Database maker MongoDB has announced version 3 of its NoSQL database and a new MongoDB Ops Manager.

The launch has been hailed as the most significant release yet of the product that has become the world’s fastest growing database for the cloud computing era. Some experts have hailed it as a new emerging de facto standard which kills off the arguments for many of the niche database players.

The new database’s WiredTiger storage engine is a major boost to overall performance, according to analyst Clive Longbottom, senior researcher at Quocirca. Longbottom said a new range of extra security features (such as document-level locking) could convince more traders to use this database.

Strength without disruption

The new version has strengthened the platform without disrupting existing users, said Longbottom. “I don’t think users will need major skills updating,” said Longbottom. “The WiredTiger engine, although shipped with the distribution, is a choice: you can carry on if you want, and can even run in a two-node mixed environment should you want to try out all the WiredTiger stuff before using it as the main storage mechanism.”

MongoDB co-founder Eliot Horowitz said the new release, which is available in March, can potentially give applications up to ten times greater write throughput, use 80% less storage and manage operations with 95 percent less effort.

This release also introduces Ops Manager, a new application for managing MongoDB deployments, which integrates with popular operations tools and reduces operational overhead by, again, up to 95 percent, says MongoDB. Based on MongoDB Management Service (MMS), Ops Manager provides an on-premise system for upgrades, monitoring and back up.

“This release is a seminal event for the industry,” said MongoDB CEO Dev Ittycheria (above). “Users and IT organizations can now confidently standardize on MongoDB as the DBMS platform for today’s modern applications. MongoDB is the database of the post-relational era.”

Technology experts from data center operators Facebook, Buzzfeed and eBay have hailed new features included in the latest release, which includes a new flexible storage system promising better performance and scalability.

MongoDB 3.0 has updated management tools, a query language, comprehensive indexes and strong consistency without sacrificing the innovations of the NoSQL movement according to Charity Majors, production engineering manager at developer Parse (now part of Facebook).

“The storage API improves compression and memory usage and other aspects of cutting edge modern database engines,” said Majors.

The flexible data model

The new version has combined a flexible data model, scalability and an always-on mode, which speeds up development time and makes new types of application possible, according to MongoDB. This, it claimed, should help data center developers to create apps for the Internet of Things (IoT), time series data analysis, messaging and fraud detection. “MongoDB 3.0 enables a new dimension for community innovation with its pluggable storage engine feature,” said Yuri Finkelstein, enterprise architect at eBay.

“The new release powers our ability to make sense of big data and improve our decisions,” said Mark Wilkie, CTO at BuzzFeed. “The new storage engines and improved concurrency are significant milestones.”

The database vendor has consolidated and pushed on from a position of strength, concluded analyst Longbottom.

“Mongo already has a good following and is doing a good job of supporting the enterprise version,” said Longbottom. “They need to see if they can create the one database to rule them all - a single platform that can MapReduce and deal with both formal transactional data and less formatted data.”