Learn Cassandra with DataStax Desktop

We're on a mission to make it quick and easy for new users to get started with Apache Cassandra®. For example, last week we released DataStax Astra, delivering a no-operations experience for Cassandra in the cloud, complete with a free tier for prototyping. Today, we are proud to announce DataStax Desktop 2.0.0, with a new, click-button, guided Cassandra experience for users that prefer to tinker on their local machines. With DataStax Desktop, you can also try out DataStax Enterprise, OpsCenter, or Studio — or you can launch an embedded development environment and code with one of several example projects against a live instance of Cassandra.

You may have heard about Cassandra's scalability and high availability attributes or the Cassandra Query Language (CQL) that is used to interact with the database, but nothing beats hands-on experience when you're just getting started. Our goal with this new release of DataStax Desktop is to get you going in minutes with a sample dataset of Netflix shows to explore and an in-app walkthrough of the basics of CQL. 

As you go through the tutorial, you will learn about reading, writing, updating, and deleting data in keyspaces and tables. We provide sample statements, which you can paste into the embedded CQL shell and run right there. Navigate the tutorial in order, or jump around however you like. Run the statements we provide, or make up your own queries to check for true understanding. 

At the end of the tutorial, we provide links to several resources where you can learn more. If you have any questions, or if you just want to post a feature request, visit the Desktop space at DataStax Community!

DataStax Desktop works on Mac, Windows, and Linux. You’ll need to have Docker installed, but Desktop will help you there too. 

With Desktop, you’re just minutes away from interacting with a live Cassandra database running right on your own machine. Why wait? Download DataStax Desktop now and get started!