What is DataStax Accelerate Bootcamp and Why Should I Attend?

As developers, knowledge is the main thing that holds us back.  The phrase “the more you know” has never been truer. From learning new languages and technologies to better understanding the theory around them, we must expand our knowledge base in order to stay relevant in today's industry.  There are many classes we can take and blogs we can read, but nothing ever comes close to real, hands-on experience working with new technologies. Given the overwhelming demand, bootcamps and hands-on instruction are in short supply.

So Why This Bootcamp

Distilled from the brains of people who made DataStax Academy, the DataStax Accelerate Bootcamp is an opportunity to propel yourself one step further.  They have created a hands-on, guided experience to foster the skills necessary for mastery of one of today's hottest technologies.  

The material has been constructed and tested to provide massive value for your time.  It doesn’t matter if you’re an experienced devops professional, or someone who just started coding, there is useful knowledge for everyone.  Bootcamp will take you from first-launch to building a working video-sharing application.

If you are someone who thrives by learning or simply wants to get hands-on with cutting edge tech, then have no fear, Stax the Superhero is here bringing you the fresh off the press DataStax Accelerate Bootcamp.  

My History: Cristina Veale, Developer Advocate

I have been in web development for four years. Starting off as an eager developer,  I found it difficult to make solid strides without first learning programming fundamentals.  Two key players to this being data types and functions. So I threw myself into the world of functions (methods), yet understanding data types (object of study) and their importance was something I ignored for far too long.

Last December, I resolved to challenge myself professionally by entering into a subset of a technology that I had little experience in -- distributed databases. After taking on a new role as a Developer Advocate with DataStax, my knowledge of all-things-data was about to be mind.blown.

What I’ve gathered from my learning thus far is that Apache Cassandra seems to be rapidly trending in corporate America. Netflix, GitHub, Reddit, Instagram, eBay, even The Weather Channel, all use Cassandra!

As a top product in the NoSQL database category, trying to learn more about this database means you’re on the right path. You’ve probably combed over the Cassandra docs, various YouTube tutorials, and DataStax Academy, all trying to learn more on the subject.

Accelerate into the Matrix

As a visual learner, the YouTube and DataStax Academy videos continue to be my go-to resources. However, nothing seemed to “click” more for me until I participated in a dry run of DataStax Accelerate Bootcamp. From one DB noob to another -- going from online courses to Bootcamp is like plugging into the Matrix.

Yup. That’s me, feelin’ all Neo-like. I had gone from a capable frontend developer to a humble database peasant, but I was okay with it because I was able to get real-time feedback from actual human beings. For me, the best part about Bootcamp was how easy it was to spin up a cluster and implement it in our Java application. I wish I could tell you more about why it was so easy, but hey, everyone loves a little mystery right?

Speaking of Java (being a complete noob at that too), it wasn’t as intimidating as I thought it’d be. Our instructors, Jamie and Steve, were great not only at making sure we paid attention (thanks to Jamie’s booming voice and Steve’s quips toward Jamie), but for the last ten years these guys have taught Computer Science together--translating to an overall fun and comprehensive learning experience. No fussing over setting up our dev environments. Che, a browser-based version of the popular Eclipse IDE, was the perfect environment to accelerate us into coding our KillrVideo application.

Regardless of whether you’re a complete novice or the spawn of Stax, the Accelerate Bootcamp does an excellent job at catering to your level of expertise.