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reviewer1419942 - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Database Engineer at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Beneficial zero-copy streaming, high availability, and high performance
Pros and Cons
  • "The most valuable features of Cassandra are the NoSQL database, high performance, and zero-copy streaming."
  • "Cassandra can improve by adding more built-in tools. For example, if you want to do some maintenance activities in the cluster, we have to depend on third-party tools. Having these tools build-in would be e benefit."

What is our primary use case?

Cassandra can be deployed on-premise and in the cloud.

We are storing all our analytics application data in Cassandra.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable features of Cassandra are the NoSQL database, high performance, and zero-copy streaming.

What needs improvement?

Cassandra can improve by adding more built-in tools. For example, if you want to do some maintenance activities in the cluster, we have to depend on third-party tools. Having these tools build-in would be e benefit.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Cassandra for approximately four years.

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What do I think about the stability of the solution?

We have experienced zero downtime using Cassandra. It is highly stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Cassandra allows us to scale the cluster when we have increased loads on the fly which is useful. The scaling can be done easily and quickly, within a few seconds.

We have approximately 40 people using the solution as part of our applications team.

We have more applications coming and we are onboarding different applications with Cassandra. We plan to increase usage.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We used other solutions previously, but we had to switch to Cassandra because we had limitations we could not overcome. Cassandra is a NoSQL database and it's a highly distributed and scalable database and this is why we choose Cassandra.

How was the initial setup?

Cassandra's installation is straightforward. The documentation and very good. We have a lot of automation scripts in place. We were able to implement the solution within a minute, we were able to build the class in the cluster with the right automation in place.  

What about the implementation team?

We do the deployments ourselves. 

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

We are using the open-source version of Cassandra, the solution is free.

What other advice do I have?

I would recommend this solution to others. Cassandra is a highly scalable NoSQL database system where if you have a lot of data, for example, in the millions in volumes of data you can.

I rate Cassandra an eight out of ten.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
reviewer1775388 - PeerSpot reviewer
Chief Technology Officer at a comms service provider with 1-10 employees
Real User
High performance, simple deployment, and good documentation
Pros and Cons
  • "Cassandra has some features that are more useful for specific use cases where you have time series where you have huge amounts of writes. That should be quick, but not specifically the reads. We needed to have quicker reads and writes and this is why we are using Cassandra right now."
  • "The secondary index in Cassandra was a bit problematic and could be improved."

What is most valuable?

Cassandra has some features that are more useful for specific use cases where you have time series where you have huge amounts of writes. That should be quick, but not specifically the reads. We needed to have quicker reads and writes and this is why we are using Cassandra right now.

What needs improvement?

The secondary index in Cassandra was a bit problematic and could be improved.

Cassandra can improve by having an ecosystem integrator that was more complete. For example, in some maintenance operations, we needed to deploy external tools to perform tasks that were not packaged alongside Cassandra.

For how long have I used the solution?

I used Cassandra within the last 12 months.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Cassandra is a stable solution.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

I have found Cassandra to be scalable.

I would recommend Cassandra for larger enterprises. It's not as useful for small or medium enterprises.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I have used other solutions similar to Cassandra, such as Couchbase.

The main differences between Cassandra and Couchbase are, Couchbase is more for general purposes, and it has a smaller latency. Whereas Cassandra is easier to manage with the open-source version in clusters environments.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup of Cassandra was simple. There is a large community that offered a lot of support.

What about the implementation team?

We did not use professional support because it was not necessary. We found all the information we needed from the documentation.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

Cassandra is a free open source solution, but there is a commercial version available called DataStax Enterprise.

If you want technical support, you will need to pay for it.

What other advice do I have?

I rate Cassandra a nine out of ten.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
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Software Engineer at Freelancer
Real User
Growing tool that can be scaled to infinite levels
Pros and Cons
  • "The most valuable features are the counter features and the NoSQL schema. It also has good scalability. You can scale Cassandra to any finite level."
  • "Fine-tuning was a bit of a challenge."

What is our primary use case?

