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.

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"

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!

2012, the Best Year for MySQL (...so far, but more to come)

It's the end of the year and, before the world ends ;-) , I feel the pressure to follow up on last year's article "2011, a great year for MySQL in Review". I'll adopt a similar format and mention things in context, covering products, marketing, momentum, etc. at a high level. I may have missed something and I hope my colleagues will contribute to the list.

I really do think it's been the best year for MySQL so far... well, at least since when I signed my contract with MySQL AB at the end of 2007. We're just at the beginning of our journey and I wish to the MySQL family, to our community and ecosystem an even better 2013!

Summary
With MySQL Cluster 7.2 GA, MySQL 5.6 Release Candidate and Cluster 7.3 DMR this is the start of something exceptional. These products are introducing long-awaited features and received very positive feedback from our community.

New windows tools joined the party to help customers migrate from Microsoft SQL Server and access MySQL from Excel. MySQL Cluster Manager has been updated and the new auto-installer saw the light of the day. We improved our Connectors, released new ones and delivered additional value to MySQL Enterprise Edition customers. We've also held our first ever MySQL Connect conference that's been a phenomenal success and the MySQL momentum is growing exponentially.

Products
MySQL 5.6 will be loved by developers, giving them more freedom to build next generation applications. With huge performance improvements, new NoSQL access and better replication, that's going to be the best MySQL release to date.
New options for High Availability are waiting to be deployed in your data centers to increase service levels and policy-based auditing will make your servers safer.
MySQL Cluster 7.2 went GA in February, initially delivering 1.2 Billion queries per minute, but then beating his own achievement and producing 1.1 Billion queries writes per minute. Adaptive Query Localization and better ease of use increased Cluster use cases. Leveraging our Not-Only SQL strategy, the latest previews introduced Node.JS access to provide developers further flexibility. Last but not least, Foreign Keys are now part of MySQL Cluster 7.3 DMR.

Case Studies
A lot of case studies can be found here, but let me pick some of the recent noteworthy ones:

• MySQL Cluster Powers El Chavo from Playful Play, Latin America's Most Popular Facebook Game.
• RedeHost Quadriples Backup Speed with MySQL Enterprise Edition
• With Its MySQL Database-as-a-Service CERN Empowers Scientists
• StayFriends Secures a Leading Position Among European Social Media Sites with Robust, High-Performance, Relational Database
• Tilgin Improves Subscriber Device Management by Enabling Telecommunications Operators with Robust Database Solution
• Verizon Wireless Supports its Mission-Critical Employee Portal with MySQL
• A special mention goes to Twitter, who's handled a huge workload with MySQL during 2012 Presidential Elections

Events & Momentum
At the first ever MySQL Connect conference, Edward Screven presented enlightening statistics:

• Over 15 Million Estimated Active Installations
• Facebook: 163k Fans, +35% Yoy Growth
• Twitter: 25k Followers, +67% Yoy Growth
• MySQL Newsletter: 1,4m Subscribers, +20% YoY Growth
• Events: Dozens Of Fully Booked Dev Days & Tech Tours
• Awards: CRN, Linux Journal, PHP Architect...

Several of those numbers have grown since then, and MySQL once again got awarded the Linux Journal Reader’s Choice Award as Best Database for 2012.

People are downloading, tweeting, liking, adopting and blogging about MySQL at a great pace. Embedding MySQL has become a common practice. Adoption in the Cloud is skyrocketing and MySQL has emerged as the leading database, offered by the vast majority of cloud services providers. MySQL is also a key component of big data platforms, with Hadoop vendors estimating 80% of their deployments are integrated with MySQL. MySQL is everywhere!

To all MySQL users, customers, partners, colleagues, developers, advocates and aficionados: Thank you for another amazing year! Go MySQL!

Related articles

• Thank You MySQL Community! MySQL 5.6.9 Release Candidate Available Now!
• MySQL, An Ideal Choice for The Cloud
• MySQL and Hadoop Integration - Unlocking New Insight
• Top 5 Developer Enabling Nuggets in MySQL 5.6
• MySQL Cluster Manager 1.2 - using the new features
• With Its MySQL Database-as-a-Service CERN Empowers Scientists

Meeting the MySQL Team at UKOUG (ICC Birmingham, December 3-5 | 2012)

If you're planning to attend UKOUG in Birmingham on Dec 3-5, here's your guide to know more about Oracle's MySQL.

There's a MySQL stream on Monday 5th and we've a great list of sessions, including:

• Rich Mason's keynote on how to Deploy, Scale and Save with Linux, Virtualization and MySQL
• Keith Hollman on stage to discuss how to Embrace Database Diversity
• Mark Swarbrick's lecture on Tips & Tricks for MySQL Replication
• Mario Beck's talk on Performance Schema
• My two slots on how to Leverage Oracle (and MySQL) Data Management Solutions together and then on the High Availability Options available with MySQL

I'd like also to mention Dr. David Harper, from the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, on Better Living Trough Metadata: Harnessing the Power of MySQL Information Schema.

Want to meet myself or my team at the UKOUG? Feel free to get in touch via LinkedIn or Twitter.

Want to come prepared? Here's what you can read beforehand:

• MySQL Connect Presentations Available (blogs.oracle.com)
• New Options for MySQL High Availability (blogs.oracle.com)
• What's new in MySQL 5.6 Release Candidate (dev.mysql.com)
• New MySQL Cluster 7.3 Previews: Foreign Keys, NoSQL Node.js API and Auto-Tuned Clusters (dev.mysql.com)