MongoDB drives digital modernization with Contentstack

Founded in 2007, MongoDB first popularized the document database, a developer-friendly database solution that is easy to work with and scale. Since then, MongoDB has expanded into a unified developer data platform that integrates its highly secure, globally distributed operational database with services that empower developers to build modern and generative AI-powered applications that unleash the power of software and data. 

Today, MongoDB is the world’s most popular document database platform, with tens of thousands of customers and millions of developers in over 100 countries. MongoDB also maintains five core websites: MongoDB.com and their developer relations, community, education, and documentation sites. As part of a broader modernization project upgrading the entire mongodb.com tech stack, the business was looking to onboard a unified CMS to replace multiple existing CMSes, some of which were homegrown and none suited the business’s future focus on agility and transformation. 

“Our old systems were difficult to manage, to say the least,” Bill Mitchell, Senior Director of Web Strategy and Technology, said.

Some of the top priorities for MongoDB were modernization and localization. The business was looking for a single platform to build upon and experiment with and easily publish content across multiple regions. 

After a lot of work breaking down requirements, creating scorecards, and evaluating competitors, MongoDB chose Contentstack’s Composable DXP. “We quickly realized that the composable model was the future of CMS applications, and it became clear we needed something tried and true,” Mitchell said. “We were open to doing what was the best for our business, and as many of our internal systems were built in a composable way, I knew our teams would be most comfortable with a composable CMS. Comfort means quicker adoption, and we’ve validated that by seeing how other teams have chosen to adopt Contentstack. If we’d gone with a traditional CMS, our team might have absorbed the learning curve, but other teams probably wouldn’t have made that effort.”

Design freedom was also a big differentiator for MongoDB. “As a company, everything boils down to delivering our customers the resources they need to innovate with MongoDB faster.  That’s why we’re so passionate about our unique designs that bring insightful and engaging experiences to our customers,” Subi Babu, Engineering Lead, said. “There’s a lot of effort put into the user experience, and when it comes to customization, a traditional CMS is a much harder journey. Knowing we had unique designs and UX available made composable the right choice.”

As MongoDB scaled its business to support a growing number of customers worldwide, it determined that its current tech stack and CMSes would not take it where it needed to go. Ultimately, it wanted to replace its technology with a more modern and flexible solution. With Contentstack, that migration can be phased, allowing teams to migrate thousands of pages and develop new content on their timeline. 

The main MongoDB website has more than 250 pages migrated to Contentstack, with the first page in production within three months of onboarding. Due to its less complex content structure, the company’s developer relations website achieved a complete migration within eight weeks. Content teams are now beginning to confidently publish content directly from Contentstack. Looking ahead, the team plans for events, solutions, and product pages to follow suit. 

MongoDB realized immediate value from Contentstack’s Composable DXP and its turnkey integrations. “Coming from an in-house CMS, our background for several years was focused on developing CMS features,” Babu said. “Now, we can use the Marketplace and get plug-and-play integrations, which is exciting. We’re already using Smartling [for language translation and localization], experimenting with BrandFolder [for digital asset management], and down the line, we’re looking to leverage the Optimizely connector [for digital experimentation.]”

MongoDB can build innovative and differentiated web experiences faster without thinking about building in-house or related maintenance. “We’re starting to have conversations about integrations and capabilities, all the things that will allow us to achieve more sophistication when delivering value to internal stakeholders and external users,” Mitchell said. “Our conversations are less about break/fix and maintenance and more about feature strategy and use cases that are far more impactful for our audiences.”

MongoDB can see the impact of Contentstack on development metrics, from front-end rendering and publishing speeds to ease of content tagging and localization. “We can now localize and translate pages without the cumbersome and complex processes we had in the past,” Mitchell said. “Delays in translation are now down to human reviewers rather than the publishing or content extraction processes that used to slow us down. These are important changes for us because the quicker we can get content to market, whether getting new content on a web page or new experiments out in front of customers — the quicker we can see the business value.”

MongoDB is now at the volume migration phase, where they are looking to migrate thousands of pages and fully move over to Contentstack. The business can explore the tools and capabilities deeper and launch new projects such as personalization and automated content tagging using AI capabilities to reduce manual effort. Thanks to the agility and flexibility of a modern tech stack, MongoDB’s story is a prime example of how companies can evolve their business operations with a composable tech stack and easily adapt and react to future industry demands.

Key wins with Contentstack include:

• Content migration: MongoDB has already migrated 250+ pages, with plans to move more than a thousand more. Four MongoDB’s sites are using Contentstack across four different Web development teams.
• Translation/Localization: MongoDB can now publish content to specific language sites, localizing and translating in a fraction of the time. Translated content already serves seven languages.
• Development speed: Post-migration, the website mongodb.com will run several times faster regarding publishing speeds, translation, and maintenance.