The fourth annual Azure Cosmos DB Conf, held on April 16, 2024, was an exciting event for developers, product managers and C-Suite executives focused on the cutting-edge of cloud data management and AI-driven applications. Featuring a comprehensive lineup of talks and discussions, the conference provided first-hand insights into leveraging Azure Cosmos DB for building the next generation of AI applications.
Having a great guide to navigate the show is always helpful, but in our case we had two!. The event hosts, Estefani Arroyo and Tara Bhatia, kept the audience engaged, enriching the conference with real-time interactions and comments pulled from social media and live YouTube chat streams.
Keynote
Led by Kirill Gavrylyuk, VP of Azure Cosmos DB, the conference kicked off with a special opening keynote that not only spotlighted new features and advancements in Azure Cosmos DB but also showcased how companies like TomTom and Mastercard are using these capabilities to drive significant business innovation and outcomes.
Building an AI automotive assistant with TomTom
During the keynote, Kirill invited Massimiliano Ungheretti, Staff Data Scientist at TomTom, to discuss TomTom’s use of generative AI for their automotive in-car driving experience. Massi shared how TomTom has leveraged Azure Cosmos DB to develop the TomTom Digital Cockpit, an in-vehicle assistant that integrates seamlessly with vehicle infotainment and navigation systems, enabling natural voice interactions that enhance the driving experience.
TomTom is using Azure Cosmos DB to manage the extensive data involved in this project. Azure Cosmos DB provides a flexible, scalable solution that can handle the rapid prototyping and iteration necessary for developing AI-driven applications. For TomTom, Azure Cosmos DB provides the necessary performance and capabilities to manage conversation history, essential for the functionality of the voice assistant, and ensuring context-aware interactions that resemble human conversation.
The discussion also touched on the broader impact of generative AI on programming paradigms, suggesting a shift from traditional coding to more dynamic, language-based development processes. This shift is particularly relevant in the context of AI applications, where the ability to iterate quickly and efficiently is paramount.
Fighting financial fraud at Mastercard with Azure Cosmos DB
Siddique Hamid, VP of Software Engineering, and Neeraj Javia, Director of Software Engineering, at Mastercard shared their insights on using Azure Cosmos DB for their Consumer Clarity platform. This platform plays a crucial role in connecting banks and merchants and providing detailed transaction data to minimize credit card disputes and enhance fraud prevention .
Siddique explained how the platform handles complex, data-intensive operations that must execute within fractions of a second to meet strict service level agreements (SLAs) with customers. The ability of Azure Cosmos DB to support high throughput and maintain high availability makes it an ideal choice for Mastercard’s needs, according to Siddique, particularly in their efforts to detect and prevent fraud effectively.
Neeraj highlighted the technical requirements of their system, which demands reliable performance and scalability across multiple regions. Azure Cosmos DB’s global distribution and multi-region replication capabilities ensure that the Consumer Clarity platform can deliver consistent, quick responses to users worldwide, which is critical for maintaining Mastercard’s reputation for security and reliability.
Azure Cosmos DB Conf Highlights
Generative AI and the Next Generation of Intelligent Applications
The conference featured a variety of sessions aimed at both seasoned developers and newcomers. For instance, James Codella of Microsoft delivered an insightful session titled “Building Generative AI Apps with Azure Cosmos DB.” The session was rich with demonstrations, showcasing how Azure Cosmos DB can be utilized to enhance Generative AI applications. James highlighted the use of vector search for Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG), crucial for efficiently retrieving relevant data. He also covered how Azure Cosmos DB handles chat histories and implements semantic caching, critical for maintaining context in AI interactions. Furthermore, James demonstrated the integration with popular orchestration tools like Semantic Kernel and LangChain, underlining Azure Cosmos DB’s adaptability and robust capabilities in supporting complex AI functionalities.
Another standout session was ” NoSQL, YesCosmos: Build that Eventually Consistent Application using Azure Cosmos DB,” presented by Sr. Lead Cloud Engineer Teena Idnani from JP Morgan Chase. It focused on the principles of building applications with eventual consistency, providing a deep dive into the design strategies and performance optimizations for using Azure Cosmos DB in large-scale, distributed environments.
Handling Rapid Growth with Azure Cosmos DB
Karlo Zatylny, CTO of Portnox Security, led a compelling session titled “Turning Growing Pains to Growing Wins with Azure Cosmos DB” where he spoke about the challenges and solutions associated with scaling cloud-native applications rapidly. Karlo shared how Portnox managed to triple its scale within a year by utilizing Azure Cosmos DB. The session detailed the methodologies and tools employed to address scale issues effectively, including strategies for optimizing container management and caching techniques.
Exploring Azure Cosmos DB as a Vector Database
Microsoft MVP Michael John Pena of Playtime Solutions presented “Azure Cosmos DB as a Vector Database.” This session explored the advanced capabilities of Azure Cosmos DB in managing large-scale vector data, highlighting its low-latency, high-throughput, and global distribution features. Michael provided a comprehensive walkthrough on setting up Azure Cosmos DB as a vector database, including data loading and query execution.
Innovative use cases and customer stories
Several customer stories were also spotlighted, including Rishi Gupta’s testimonial on why JetBlue opted for Azure Cosmos DB. Rishi emphasized the database service response times and vector database support as key deciding factors.
Michal Calvin, CTO of Kinectify, shared how his team uses Azure Cosmos DB and Azure AI services to combat financial crime in the gaming industry. He explored the intersection of data management and regulatory compliance, illustrating how Azure’s technologies are instrumental in sensitive, high-stakes environments.
Chief Software Architect Craig Courtney and CTO Debasish Biswas from Aware led a session on “Efficient Data Processing with Azure Cosmos DB.” They explored how Aware leverages Azure Cosmos DB to manage vast streams of messages within their AI/ML-driven data ingestion and enrichment pipeline. The session emphasized the implementation of Kubernetes KEDA auto-scalers, Azure Cosmos DB partitioning, and throughput auto-scaling to enhance performance and efficiency. Additionally, they discussed the use of Azure Cosmos DB change feeds for dynamic data management and shared strategies for optimizing costs in a high-volume data environment.
Closing thoughts
Azure Cosmos DB Conf 2024 highlighted how Azure Cosmos DB is being used to build the applications of today and tomorrow, with a focus on generative AI apps that are transforming customer and developer experiences. The conference, as every year, also fostered a sense of community among Azure Cosmos DB developers and those looking to take their apps to the next level with Azure cloud-scale data. The event demonstrated Microsoft’s commitment to continuously evolving its services to meet the demands of modern application development in the era of AI.
For those who missed the live event, all sessions are available on-demand at Azure Cosmos DB Conference Videos.
Watch our video highlight reel to catch up on the key moments from this year’s conference: Azure Cosmos DB Conf 2024 Highlights.
Join us next year for another exciting chapter in cloud data management and AI innovation at Azure Cosmos DB Conf 2025!
About Azure Cosmos DBÂ
Azure Cosmos DB is a fully managed and serverless distributed database for modern app development, with SLA-backed speed and availability, automatic and instant scalability, and support for open-source PostgreSQL, MongoDB, and Apache Cassandra. Try Azure Cosmos DB for free here. To stay in the loop on Azure Cosmos DB updates, follow us on X, YouTube, and LinkedIn.
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