Defining Deep Data: What It Is and How to Use It
One trend that has been gaining traction in the enterprise is the adoption of the open source Apache Cassandra database as an alternative to traditional relational databases for higher-end transaction processing applications. Part of the so-called NoSQL movement, Cassandra differs from other open source database platforms in that it can support applications that require low-latency database access normally associated with proprietary databases. While the potential cost savings of making the switch to Cassandra is considerable, most IT organizations don’t have much expertise when it comes to deploying and managing it.
To help with that issue, Datapipe, a provider of managed IT services, and DataStax, a provider of a commercially supported instance of Cassandra, jointly announced a managed Cassandra service.
David Lucky, product management team leader for Datapipe, says the service is designed to be either hosted on a private cloud managed by Datapipe or delivered via Amazon Web Services (AWS) or Microsoft Azure public clouds. Most IT organizations are still in the early stages of testing applications running on top of Cassandra, but given the recent acquisition of GoGrid by Datapipe, Lucky says it makes sense to extend the Big Data management services that Datapipe provides to Cassandra.
Of all the NoSQL databases variants, Cassandra clearly represents the biggest potential open source threat to providers of relational databases such as Oracle and IBM. For example, unlike open source databases like MySQL that created a slower relational database alternative, Cassandra can support e-commerce applications running on commodity x86 clusters at scale.
It remains to be seen just how much of a dent Cassandra will make in the enterprise. But, the potential that Cassandra offers in terms of usurping the higher end of the relation database market should not be underestimated.
