How To Get Started with NoSQL and Apache Cassandra®

DataStax Enterprise (DSE) is built on Apache Cassandra, the distributed database behind a vast array of applications that you likely engage with every day. The open source database powers apps for some of the world’s biggest brands that require zero downtime, high availability, and scaling to accommodate massive data volumes. Cassandra is ideal for applications that demand the highest data resiliency, like ecommerce or IoT apps, where uptime and scale—whether on premises or in the cloud—are essential. 

DSE provides a distributed, highly available, and fault-tolerant data management platform at scale, and with tunable consistency. Leading brands depend on DSE to power their business-critical applications,  including Capital One, Cisco, Comcast, Condé Nast, Delta Airlines, eBay, Macy’s, McDonald’s, Safeway, and Sony. Developing on Cassandra is in demand with more than 40,000 job listings searching for engineers with Cassandra and NoSQL skills on LinkedIn. 

Given the high demands of today’s applications, we believe Cassandra has a bountiful future. But don’t just take our word for it. The 2019 Dice Tech Report found the rewards of learning Cassandra to be greater than others like MongoDB, MySQL, Postgres, Redis, and DynamoDB, and Cassandra placed among the top five technologies to know.

Fast-Track Skills Acquisition: Model. Code. Go. 

Building your apps on Cassandra not only brings resilience for your data, but also the benefits of streamlining performance bottlenecks and simplifying the data management complexity that can come with developing apps for multiple legacy systems and data stores on mainframes or relational database management systems (RDBMS). 

Get started with Cassandra via DataStax Academy, where you can choose a learning path to plot your journey; learn how to develop, administer, or architect with DataStax and Cassandra; or specialize in graph, search, or analytics. Our Academy courses range from walk-throughs to hands-on coding lessons on topics like data modeling, advanced data types, connecting to drivers, replication and consistency, and the best CQL (Cassandra Query Language) or Gremlin commands for your queries.

When you complete a DataStax Academy learning path, you’ll receive a Certificate of Completion—an accomplishment worth sharing on your LinkedIn profile!
 

At DataStax Academy, you can also learn how to use DSE with Apache Kafka, Docker, and Kubernetes, as well as DataStax’s high-performance, pre-built connectors and production Docker images. You can also ramp up on DataStax graph technology for use cases that get you higher value from connected data in real time such as fraud detection, supply chain management, social network analysis, customer analytics, and recommendation engines. 

Connecting the Dots from Relational to NoSQL

The big benefits in shifting from relational to Cassandra include a more elastically scalable and resilient data platform than relational databases and legacy technology—it minimizes time spent on downtime, transforming your data, and modeling complexity. 

“With a conventional database, we’d have to be really in the trenches, or completely re-architecting how we absorb that data. But because we had Apache Cassandra, we knew we’d have to add a few additional nodes to the cluster, at most, and without having to fundamentally re-architect our solution. That Apache Cassandra can scale with us with minimal hiccups is a great relief.”
— Harry Robertson, tech lead at Ooyala

One of the concerns that developers and data engineers often have when bridging the gap from familiar relational concepts like tables and SQL is relating them to NoSQL, CQL, and Cassandra models—but it’s easier than you think. 

Get Started Today

Whether you’re deploying on premises or in the cloud, we’ve made things easier with a few simple steps that can help, and choosing DataStax Enterprise to accelerate your journey with Cassandra is a great place to start. 

We’ve also created a guide that covers all the comparisons, considerations, similarities, and key differences between Cassandra and relational databases:
Getting Started with NoSQL and Apache Cassandra: Accelerating the Transition from Relational to NoSQL

With our new training mantra, “model, code, and go,” tools, and simplified approach to getting started, it’s the right time to sign up for DataStax Academy, pick a learning track, start running DataStax distributed databases, and get certified. 

What are you waiting for? Model. Code. Go.