MongoDB, the leading NoSQL database, announced the availability of Production Support for MongoDB for the free-to-download Community Edition. This allows users to get expert guidance from the same team that builds MongoDB, citing strong demand from community edition users for greater support options, without investing in the whole enterprise package. The Production Support offering is now available as a standalone service- separate from the MongoDB Enterprise software.
“(The) Production Support goes beyond the typical “break/fix” scenario. Our highly-experienced support team offers consultative, proactive assistance on topics ranging from schema design, index optimization, performance testing and scaling out,” the MongoDB blog said. “We support thousands of MongoDB systems with simple and complex deployment topologies. We can help ensure that you are following best practices and getting the best possible performance from MongoDB.”
Prior to this announcement, MongoDB’s open source community had to look to forums for support and troubleshooting, as is the case with many “freemium”-model databases.
Another open-source company offering paid support may not be standalone headline news, but this story hints at changing dynamics within the NoSQL market. Competitors such as Couchbase have been raising venture capital and winning new customers, and increasing numbers of database vendors have been encroaching on MongoDB’s territory by offering support for the JSON file type.
It has been rumoured that MongoDB hasn’t been gathering as many paid users as it would like, but their non-paying userbase remains strong. If they can convert even a small percentage of their open-source users into paid-support customers, it could have a serious impact on MongoDB’s revenue stream.
Read more here.
(Image credit: Ian Whalen)
