MongoDB Presents an Evening With Eliot Horowitz and Stitch

Michael Lynn
May 8, 2018 | Updated: March 11, 2019
#Community#Events#Stitch

On April 19th, 2018, the MongoDB User Group (MUG) met at the MongoDB HQ in New York City for an evening of conversation, trivia, and a live coding session from MongoDB co-founder and CTO Eliot Horowitz.

Nearly 60 attendees packed into the main presentation area and were met with good food and drink as they networked and prepared for Eliot's session on using the MongoDB Backend as a Service, Stitch. There were some new faces, some familiar faces, and of course, some MongoDB engineers in the group.

Meetup groups bring together like-minded individuals united through interest in a particular topic. MongoDB User Meetup Groups, or MUGs as they’re called, are certainly no different. MUG attendees share a belief in the transformative power of data and MongoDB. MUGs are also a place where developers, engineers, DBAs and tech enthusiasts can feel comfortable discussing databases, development, programming at virtually any level of experience.

Those unable to make it to our NYC HQ were able to take part in the demonstrations via a high quality live video stream. The live stream, which you can now watch on YouTube, along with our Community Slack kept the audience engaged as Eliot presented Stitch features.

This evening, Developer Advocate Jay Gordon opened with a few announcements about MongoDB World 2018, some upcoming MUGs, and some additional information about courses offered by MongoDB University. The interactive portion of the evening then kicked off with a trivia session hosted by Developer Advocate Aydrian Howard.

For this section, Aydrian leveraged Kahoot.com to guide the audience through a fun, interactive trivia quiz with questions about MongoDB. Participants were tested on their knowledge of MongoDB history and some of the technology using on-screen questions. Points earned were based on correctness and time to answer. Questions ranged from “What was the origin of the name MongoDB?” to “What command is used to drop a collection from the MongoDB Shell?” In the end, the top 2 scoring participants were awarded Amazon gift cards —Congratulations to Eric Pedregosa and Hardik Ginwala!

With trivia done, it was time for the main event. Eliot took to the podium and began his presentation on MongoDB Stitch.

Eliot dove into the talk with an explanation of exactly what Stitch is and where it fits into the database and surrounding landscapes. Currently in beta, Stitch is part backend as a service (BaaS), or Mobile Backend as a Service (MBaaS), part Functions as a Service (FaaS), part API Platform, and part Serverless platform. Stitch fits into a number of interesting spaces because of its flexibility. But before we get too deep into the technology, let’s take a look at some history to see how we got here.

In 2007, AWS released a massively impactful and innovative product to the world in its Elastic Computing platform called EC2. EC2 made it really easy for businesses to increase agility and speed to market without investing in on-premise server hardware.

In 2014, containers came along, further increasing agility and reducing dependence upon physical infrastructure. And most recently, in 2017, serverless computing became popular, with AWS Lambda as one of the most widely used options. Lambda gives users the ability to write code without having to manage app servers or containers. Developers write code and deploy this code to a cloud-based server and its just ready when it’s needed for execution.

The value proposition for serverless computing is extremely compelling. The critical logic required for an application becomes freed from the traditional vehicle required for its successful execution. However, when you leverage most serverless platforms you still need to design and write the logic responsible for handling integrations with services — effectively, you’re still required to build a RESTful API.

Stitch is different from serverless in many respects. Stitch provides you the freedom to concentrate on execution of methods and functions containing the vital logic of your application without having to build the entire interface and without having to build integration to 3rd party services.

Eliot provided several demonstrations of this power and flexibility, the first of which took the audience on a journey through what it might be like to add commenting capabilities to a blog, using MongoDB Stitch to handle the database interactions.

To assemble the components of this demonstration, Eliot first launched a cluster of MongoDB database servers using MongoDB’s database as a service offering, Atlas. With the cluster in place, Eliot created a new Stitch application, and leveraged an example code snippet to enable Stitch inside his web application. To accomplish this, he first created a section in the web page where the comments would appear dynamically. The text of these comments are be populated from the MongoDB database. Next, he imported the Stitch Library in the HEAD section of the web page.

The source for this particular demonstration is available on Github and can be leveraged to create your own very similar blog system leveraging Stitch. Take a look at the source repository README for specific instructions on setting this up on your own.

An important note is that MongoDB Stitch applications aren’t just limited to living in the Stitch UI. Leveraging the Stitch Import/Export API, developers can write Stitch applications locally and import them into Stitch, export existing applications to a local directory, and easily share components between Stitch apps.

Next, Eliot moved on to another demonstration he created leveraging interconnected smart-home devices assembled to create a facial recognition security system.

