There has been a lot of big news announced in the managed database world in the last couple of weeks. mLab announced they’ve been acquired by MongoDB, Inc. mLab posted a message to their customers announcing that migrations to Atlas will start taking place in four months.
“Surprise migration” are words that no one wants to hear together. If migration wasn’t in your plan for the year and you’re short on tech staff to ensure that production workloads migrate safely, it’s incredibly nerve-wracking.
Some mLab customers are already looking for alternative MongoDB hosting options. If you haven’t taken a look at what’s out there in a while, this space is changing very quickly. Here are some things to think about:
Migration
mLab states in their letter to customers that they will “provide tools that allow you to migrate with minimal downtime or no downtime”. Migration tools are fine until you run into a problem. If there isn’t great expertise and support available to you, you’re stuck. ObjectRocket provides hands-on data migration. Customers get a dedicated Slack channel with real MongoDB experts that make sure your migration goes as smoothly as possible.
Comparison charts aren’t the whole story
Much like Darwin’s finches, everyone is finding their niche in the DBaaS market. Comparisons in this space are hard to make because things change so fast. (We’ve seen so many inaccurate comparison charts!) Instead, we think it’s much more helpful to share some details about DBaaS services and a checklist of questions to ask when you’re shopping around for the best fit.
Download Everything you need to know about DBaaS eBook
IOPS
If you were an mLab customer and you’re moving your data to Atlas, the performance of your MongoDB databases will be affected. “Similar hardware” is not the same hardware. Any changes need to be thoroughly tested. Atlas charges extra for these services, but others in the space (like ObjectRocket) do not charge extra for hands-on migrations and testing. ObjectRocket also has multiple hosting options to help get you the speed and responsiveness your app needs.
More than just GBs/$ – Real support
We’ve seen so many comments about mLab’s great support and the fear about moving to Atlas support. ObjectRocket provides 24×7 support from real database experts. We currently have a 97% ZenDesk satisfaction rating. You can reach us via email, phone, or chat any time and we don’t charge extra. It’s extremely important to have a performant hosting platform. It’s just as important to have really good support with it. We hear from clients all the time about their shopping experience for fully managed and hosted databases and how confusing it can be. Everyone says they have support. Most charge a lot more for it. A lot of times they would still end up not getting the help they needed.
At ObjectRocket, we strive to be a partner that helps customers focus on disrupting their markets by taking away the worry of the data layer. We’re more than just hosting. We are your database team. We make data fast and highly available. We’re here to help you optimize queries and indexes so that you get the most from MongoDB.
“You would have to use other database management providers to understand just how good ObjectRocket is. I’m not just buying dollars per gigabyte. I am buying a deluxe team that is there for us 24/7.”
BJ Fox, VP of Engineering, Thunder Industries
ObjectRocket options for MongoDB
The best way to get started with ObjectRocket is to schedule some time with us to talk about your particular use case. From casters to cloud, we have a lot of flexibility to support you on AWS, Azure, and on dedicated hardware. We take great care in finding the right solution for each workload.
A lot is changing in this space and we’re investing in a new Kubernetes-based platform that is currently in testing. Read more about what we’re building here.
If there’s one major differentiator that we keep hearing from customers that have switched from mLab and Atlas is that our expertise and support for scaling production workloads is the best.
“We are likely one of the largest installations of MongoDB in the world. Our partnership with ObjectRocket has allowed us to get where we are today.”
Jon Hyman, CTO and Cofounder, Braze
If you’re an mLab customer that needs to migrate your data, consider switching to ObjectRocket. We’d love to hear from you to see if we’re a good fit.
We’re offering a special price for mLab customers: Save up to 50% when you switch to ObjectRocket. Hope to hear from you soon.
