Apache Cassandra is one of the world’s most popular databases... but for years was plagued by a somewhat fractured community. DataStax, long a driving force within the Cassandra world, at one time seemed to abdicate its leadership role, apparently leaving the project in disarray.
Except that it didn’t. Didn’t leave, that is, and the project wasn’t in disarray. Not really.
Even as DataStax pulled back a bit in response to criticism from the Apache Software Foundation (ASF), companies that depend on Cassandra like Apple and Netflix stepped up to take on more leadership within the Cassandra community. Today, as we near the Cassandra 4.0 release, there’s an argument to be made that the Cassandra code and community are in better shape than they ever have been, with DataStax once again filling an important role for Cassandra.