Today, more and more products are becoming smart or internet-connected. The Internet of Things (IoT) has taken shape and now more than ever we’re able to embrace the power of technology and integration to accomplish things that would have been impossible a few short years ago. But connecting all these smart devices requires integration. Many have Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) but these often require hundreds of lines of integration code. This code is typically standard, boilerplate, or templated code and while non-differentiating, in many cases necessary to connect the various APIs to one another.

To demonstrate the power of IoT and the power of Stitch to alleviate the need to write all of the integration code to enable these devices to communicate, Eliot assembled a few relatively common components such as a camera, a deadbolt, and a simple switch.

Eliot showed how to utilize functions and the simplicity of using MongoDB Stitch to create an IoT Security system that is completely open source and ready for you to start playing with.

The components of this security system included:

The system leverages these off the shelf Smart-Home components and turns them into a facial recognition security system with a total of 200 lines of code (including some JSON configuration).

The system stores photographs (base64 encoded) of visitors that are allowed entry in MongoDB. When a potential visitor attempts to gain entry (unlocking the deadbolt) using the system, they press a button, which triggers the camera to take a photo of the visitor. This photo is then programmatically compared with stores photos of authorized visitors and if there’s a match, the system sends a command to the deadbolt to tell it to unlock.

The project demonstrates how easy it is to use Stitch to orchestrate the complex interaction between multiple components, without having to spin up an application server. It is both a starting point for hobbyists or professionals who want to develop smart home solutions, and a tutorial for those looking to see Stitch in action.

The system is comprised of two major parts. The Stitch backend, which orchestrates the interaction of all the devices, is about 50 lines of code. The web-based admin UI is a single-page React application, which, at 150 lines of code, is 3x the size of the backend.

In the demo, Eliot used his face to authenticate via the Face++ service and the deadbolt lock opened as expected. All of these properties are saved within the Atlas database while the functions themselves are written in JavaScript and stored within Stitch.

The power and potential of MongoDB Stitch to automate and offload integration is exciting. Whether you’re building something from scratch, a mobile, or web app, or even an IoT app. Stitch can save you hours of development time alleviating the need to:

  • Build boilerplate integration code between your app and the database
  • Build integration code between your app and essential third party services for things like authentication, authorization, sms text integration and many others.
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To review the code Eliot presented in this talk, you can find the code in this GitHub repository. If you are interested in getting started building applications without application servers and without the need to build complex API’s and Backend Integrations, check out the MongoDB Stitch Beta and consider cloning Eliot’s repo and importing it into your own Stitch application to try it out for yourself.

You can view the entire presentation here:

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Have you considered speaking, presenting at a MongoDB User Group? Join us in NYC, Philadelphia, or any one of the hundreds of MongoDB User Groups around the World!

Check out the MongoDB NYC User Group Call for Paper form. We'd love to hear about your current project, use of MongoDB or how you solved a problem.

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MongoDB Hosts the First Annual Women in Computer Science Summit in NYC

On April 20th MongoDB NYC hosted fifteen incredible college students from schools across the country for our first ever Women in Computer Science Summit. The full day event, which was organized and hosted by the MongoDB Campus Recruiting Team, included a packed agenda with technical learning sessions, application building, mock interviews, and a panel discussion with MongoDB engineers. The summit offered an opportunity for young women from different colleges and universities a chance to connect, learn from one another, and support each other down the line. Smitha Nagar, a UT Austin sophomore and Computer Science major, found value in being able to meet her peers. "Everything is a lot more fun when you’re surrounded by badass women. Everyone was intelligent, friendly, and wanted to learn and wanted to support each other, which is what made it so amazing. It was a great way to make new friends with similar interests. It was very refreshing.” The panel discussion with three MongoDB engineers helped to demonstrate how the attendees can grow their careers at companies like MongoDB, as well as help to better the future of the tech industry for women overall. For Washington State University sophomore Jessica Zhou, “It’s inspiring to not only be able to look up to women engineers thriving and doing a lot of cutting edge work, but also to meet and share these experiences with other women in computer science from schools all over the country. It was easy to relate with other people there, and it was cool to be in a room of female CS students during the technical talk and workshop on databases. For me, it’s something very rare in the classroom. I’ve been trying to figure out if I want to go to grad school for research or right into industry, and what I learned from the panel is that you can still read and discuss papers, have that spirit of inquiry and innovation you find in academia while in an industry setting. I see Computer Science as an interesting academic subject but also a means of building cool things and delivering tangible change.” Brown University sophomore Cece Xiao “really enjoyed the event. The overall structure was very well organized, and there was not a moment where I felt disengaged. The pace at this summit allowed for me to get to know MongoDB more intimately, and being onsite allowed for a more hands on real life experience. It gave me a personal view of MongoDB as a company, and to better understand the culture and what it’s really about. I never really understood the magnitude of one line of code, but with so many customers using MongoDB, I find it fascinating the lengths it can go. ” The day also included mock interviews for attendees to highlight their skills in an environment that was conducive to learning and growth. Each attendee was paired up with an engineer with previous interview experience and was given honest, transparent advice on how to strengthen their skills when it comes to communicating and conveying information. For Smitha, this was a highlight: “it really blew me away. The mock interview was so helpful and a really good learning experience. It wasn’t stressful and I was able to receive really good feedback. I was given specific advice that I had not heard before that I can apply to not only future interviews, but also to future presentations or interactions with a team.” For us, the event was a great way to meet young engineers, inspire them to continue working towards their goals, encourage them to stick to their passions, and provide them with information necessary for success. The ability to give advice from personal experience, provide support, and connect the next generation of female technologists is what will allow technology to not only move forward, but also expand its potential. If you’d like to learn more about the opportunities at MongoDB, click here .

