New High-Memory MongoDB Instances Available on Microsoft Azure -- Visual Studio Magazine

Data Driverby David Ramel

New High-Memory MongoDB Instances Available on Microsoft Azure

MongoDB just won't go away. Two weeks after a major update to the popular NoSQL database, Microsoft announced new high-memory instances were available on its Microsoft Azure cloud platform.

The cloud-served MongoDB instances come from MongoLab, a fully managed database service provider that works with major cloud platforms such as those provided by Amazon and Google. The service has been available on Microsoft Azure since October 2012, but with some limitations.

"We have been working with MongoLab for a long time to bring a fully managed Database as a Service offering for MongoDB to Microsoft Azure," said Microsoft exec Scott Guthrie. "With full production support for all VM types across all datacenters, we are excited and optimistic for the future of MongoDB on our cloud platform."

The details were explained in a blog post yesterday by Brian Benz, who announced "the arrival of our newest high-memory MongoDB database plans, with virtual machine choices that now provide up to 56GB of RAM per node with availability in all eight Microsoft Azure datacenters worldwide."

Along with the new memory capacity, the service provides management tools for backups, performance monitoring of key metrics, analysis to speed up queries and index recommendations. Support is also provided via e-mail or an around-the-clock emergency hotline, depending on the plan.

Developers connect to the service using standard language-specific drivers or through a JSON-based REST API. JSON is the bedrock of MongoDB, which stores data in collections of JSON documents composed of fields with key-value pairs rather than relational tables and columns. This facilitates Big Data analytics, and the database is used by major organizations such as CERN, eBay, Craigslist, SAP and many others. The open source MongoDB database, which was developed by MongoDB Inc., is the most popular NoSQL system in use, according to the latest report from DB-Engines.com, which lists it as No. 5 among all databases.

On Microsoft Azure, MongoDB plans are available ranging from a free "sandbox" that includes 500MB of storage to a 56GB dedicated cluster that costs $5,200 per month.

Benz details how to set up a MongoLab service in a Microsoft Open Technologies blog post.

Are you planning to use MongoDB on Microsoft Azure? Please comment here or drop me a line.

Posted by David Ramel on 04/23/2014

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