen MongoDB support clients include Disney, Ericsson, Viacom, Telefonica and SAP. Investors include Sequoia and Union Square Ventures (my favourite VC by a wide margin).
No Comments