MongoDB .Local London - The .NET Developer’s Guide to Mastering the MongoDB Document Model
Talk Title
The .NET Developer’s Guide to Mastering the MongoDB Document Model
Talk Description
This podcast covered Kevin Smith’s experience using MongoDB with C#/.NET, drawing on real examples from Exizent’s bereavement software platform. It focused on why MongoDB works well for complex, polymorphic data models, how large nested case structures can be stored as single root documents, and why that can be more natural than forcing the same problem into a heavily normalized relational model with many tables. It also explored how .NET teams can use the MongoDB Entity Framework provider to get started quickly, then drop down to the native driver when they need more control or performance.
Listeners would come away with a practical understanding of how MongoDB fits into modern C# application development, especially for teams moving from SQL Server and traditional ORM patterns. The conversation also touched on agentic systems and AI tooling in the .NET ecosystem, including Semantic Kernel, GitHub Copilot integrations, vector search, and hybrid search in MongoDB. Beyond the technical stack, Kevin also shared perspective from running long-standing .NET user groups in Sheffield and York, giving the episode a community angle as well as a hands-on engineering one.