I was working for a client where there was a huge amount of data, where all the networks were intercepted. We used to do analytics on top of it. We did entity profiling. We take data and we use it to build profiles for users. Then we profile how many emails the user is sending. We see his complete profile and his behavioral traits, like what websites he's visiting and his e-commerce activity.

How has it helped my organization?

My client was looking into customer profiles and then doing analytics. I captured the data part and designed the schema. They would do an analysis from that data and would find out potential customers who would buy their product. They would find these things out and then project their marketing and sales to those customers.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable features are the counter features and the NoSQL schema.

It also has good scalability. You can scale Cassandra to any infinite level.

What needs improvement?

For my use case, it was more than sufficient. I used most of the features, whatever was available. I'm not sure what else can be improved.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

We had very new data of almost 10 million people and it was very fast. We also found the scalability and performance side to be very good. It is stable and available. 

During the time it was not stabilized, there were maintenance requirements, but once it was stabilized, we did not have maintenance. Three people are required for maintenance. 

We use it very extensively. Almost a hundred people are using it.

How are customer service and technical support?

We don't have any complaints about technical support. 

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I have worked on GraphQL, MongoDB, and ActiveDays.

You cannot compare a MongoDB with Cassandra. They are very different because MongoDB is more document-oriented and Cassandra is a columnar database. You can compare it to Couchbase but comparing Couchbase to Cassandra is easy because Couchbase requires a lot of infrastructure to deploy and install it. 

How was the initial setup?

We worked on complex scenarios, so the setup was complex. The Cassandra deployments were fine. The cluster and the profiling of the cluster did not take much time. We had some processes in place. It takes around half an hour to an hour. Fine-tuning was a bit of a challenge. 

What other advice do I have?

It's a good tool and it's a growing tool. The support is good. I would definitely recommend it.

I would rate Cassandra a nine out of ten. Nothing is perfect but I believe that continuous improvements are coming.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
VijayKumar16 - PeerSpot reviewer
Global Business Development Executive - Applications, Data & AI Practice at Kyndryl
Real User
A stable and scalable open source NoSQL distributed database, but it could be more user-friendly
Pros and Cons
  • "Cassandra is good. It's better than CouchDB, and we are using it in parallel with CouchDB. Cassandra looks better and is more user-friendly."
  • "Cassandra could be more user-friendly like MongoDB."

What is our primary use case?

We use Cassandra for our applications.

What is most valuable?

Cassandra is good. It's better than CouchDB, and we are using it in parallel with CouchDB. Cassandra looks better and is more user-friendly.

What needs improvement?

Cassandra could be more user-friendly like MongoDB.

For how long have I used the solution?

We have been using Cassandra for about 15 years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Cassandra is stable now.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Cassandra is a scalable solution, and all our developers, about 30 guys, are using it. We might increase thd number of users in the future.

How are customer service and support?

I don't have any issues with technical support.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We were using CouchDB.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is straightforward. 

What about the implementation team?

Our DevOps team implemented this solution.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

We pay for a license. 

What other advice do I have?

I would tell potential users that MongoDB is better than Cassandra. However, it's okay to use cost-wise, etc. It's fine.

On a scale from one to ten, I would give Cassandra a seven. 

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
reviewer1531995 - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Director IP led Services (PES) at a computer software company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Real User
High performance, stable, and straightforward installation
Pros and Cons
  • "Some of the valued features of this solution are it has good performance and failover."
  • "The solution is not easy to use because it is a big database and you have to learn the interface. This is the case though in most of these solutions."

What is our primary use case?

We are using this solution for IoT projects where there is a need for high-performance runtime databases.

What is most valuable?

Some of the valued features of this solution are it has good performance and failover.

What needs improvement?

The solution is not easy to use because it is a big database and you have to learn the interface. This is the case though in most of these solutions.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using the solution for approximately one and a half years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The stability of this solution has been good in my experience.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I have used Druid, Neo4j, and MongoDB previously.

How was the initial setup?

The installation was not difficult. I have my DevOps team of six engineers that does the installation, maintenance, and everything else related to the solution.

What about the implementation team?

