Need smarter insights in your inbox? Join our weekly newsletters to get solely what issues to enterprise AI, knowledge, and safety leaders. Subscribe Now
Doc databases are an more and more necessary sort of know-how within the gen AI period.
A doc database is a kind of NoSQL database that doesn’t depend on rows and columns like a conventional relational database, as an alternative it makes use of the JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) format. There are a number of distributors that develop doc databases together with MongoDB, which now has a proprietary closed supply know-how. In an effort to open up the market, Microsoft started growing its personal doc database often called DocumentDB and made it open supply in January of this 12 months. This week, DocumentDB is shifting to the Linux Basis the place it has additionally gained the backing of Microsoft’s cloud rivals AWS and Google.
The transfer creates the primary vendor-neutral open supply various to MongoDB that has the potential to save lots of enterprises cash, whereas additionally eliminating database vendor lock-in. Doc databases are necessary for AI apps for duties corresponding to chats, context and reminiscence.
“AI apps are all about semi-structured knowledge and doc databases are objective constructed for it,” Kirill Gavrylyuk, vp at Microsoft and DocumentDB’s main architect, informed VentureBeat “However there is no such thing as a open supply normal engine for doc databases, like what PostgreSQL is for relational databases.”
AI Scaling Hits Its Limits
Energy caps, rising token prices, and inference delays are reshaping enterprise AI. Be a part of our unique salon to find how prime groups are:
- Turning vitality right into a strategic benefit
- Architecting environment friendly inference for actual throughput positive aspects
- Unlocking aggressive ROI with sustainable AI programs
Safe your spot to remain forward: https://bit.ly/4mwGngO
Delivering the promise of open supply doc database on the Linux Basis
Microsoft initially launched the open-source DocumentDB undertaking in January of 2025.
The undertaking was hosted inside the Microsoft org on GitHub and had been producing broad trade curiosity over the course of the 12 months. Having an open-source undertaking isn’t nearly code or licensing, it’s additionally about contributions and group.
“Below the Linux Basis’s governance, DocumentDB will profit from vendor neutrality and broader collaboration,” Gavrylyuk mentioned.
Microsoft isn’t simply dumping code both. Gavrylyuk emphasised that Microsoft will proceed to take a position closely within the undertaking and can proceed to have sturdy illustration within the Technical Steering Committee to assist form the imaginative and prescient and roadmap of the undertaking.
“By becoming a member of the Linux Basis, a impartial basis, we’re aiming to be extra inviting to the developer group to contribute and form the course of the undertaking,” Gavrylyuk mentioned. “Furthermore, by the Linux Basis, we need to present an assurance to the developer group that this undertaking is right here to remain, open supply, and can proceed to maneuver ahead.”
What’s inside DocumentDB and why it issues for enterprise knowledge professionals
Except for its open-source nature, there may be one other important factor that makes the database significantly enticing to enterprises. As an alternative of being a wholly new database know-how, it’s based mostly on the open-source PostgreSQL database.
PostgreSQL has emerged to develop into one of the vital broadly deployed open supply databases of all time and has newfound adoption within the AI period. DocumentDB features a PostgreSQL extension that brings first-class BSON (Binary JSON) datatype assist to PostgreSQL. It additionally integrates an extension that provides doc type queries assist to PostgreSQL and index administration. The PostgreSQL base signifies that enterprises can profit from PostgreSQL’s mature ecosystem of instruments, monitoring programs and backup options. The PostgreSQL basis additionally offers ACID (Atomicity, Consistency, Isolation and Sturdiness) compliance and confirmed replication capabilities that tackle enterprise issues about knowledge consistency.
DocumentDB additionally has a gateway that makes the database suitable with open supply MongoDB drivers for any language. Gavrylyuk famous that Doc DB doesn’t but have full compatibility with all the things in MongoDB, however there may be extra work to return.
“Full compatibility with MongoDB drivers is a important aim of the undertaking as mirrored within the Linux Basis DocumentDB constitution,” he mentioned. “This coupled with the true open supply vendor impartial governance of the undertaking will assist the broader doc database ecosystem thrive, benefitting everyone within the ecosystem, together with MongoDB Inc.”
Simply to be clear, Amazon DocumentDB isn’t the identical factor
Whereas Amazon is among the many backers of the brand new Linux Basis DocumentDB undertaking, it truly already has its personal DocumentDB database.
The Amazon DocumentDB database predates the Microsoft-led know-how, having been first introduced in 2019. Amazon DocumentDB not too long ago debuted a serveless service that goals to speed up agentic AI.
Whereas the DocumentDB undertaking, stewarded by Linux Basis, has an analogous identify to Amazon DocumentDB, it makes use of completely different software program underneath the hood.
“Amazon DocumentDB is a MongoDB API-compatible doc database constructed by AWS,” Rashim Gupta, Sr. Supervisor, Product Administration at AWS, informed VentureBeat. “The Linux Basis undertaking, alternatively, whereas additionally being MongoDB suitable, makes use of an open supply engine that’s constructed as an extension on PostgreSQL. This can be a completely different engine than the one utilized in Amazon DocumentDB.”
Gupta famous that AWS will proceed to put money into each Amazon DocumentDB and open supply DocumentDB akin to the way it invests in Amazon OpenSearch Service and group OpenSearch. Transferring ahead, he mentioned that AWS will begin contributing Amazon DocumentDB improvements to the open supply undertaking and undertake options and capabilities from the open supply DocumentDB engine to its managed Amazon DocumentDB service over time.
AI workloads drive pressing want for database options
The timing displays rising enterprise demand for doc databases to energy AI functions.
The undertaking already incorporates Microsoft Analysis’s DiskANN (Disk Approximate Nearest Neighbor) vector indexing algorithms and semantic operators developed for PostgreSQL’s AI capabilities.
This provides DocumentDB speedy aggressive benefits for AI workloads whereas avoiding the licensing prices that may doubtlessly make proprietary options costly for data-intensive functions.
“Microsoft closely invests in open supply AI contributions throughout the board,” Gavrylyuk mentioned. “We’re investing within the AI capabilities of DocumentDB in addition to the broader PostgreSQL ecosystem with precedence.”
What it means for enterprise knowledge groups
For enterprises seeking to cut back database vendor dependence, DocumentDB offers a strategic hedge in opposition to potential closed supply proprietary know-how. IT leaders ought to start evaluating DocumentDB in growth environments to grasp migration complexity for his or her particular workloads.
Organizations constructing new AI functions have the chance to architect round DocumentDB from the beginning, avoiding potential closed-source know-how lock-in totally whereas gaining PostgreSQL’s confirmed enterprise reliability and ecosystem advantages.
For enterprises seeking to prepared the ground in AI, this information means entry to cutting-edge doc database capabilities with out the seller lock-in dangers which have traditionally constrained database technique choices.
