IBM and 10gen have announced that they joining forces to create a new open standard that will allow developers of web and mobile apps to access data held in NoSQL databases, such as 10gen's MongoDB, and also IBM's enterprise database DB2.
Speaking to Computing, vice-president of IBM software standards, Angel Diaz (pictured), said: "It's a way of mixing and matching traditional enterprise data with NoSQL-based data stores."
Further reading
Database shakedown: Five reasons why there's a revolution going on IBM's Mobile Enterprise - A personal journey [Video] IBM Worklight Studio and Rational Team Concert [Video]
"We're reducing the concept count. At the moment developers have to use different protocols, different ways of accessing the information, different ways of committing transactions. We are working with 10gen to standardise on their JSON protocol so people can use a single protocol to gain access to Mongo, DB2 - or anything else for that matter."
Diaz said that this standardisation is important because of the proliferation of platforms, especially mobile ones, that the industry has seen over recent years.
"At IBM we have put a lot of focus on mobile. We have a 'mobile first' strategy, and we've been working on standards in open source across the board. IBM is co-chair of HTML5. We believe it is important that developers can write high quality apps across devices. With JavaScript, HTML5 and projects like Apache Cordoba we've got to the point where you can actually do this now.
"The way these apps access information is through JSON," Diaz continued. "Frankly, this is the piece that was missing to really get that going."
Asked why IBM had chosen to partner with 10gen in particular, Diaz said: "I think one of the most important ingredients in any open source effort is the end-user community. Mongo has one of the most vibrant and active user groups out there."
Diaz went on to explain that IBM aims to involve other organisations in the project, much in the way as the company has done with the OpenStack project, which he claims now has 10,000 developers.
"We intend to bring together interested parties - app developers, SQL folks etcetera - to figure out what is the best way to evolve this protocol to accelerate the development of these applications that require so many kinds of access to information."
The standard will evolve from the MongoDB query language and API. Using IBM Eclipse tools with IBM Worklight Studio, the company says that developers can now integrate MongoDB APIs for a consistent app development experience from device to the back end.
IBM will also standardise on MongoDB protocols and query language in its in-memory WebSphere eXtreme Scale data grid platform and the DB2 database platform. In a statement the firm said: "customers can begin to use these new features later this summer by pairing eXtreme Scale with MongoDB, and by running their MongoDB applications on DB2 directly."
Max Schireson, 10gen CEO, said: "10gen recognises the importance of open governance models for developing projects for the community. IBM has played a critical role in bringing important new technologies to the enterprise, including inventing the relational database and popularising SQL and Linux. We are excited to collaborate with IBM and other interested parties in evolving the standards for interacting with MongoDB."