May 8, 2018
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Data and the European Landscape: 3 Trends for 2022

The past two years have brought massive changes for IT leaders: large and complex cloud migrations; unprecedented numbers of people suddenly working, shopping and learning from home; and a burst in demand for digital-first experiences. Like everyone else, we are hoping that 2022 isn’t so disruptive (fingers crossed!), our customer conversations in Europe do lead us to believe the new year will bring new business priorities. We’re already noticing changes in conversations around vendor lock-in, thanks to the Digital Markets Act, a new enthusiasm for combining operational and analytical data to drive new insights faster, and a more strategic embrace of sustainability. Here’s how we see these trends playing out in 2022. Digital markets act draws new attention to cloud vendor lock-in in Europe We’ve heard plenty about the European Commission’s Digital Markets Act , which, in the name of ensuring fair and open digital markets, would place new restrictions on companies that are deemed to be digital “gatekeepers” in the region. That discussion will be nothing compared to the vigorous debate we expect once the EU begins the very tricky political business of determining exactly which companies will fall under the act. If the EU sets the bar for revenues, users, and market size high enough, it’s possible that the regulation will end up affecting only Facebook, Amazon, Google, Apple, and Microsoft. But a European group representing 2,500 CIOs and almost 700 organizations is now pushing to have the regulation encompass more software companies. Their main concern centers around “distorted competition” in cloud infrastructure services and a worry that companies are being locked into one cloud vendor. A trend that will likely increase in 2022 that pushes back on cloud vendor lock-in is embracing multi-cloud strategies. We should expect to see more organisations in the region pursuing multi-cloud environments as a means to improve business continuity and agility whilst being able to access best of breed services from each cloud provider. As we have always said …”it’s fine to date your cloud provider….but don’t ever marry them.” The convergence of operational and analytical data The processing of operational and analytical data is almost always contained in different data systems, each tuned to that use case and managed by separate teams. But because that data lives in separate places, it’s almost impossible for organisations to generate insights and automate actions in real time, against live data. We believe 2022 is the year we’ll see a critical mass of companies in the region make significant progress toward a convergence of their operational and analytical data. We’re already starting to see some of the principles of microservices in operational applications, such as domain ownership, be applied to analytics as well. We’re hearing about this from so many of our customers locally, who are looking at MongoDB as an application data platform that allows them to perform queries across both real-time and historical data, using a unified platform and a single query API. This results in the applications they are building becoming more intelligent and contextual to their users, while avoiding dependencies on centralized analytics teams that otherwise slow down how quickly new, data-driven experiences can be released. Sustainability drives local strategic IT choice Technology always has some environmental cost. Sometimes that’s obvious — such as the energy needs and emissions associated with Bitcoin mining. More often, though, the environmental costs are well hidden. The European Green Deal commits the European Union to reducing emissions by 55% by 2030, with a focus on sustainable industry. With the U.N. Climate Change Conference (COP26) recently completed in Glasgow, and coming off the hottest European summer on record, climate issues have become top of mind. That means our customers are increasingly looking to make their technical operations more sustainable — including in their choice of cloud provider and data centers. According to research from IDC , more than 20% of CxOs say that sustainability is now important in selecting a strategic cloud service provider, and some 29% of CxOs are including sustainability into their RFPs for cloud services. Most interesting, 26% say they are willing to switch to providers with better sustainability credentials. Historically, it’s been difficult to make a switch like that. That’s part of the reason we built MongoDB Atlas — to give our customers the flexibility to run in any region , with any of the three largest cloud providers, and to make it easy to switch between them, and even to run a single database cluster across them. Publicly available information about the footprint of individual regions and even single data centers will make it simpler for companies to make informed decisions. Already, at least one cloud platform has added indicators to regions with the lowest carbon footprint. Source: IDC, European Customers Engage Services Providers at All Stages of Their Cloud Journey, IDC Survey Spotlight, Doc #EUR248484021, Dec 2021

December 21, 2021