At MongoDB.local Milano 2025, I discussed how data modeling changes when applications, not databases, become the primary design constraint.
The session focused on practical modeling patterns in MongoDB, starting from real application requirements rather than abstract schemas. We explored how document models evolve from access patterns, domain boundaries, and workload characteristics, and why modeling decisions must be revisited as systems grow, integrate, and scale.
Rather than treating data models as static artifacts, the talk emphasized modeling as an iterative design process, tightly coupled with application behavior, performance expectations, and operational realities.
The examples presented were drawn from real production scenarios, highlighting common trade-offs around embedding versus referencing, data duplication, consistency boundaries, and schema evolution in long-lived systems.
The recording of the session is available below.
Watch the recorded talk on YouTube (English subtitles available via auto-translate) .
Newsletter
Get the next essay before it goes out anywhere else.
New essays and each new field guide, by email. Free, no ads, one-click unsubscribe.
Field guides only? Choose your list.
-
Essay · Technology CultureWill AI Replace Programmers? What Three Waves of Automation Taught Me
No, and yes. AI will not replace the programmer; it is replacing most of what programmers spent their day typing. I have watched this happen twice before, at IBM and in the cloud years. Here is what changed each time, and what to do now.
-
Explainer · Data & AI
What Is an AI Agent, Really? Agentic AI Explained Beyond the Buzzword
An AI agent is software that pursues a goal by deciding, acting through tools and checking the result, in a loop. Most of what is sold as agentic AI is not that. Here is the test, and what makes agents work in production.
-
Essay · Data & AI
12 Books on Data and Power
Twelve books, eleven from Wired’s seasonal thirty plus one of my own, on how compute, data and the state became one conversation.
-
Essay · Technology Culture
Ocarina of Time Remake: Nintendo Is in the Memory Business
The remake lands on Switch 2 as a rapturous review and a holiday-quarter bet. Nintendo’s real product is a memory, re-embodied and resold.
