The open source distributed NoSQL database known as Apache Cassandra has just been updated to version 4.1 by the Apache Cassandra Project, paving the way for a more cloud-native future and allowing a larger ecosystem. The new version, which is a part of Cassandra’s yearly release plan, would make the database easier to use for end users as well as to incorporate important community development demands.
“With an incredibly stable core that was delivered in 4.0, the project is now building on that milestone toward a more cloud native future,” said Mick Semb Wever, Apache Cassandra PMC member. “The latest release emphasizes externalizing important key functions into a pluggable interface, allowing developers to extend Cassandra without altering the stable core code. Organizations using Cassandra can be more selective how each combination of features is deployed and can add a layer of flexibility to future use cases that may not exist today. This includes storage engine choice, security components, schema, and user management. Users of Cassandra will see the decoupled innovation in the ecosystem in the future without the need for a major release of the project.”
4.1 improvements for the Apache Cassandra ecosystem would include the following:
- Pluggable persistent memory providers via new Memtable API
- Paxos v2 improves LWT transaction performance by 50%
- Pluggable external schema manager services
- SSLContext creation pluggable/extensible
4.1 improvements for CQL developers would include:
- Users can now group by time range
- Users can now use CONTAINS and CONTAINS KEY conditions in conditional update
- Users can now use IF EXISTS and IF NOT EXISTS in ALTER statements
4.1 improvements for operators would include:
- Configurable system level guardrails to guide users in scalable use of the database
- Partition denylisting tool for reducing the impact of overloaded partitions
- Improved syntax for cassandra.yaml
- Several new systems tables
- Monitoring of top partitions by size/tombstones
- Improvements to nodetool, backup and restore
4.1 improvements for security posture would include:
- Credentials file support to CQLSH
- Allow to grant permission for all tables in a keyspace
- Support for pre hashed passwords in CQL
- Add support for PEM based key material for SSL
Guardrails, SSTables UUID, Partition Denylist
“What a difference a few years makes! I have many clients who are using Apache Cassandra without doubts about where it’s headed or worries about new features. With the successful release of 4.0 and now 4.1, I like the direction Cassandra is going,” said Gil Ganz, Expert Database Consultant whose clients include Taboola and Monday.com. “I look forward to using new 4.1 features like Guardrails, SSTables UUID, and Partition denylist to deliver a richer and more customizable experience to my customers. Apache Cassandra provides usable solutions to real problems, which is great for companies of all sizes.”
Businesses of various sizes, including Ably, Apple, Backblaze, Bloomberg Engineering, Flant, Home Depot, Instana, Liquibase, Netflix, Target, Yelp, and many of more businesses with sizable, active data sets, would currently employ Apache Cassandra. The project announced a switch to an annual release cycle last year, with releases to be supported for a three-year period, the most recent version being Cassandra 4.1.
