MongoDB Spends $25 Million on Public IPv4 Addresses

MongoDB’s recent earning’s call revealed that they recently spent $25 million on public IPv4 addresses.

Scarcity of IPv4 addresses has put enterprise focused IT companies on notice and they are scrambling to purchase as many as they could to limit unforeseen expenses as well as connectivity problems. Demand for IPv4 addresses will only continue to rise and these businesses don't want to be caught off guard spending more than they should on this precious and limited resource. Better to lock it now and keep it as an asset than spending on it as a liability.

Case in point: MongoDB recently spent $25 million to bulk up their IPv4 addresses inventory. An SaaS (software as service) company specializing in non-sql databases with cross platform compatibility, MongoDB is known for their open source and commercial database support that allows innovation and development with robust backbone for enterprise deployment. That robust backbone that ensures stable and safe deployment for enterprises and other non-commercial purposes also rely on availability of IPv4 addresses and the lack of it only spells additional challenges for the company and their customers.

Company CFO Michael Gordon explains this purchase in their recent earnings call according to The Stack. By locking the price right now, unknown expenses related to their cloud storage and services will be prevented.

AWS Move Highlights Challenges of IPv4 Scarcity

The announcement of MongoDB to invest in IPv4 addresses most certainly was influenced by the latest changes implemented by AWS (Amazon Web Services). In 2023, Amazon announced that their public IPv4 addresses will be $0.005 per hour starting February 1, 2024. While the price is relatively low (around $43.20 per year), it’s still going to be costly in the long run and there’s no indication that the lease per public IPv4 address will go down.

MongoDB made the smart business decision to own IPv4 addresses instead of looking for them when they need it. Aside from owning these IPv4 addresses for their customers, they can also see this as a future asset when needed.

Scarcity of IPv4 Addresses and Challenges of IPv6 Addresses

The scarcity and increasing demand of IPv4 addresses also highlights the challenges related to the implementation of public IPv6 addresses. While free, the requirements in implementing IPv6 addresses will require hardware upgrades and expertise that most just opt to stick to IPv4 addresses. On the other hand, the business of IPv4 addresses is a truly unique IT industry because buying and selling with the use of brokers and experts specific to IPv4 address transactions is now a norm and a highly recommended method of transaction. MongoDB doesn’t want to end up as one of the buyers who may end up scrambling for this precious resource due to lack of planning.