The Apache Software Foundation — which now oversees more than 150 open source projects — officially launched today version 1.0 of the “Cassandra” NoSQL database.
The highly scalable, distributed database, tailored for cloud computing, handles distributed massive workloads in real time without disrupting systems, ASF notes. It was originally developed at Facebook and made available as open source in 2008. It is released under Apache License 2.
Use of NoSQL databases has risen with the increase in cloud computing. SQL databases continue to serve as the core database management systems for transactional, structured data.
My colleague wrote a nice analysis of Cassandra with the release of version 0.6 in April of 2010.
Today, the ASF provided a list of applications currently using the “Cassandra” NoSQL databases. Here it is, verbatim:
Deployed across an array of applications, from barcode scanning and geospatial databases to storing user account information and activity logs, Apache Cassandra is easily scalable, efficient, and performant, typically handling over 5,000 requests per second per core. Innovative uses of Apache Cassandra include:
- AppScale –- back-end for Google App Engine applications
- Clearspring -– tracking URL sharing and serving over 200 million daily view requests
- Cloudtalk –- creating messaging applications
- Constant Contact –- powering social media marketing applications
- Formspring -– counting/storing social graph data for 26 million accounts with 10 million daily responses
- Mahalo.com -– recording user Q & A activity logs and topics
- Netflix –- streaming services back-end database
- Openwave -– distributed storage mechanism for next generation messaging platform
- OpenX –- storing and replicating advertisements and targeting data for ad delivery over 130 nodes
- Plaxo –- analyzing 3 billion contacts against public data sources and identifying 600 million unique contacts
- RockYou -– recording every single click in real time for 50 million online gaming users
- Urban Airship – mobile service hosting for over 160 million application installs across 80 million unique devices
- Yakaz –- storing millions of images and social data
