Apache Cassandra / Data Modeling

SlideShare: http://www.slideshare.net/JonHaddad/crash-course-intro-to-cassandra

This is a crash course in the Cassandra storage model. We will start with how data is laid out on disk to understand why it's fast for real time workloads, and finish with an introduction to CQL, which we'll use to query Cassandra. If you have not used Cassandra previously this will bring you up to speed for the talks that follow throughout the day.

Jon Haddad is an Apahce Cassandra Evangelist at DataStax; prior to DataStax, he worked as a Senior Architect at SHIFT and is one of the maintainers of CQLengine. Jon has spent the last decade at various startups in the LA area. His previous projects include Answerbag.com and Livestrong.com.

Slides: http://www.slideshare.net/planetcassandra/cassandra-20-introduction-use-cases-29122759

Abstract
Patrick McFadin (@PatrickMcFadin), Chief Evangelist for Apache Cassandra at DataStax, will be presenting an introduction to Cassandra as a key player in database technologies. Both large and small companies alike chose Apache Cassandra as their database solution and Patrick will be presenting on why they made that choice.

Patrick will also be discussing Cassandra's architecture, including: data modeling, time-series storage and replication strategies, providing a holistic overview of how Cassandra works and the best way to get started.

About Patrick McFadin
Prior to working for DataStax, Patrick was the Chief Architect at Hobsons, an education services company. His responsibilities included ensuring product availability and scaling for all higher education products. Prior to this position, he was the Director of Engineering at Hobsons which he came to after they acquired his company, Link-11 Systems, a software services company. While at Link-11 Systems, he built the first widely popular CRM system for universities, Connect. He obtained a BS in Computer Engineering from Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo and holds the distinction of being the only recipient of a medal (asanyone can find out) for hacking while serving in the US Navy.

CQL3 is the newly ordained, canonical, and best-practices means of interacting with Cassandra. Indeed, the Apache Cassandra documentation itself declares that the Thrift API as "legacy" and recommends that CQL3 be used instead. But I've heard several people express their concern over the added layer of abstraction. There seems to be an uncertainty about what's really happening inside of Cassandra.

In this presentation we will open up the hood and take a look at exactly how Cassandra is treating CQL3 queries. Our first stop will be the Cassandra data structure itself. We will briefly review the concepts of keyspaces, columnfamilies, rows, and columns. And we will explain where this data structure excels and where it does not. Composite rowkeys and columnnames are heavily used with CQL3, so we'll cover their functionality as well.

We will then turn to CQL3. I will demonstrate the basic CQL syntax and show how it maps to the underlying data structure. We will see that CQL actually serves as a sort of best practices interface to the internal Cassandra data structure. We will take this point further by demonstrating CQL3 collections (set, list, and map) and showing how they are really just a creative use of this same internal data structure.

Attendees will leave with a clear, inside-out understanding of CQL3 and will be able use CQL with a confidence that they are following best-practices.

Speaker: Patrick McFadin, Chief Evangelist at DataStax
Slides: http://www.slideshare.net/planetcassandra/c-summit-eu-2013-apache-cassandra-20-data-model-on-fire
Functional data models are great, but how can you squeeze out more performance and make them awesome! Let's talk through some example Cassandra 2.0 models, go through the tuning steps and understand the tradeoffs. Many time's just a simple understanding of the underlying Cassandra 2.0 internals can make all the difference. I've helped some of the biggest companies in the world do this and I can help you. Do you feel the need for Cassandra 2.0 speed?

You know you need Cassandra for it's uptime and scaling, but what about that data model? Let's bridge that gap and get you building your game changing app. We'll break down topics like storing objects and indexing for fast retrieval. You will see by understanding a few things about Cassandra internals, you can put your data model in the spotlight. The goal of this talk is to get you comfortable working with data in Cassandra throughout the application lifecycle. What are you waiting for? The cameras are waiting!

Speaker: Tim Moreton, CTO at Acunu Ltd
Slides: http://www.slideshare.net/planetcassandra/tim-moreton
Data modeling for Cassandra presents a new set of challenges, especially for developers with a background in relational data modeling. And there are added complexities in modeling for analytic applications which need to enable statistical functions over the data, but a good data model, exploiting Cassandra's strengths, can make all the difference to a successful project. This tutorial will examine a number of real-world customer data modeling examples and draw out some hints and tips that will benefit hnot just the Cassandra newbie, but also the more experienced data modeler.

Speaker: Patrick McFadin, Principal Solutions Architect at DataStax
Slides: http://www.slideshare.net/planetcassandra/c-summit-2013-the-worlds-next-top-data-model-by-patrick-mcfadin
You know you need Cassandra for it's uptime and scaling, but what about that data model? Let's bridge that gap and get you building your game changing app. We'll break down topics like storing objects and indexing for fast retrieval. You will see by understanding a few things about Cassandra internals, you can put your data model in the spotlight. The goal of this talk is to get you comfortable working with data in Cassandra throughout the application lifecycle. What are you waiting for? The cameras are waiting!