

MongoHQ launches new tools for monitoring and managing databases - mrkurt
http://blog.mongohq.com/blog/2012/10/10/new-mongohq/?hn

======
pooriaazimi
I have a question that's been bothering me for quite a while. I'd be really
thankful if someone could help me as I'm going to use MongoHQ for a project,
but... I just don't get their service.

Let's say you're building a kinda RESTful API for yourself - for example,
you're an online store and have a database for your users. Now you want to
create an iOS client that talks to your server and after authentication and a
lot of app logic (implemented in your server), the server responds to the
client (by sending it a few JSON's, like user info and shopping history) and
the client can send JSON's to the server, too (when the user changes
something).

Traditionally, you'd implement the server logic in some language and deploy it
on your machine, and start a database daemon on that machine (or another
machine within your realm). You'd set them up to work with each other, and
then you'd spend the rest of your time maintaining them! It's hard and
requires a lot of knowledge, but the DB and server where "near" each other
(physically) and your bottleneck was usually CPU/RAM, not network latency.

But now, the "cool" way is to write a rails/Node.js/... server and deploy it
to heroku/nodejitsu/others and "borrow" a database from
mongohq/redistogo/iriscouch/etc. NodeJitsu manages your Node.js app, and
MongoHQ, your DB. They both do them much better than you, and everything seems
nice.

But, now when a client asks the server for something, Node.js has to _ask
MongoHQ_ , which is God-knows-where and could easily take up to 300-500ms (or
so I think). Then your server has to do its magic and do authentication and
custom app logic and then respond back to the user.

And it's for _Mongo_ , which is a database. How the hell "RedisToGo', for
example, works? Redis is supposed to be _extremely_ fast and performant. A
redis store that it takes 400ms just to _connect_ to it? It doesn't make
sense.

\----

I'd be thankful if someone could "educate" me - I really don't get these PAAS
things.

I'm thinking of creating an app that's (probably) going to be on NodeJitsu and
uses MongoHQ, but I'm really doing that with closed eyes, and it'll not an
educated choice - the only reason I probably won't self-host them is because
I've had bad experience with security stuff _(a Linux VPS that someone broke
into easily, and I don't have a clue how that happened!)_

~~~
dfischer
Amazon EC2.

The latency is minimal because it's all happening on Amazon EC2's stack, at
least, should be in order to be performant.

In the case of Heroku/MongoHQ it's both on Amazon EC2.

~~~
pooriaazimi
Thanks! That cleared everything.

Here's a link from MongoHQ's support that I found (being more knowledgeable
after your response!) that say NodeJitsu is also in US East Coast and the
transfer should (ideally) be fast:
[http://support.mongohq.com/topics/general/mongohq-take-
advan...](http://support.mongohq.com/topics/general/mongohq-take-advantage-of-
internal-amazon-ec2-traffic.html)

:)

------
jwarzech
We have been using MongoHQ for a bit now and their service has been quite good
and very accommodating (especially when our db suddenly stopped storing data
during a critical time).

However for a growing bootstrapped startup their cost structure isn't very
linear. For improved performance you have to jump from a $49/mo to $637/mo
plan which is pretty ridiculous.

~~~
mrkurt
We should have smoother scaling path here soon, for now you can email support
and we can likely set something custom up for you.

Also, the $49 - $149 jump is both faster and more redundant.

------
mrkmcknz
This is what I needed to make that first step into having a serious play with
MongoDB.

I'll happily give you guys money.

~~~
mrkurt
Nice! Let us know if you need help with anything.

------
celalo
It looks beautiful. Hosted DBs makes much more sense when monitoring is
offered at the same time.

~~~
Goopplesoft
At their plan prices... I'm highly doubtful.

------
netmau5
This is an awesome and very helpful group of guys. They are one of the few
companies I know that invests as much in great support as their tech. If you
use Mongo on a project, you owe it to yourself to try them out.

------
NickKampe
It'd make an excellent open source tool.

~~~
ashika
agreed. i sympathise with mongohq's position as a proprietary SAAS provider,
but if they can find a way to push any of this back, they should. tools
matter.

~~~
mrkurt
There's quite a bit we'd like to/are planning to open source sometime, it's
just a matter of people working to make it happen.

------
philfreo
When are you shared plans going to be available in US West?

~~~
mrkurt
Soon ... ish. If you email support@mongohq.com and let us know what you're
looking for exactly, we may be able to help you out.

------
knewter
<3 you guys, awesome looking release

------
gsibble
Oh wow....so sexy.

