Introduction to Apache Cassandra

Traditional relational databases (RDBMSs) were the primary data stores for business applications for 20 years. Then, as the first phase of the Web got under way, new databases (such as Oracle’s MySQL) were introduced that had RDBMS roots, but different feature sets to handle the new data access patterns. Today, another change is required because applications must now scale to levels that were unimaginable just a few years ago. But scaling alone isn’t enough; companies also require that their applications are always available and lightning fast, and this is where RDBMS databases fail. Enter Apache CassandraTM, with a fully distributed architecture that allows for amazing performance at extreme data velocities. As for availability, Cassandra delivers a world where an application can lose an entire datacenter and still perform as if nothing happened. This paper provides a brief overview of Cassandra for people wondering whether Cassandra is right for them and how it uniquely addresses the next phase of growth in the modern database marketplace.

DOWNLOAD WHITE PAPER (.PDF): WP-IntroToCassandra