How to Keep Your DBAs Happy

When it comes to Apache Cassandra®, many database administrators (DBAs) face the same problem. They need to use this powerful NoSQL database to take advantage of its masterless architecture, high availability, and linear scalability. But at the same time, many of the developers they manage don’t take the time to learn the technology and end up making bad implementation decisions—which the DBA then ends up having to solve.

An easy way to keep your DBA happy is by making sure your developers understand how to approach data modeling and app development correctly using Cassandra.

We might be a bit biased, but we think the easiest way to do that is by encouraging your devs to attend one of our upcoming workshops:

 

What to expect at a Cassandra Developer Workshop

Thinking about coming to one of these events? Here’s what you can expect.

We’ll set up an environment for you, and you can create a database in Apollo. Within an hour, you’ll be writing code, with exercises in your choice of programming language: Java, Node.js, and Python. 

While a three-hour overview won’t give you the skills you need to be an admin of a Cassandra cluster, you’ll learn the ropes—i.e., what you need to know to keep your DBA happy.

More specifically, event attendees will learn:

• What lightweight transactions (LWT) in Cassandra are, when to use them, and when to avoid them
• Why you should avoid inserting nulls in Cassandra (hint: null is not the same thing as nothing; it’s another state that adds cruft to your database, giving it more work to do)
• Why batches in Cassandra probably don’t mean what you suspect they might; while batches might be awesome in the world of relational databases, they are not for bulk loading in Cassandra and can actually end up knocking nodes offline or resulting in partial inserts (e.g., a read that reads half of the batch)

Whether your goal is increasing developer productivity in Cassandra, keeping your database administrators happy, or just figuring out how to deliver the best applications to your users, there’s a lot to gain from attending one of our developer workshops. Even if you know a little bit about Cassandra, your time will be well-spent as a good refresher.

We’re also exploring other venues because we want to take these workshops everywhere our users are. If you can’t make it to any of these events, follow @DataStax and @DataStaxDevs to see when we’ll be in your neck of the woods.

In the meantime, learn more about our upcoming workshops in New York City, London, Paris, and Austin, led by our advocate team (including me). You might also want to listen to this podcast to learn more about the specific pain points DBAs are facing with Cassandra—and what you can do to solve them.

See you soon!