Cassandra: A Distributed and Scalable NoSQL Database – Case Study Time Series

Introduction

Cassandra is a highly scalable NoSQL database designed to handle massive volumes of structured and semi-structured data. Initially developed by Facebook and later released as an open-source project in 2008, Cassandra is now maintained by the Apache Software Foundation. It is used by major companies like Netflix, Apple, and Uber due to its ability to manage enormous workloads with high availability.

Key Features

1. Distributed and Decentralized Architecture
2. Horizontal Scalability
3. High Availability
4. Tunable Consistency
5. CQL (Cassandra Query Language)

Use Cases

• Time-Series Data: Ideal for logs, IoT data, and metrics.
• Messaging Platforms: Used by Discord to handle billions of messages.
• E-Commerce: Manages high-speed transactions and product catalogs.
• Big Data Analytics: Integrates with Apache Spark for real-time analysis.

Pros and Cons

- Pros:

• High write performance
• No single point of failure
• Flexible data schema

- Cons:

• Complex cluster management
• No native support for complex JOINs
• Optimized for specific workloads

Conclusion

Cassandra is an excellent choice for applications requiring scalability, fault tolerance, and low latency. While it requires expertise in distributed systems, it remains one of the most powerful NoSQL databases for enterprise use cases.

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