High-performance, super-robust Big Data distributed database introduces support for dense clusters, simplifies application modeling, and improves data cell storage, design, and representation.

Forest Hill, MD –2 January 2013– The Apache Software Foundation (ASF), the all-volunteer developers, stewards, and incubators of nearly 150 Open Source projects and initiatives, today announced Apache Cassandra v1.2, the latest version of the highly-scalable, fault-tolerant, Big Data distributed database.

Successfully handling thousands of requests per second, Apache Cassandra powers massive data sets quickly and reliably without compromising performance –whether running in the Cloud or partially on-premise in a hybrid data store. Apache Cassandra is successfully used by an array of organizations that include Adobe, Appscale, Appssavvy, Backupify, Cisco, Clearspring, Cloudtalk, Constant Contact, DataStax, Digg, Digital River, Disney, eBay, Easou, Formspring, Hailo, Hobsons, IBM, Mahalo.com, Morningstar, Netflix, Openwave, OpenX, Palantir, PBS, Plaxo, Rackspace, Reddit, RockYou, Shazam, SimpleGeo, Spotify, Thomson-Reuters, Twitter, Urban Airship, US Government, Walmart Labs, Williams-Sonoma, Inc., and Yakaz.

"We are pleased to announce Cassandra 1.2," said Jonathan Ellis, Vice President of Apache Cassandra. "By improving support for dense clusters —powering multiple terabytes per node— as well as simplifying application modeling, and improving data cell storage/design/representation, systems are able to effortlessly scale petabytes of data."

Highlights for the second generation high-performance, NoSQL database includes clustering across virtual nodes, inter-node communication, atomic batches, and request tracing. In addition, Cassandra v1.2 also marks the release of CQL3 (version 3 of the Cassandra Query Language), to simplify application modeling, allow for more powerful mapping, and alleviate design limitations through more natural representation.

"We are really excited to begin taking advantage of all the new features Apache Cassandra v1.2 has to offer – particularly virtual nodes and atomic batches. Both of these new features will play a central role in future enhancements to our architecture," said Ed Anuff, VP, Mobile Platform at Apigee.

"It's great to see the core of Apache Cassandra continue to evolve," said independent software developer Kelly Sommers. "In Cassandra v1.2 the introduction of vnodes will simplify managing clusters while improving performance when adding and rebuilding nodes. v1.2 also includes many new features, performance improvements and further heap reduction to eleviate the burden on the JVM garbage collector."

"The much anticipated release of Cassandra 1.2 brings with it features that simplify application development. Atomic batches provide a mechanism for developers to ensure transactional integrity across a business process, instead of relying on idempotent operations and retry mechanisms," said Brian O’Neill, Lead Architect at Health Market Science. "Additionally, native support for collections is attractive and a compelling reason to explore CQL 3."

"Apache Cassandra continues to be a leading option for scalability and high availability without compromising performance and, with the improvements provided in v1.2, reinforces our commitment to growth while preserving backwards compatibility," added Ellis.

Availability and Oversight
As with all Apache products, Apache Cassandra v1.2 is released under the Apache License v2.0, and is overseen by a self-selected team of active contributors to the project. A Project Management Committee (PMC) guides the Project’s day-to-day operations, including community development and product releases. Apache Cassandra source code, documentation, and related resources are available at http://cassandra.apache.org/.

About The Apache Software Foundation (ASF)
Established in 1999, the all-volunteer Foundation oversees nearly one hundred fifty leading Open Source projects, including Apache HTTP Server — the world’s most popular Web server software. Through the ASF's meritocratic process known as "The Apache Way," more than 400 individual Members and 3,500 Committers successfully collaborate to develop freely available enterprise-grade software, benefiting millions of users worldwide: thousands of software solutions are distributed under the Apache License; and the community actively participates in ASF mailing lists, mentoring initiatives, and ApacheCon, the Foundation's official user conference, trainings, and expo. The ASF is a US 501(3)(c) not-for-profit charity, funded by individual donations and corporate sponsors including AMD, Basis Technology, Citrix, Cloudera, Facebook, Go Daddy, Google, HP, Hortonworks, Huawei, IBM, InMotion Hosting, Matt Mullenweg, Microsoft, PSW Group, SpringSource/VMware, WANdisco, and Yahoo!. For more information, visit http://www.apache.org/ or follow @TheASF on Twitter.

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Contact:
Sally Khudairi
Vice President
The Apache Software Foundation
pressATapacheDOTorg
+1 617 921 8656