We do the implementation of the solution.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

I have also evaluated MongoDB and the performance of this solution is better. Additionally, I prefer this solution to MongoDB because when there is a lot of writing happening, MongoDB is better at reading. It is stable and a fantastic solution, but it does not mean that it fits everywhere.

What other advice do I have?

When it comes to the ease of use of a solution it is not what matters, I do not look at it from this perspective. I am mostly concerned with the performance because as a developer and expert, we do not look at that easy of use we just want it to perform well. Even if it is a little bit complex, it is okay. The performance is the only thing I care about because if you are tech-savvy you should be good enough to write a code and use the function.

I would recommend this solution to others.

I rate Cassandra an eight out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Hybrid Cloud
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
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Senior Data Architect Manager at Unifonic
Consultant
Great for availability and consistency
Pros and Cons
  • "A consistent solution."
  • "Doesn't support a solution that can give aggregation."

What is our primary use case?

We deploy this solution on-prem and on the cloud. I'm a senior data architect manager.

What is most valuable?

If you need availability and consistency, you can go with Cassandra. 

What needs improvement?

If you have a requirement of aggregation and joints, Cassandra doesn't support a solution that can give the aggregation. If they were to include these two areas, the aggregation and the complex joints, it would improve the solution a great deal. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The solution is scalable. 

How are customer service and support?

We now have a lot of regulatory compliance in the Middle East and they try to keep things local, including customer support. Most companies use the community version and not the enterprise solution.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is generally straightforward and not overly complex. You can also look on Google and various YouTube clips for information on the setup. 

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

In the UAE or in the Gulf region, you're required to buy from a local vendor so prices will vary from vendor to vendor and region to region. We have a monthly license and you can generally bargain for a better price.

What other advice do I have?

It's important to have a data architect or consultant on hand who knows the technology and can judge whether it's a suitable product for the use case. 

I rate this solution eight out of 10. 

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Consultant
PeerSpot user
DevOps, Big-Data Architect at NetAngelS
MSP
Works well, good understanding of GBL and has good database capabilities
Pros and Cons
  • "The solution's database capabilities are very good."
  • "The disc space is lacking. You need to free it up as you are working."

What is our primary use case?

We've used Cassandra in the past to design a right-node read-less ideology. We mainly use it for its database capabilities.

What is most valuable?

Right now, the solution is working very well.

Cassandra has a very good understanding of GBL, and how to cure GBL in time. The biggest problem is always with GBL in terms of understanding the drives' collector and making them work perfectly. Cassandra addresses this very well.

The solution's database capabilities are very good.

What needs improvement?

We actually find HBase to be faster and better than Cassandra.

The disc space is lacking. You need to free it up as you are working.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have about ten years of experience working with the solution.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We have some experience with HBase, which we find to be a faster solution.

What other advice do I have?

My first Cassandra project was with a project introduced to us by Facebook. That was ten years ago. There was a time I tried using it a couple of months ago, and I completed the project for Upwork for Cassandra. Right now, I have another project which is using a Cassandra cluster which is under my management. Previously, I had quite a big Cassandra cluster of about 100 nodes and about 500 terabytes of data.

Overall, I would rate the solution nine out of ten.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
PeerSpot user
Database Developer at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Can achieve continuous data without a single downtime because of node to node ring architecture
Pros and Cons
  • "Can achieve continuous data without a single downtime because of node to node ring architecture."
  • "I am getting much better performance than relational databases."
  • "Maybe they can improve their performance in data fetching from a high volume of data sets."

What is our primary use case?

I designed a product catalog data model in Cassandra according to their features and properties, loading millions of data and performing the required queries over it. 

Now, I am getting much better performance than relational databases.

What is most valuable?

Here are some features which have been really helpful in my organisation:

  • High Avaialability
  • No downtime
  • Better performance
  • Greater scalability.

HA is one of the great features of Cassandra with no downtime, e.g., you can achieve continuous data without a single downtime because of node to node ring architecture.

What needs improvement?

Maybe they can improve their performance in data fetching from a high volume of data sets. 

For how long have I used the solution?

One to three years.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

I had to compare Cassandra with MongoDB. MongoDB is much better in data fetching than Cassandra.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user