At its DataStax Accelerate user conference, DataStax, the company behind the leading database built on Apache Cassandra, today announced DataStax Constellation, a cloud data platform that will simplify the development and operation of modern applications. Constellation will launch later this year with two cloud services: DataStax Apache Cassandra as a Service and DataStax Insights. DataStax Apache Cassandra as a Service will deliver easy scale-up and scale-down Cassandra clusters, on consumption-based pricing, which is backed by the stability and performance enhancements of DataStax Enterprise. 

DataStax will give an early hands-on preview of Constellation to more than 300 developers during its Accelerate user conference bootcamp. DataStax CEO Billy Bosworth will also preview Constellation in his keynote, "Accelerating Development in a Cloud World," on Wednesday, May 22 at 9:00-10:45 a.m. ET, which will be available via live stream.

"DataStax has created a bold vision that radically simplifies how data is managed and how modern applications are built. Today's news is the first step on our journey to making that vision a reality," said DataStax CEO Billy Bosworth. "DataStax Constellation makes building modern applications easier for developers and IT teams by reducing the complexity associated with every aspect of purchasing, development, and operations. Because Constellation is cloud native and fully compatible with DataStax Enterprise and Apache Cassandra, application architectures can easily span on-prem, hybrid, or multi-cloud. This frees businesses to choose whatever infrastructure is right for them."

"Companies seeking agility are attracted to the ease of deployment and elastic scalability of cloud services, but most firms also don't want to give up the flexibility of having hybrid and multi-cloud deployment options," said Doug Henschen, VP and principal analyst at Constellation Research. "Constellation Research sees keen interest in options that combine push-button ease of management with flexibility and choice when it comes to deployment options."

DataStax Constellation, Cloud Data Platform

DataStax Constellation is a cloud-native platform that will deliver the services needed to build, deploy, and manage modern applications. Constellation is an entirely new engineering cloud service that makes it easy to access all your data needs from a single cloud console. 

DataStax Apache Cassandra as a Service

The first service available will be DataStax Apache Cassandra as a Service, a net-new DataStax product. DataStax Apache Cassandra as a Service goes far beyond hosted Apache Cassandra, providing users with a frictionless, cloud-native experience with the resiliency and reliability that customers expect from DataStax. DataStax Apache Cassandra as a Service simplifies and accelerates everything related to getting a modern application deployed-from provisioning to configuration and automated backups of a Cassandra database, to an integrated development console and customized application drivers. DataStax has optimized every aspect of the database's operation so that the tuning and configuration one traditionally associates with Cassandra or any other complex, distributed database is automatically handled for the customer. Additionally, DataStax Apache Cassandra as a Service is built for compatibility with the entire DataStax and Apache Cassandra ecosystem, making it push-button easy to migrate on-premises applications to the cloud and removing any risk of vendor lock-in. 

DataStax Insights

DataStax Insights is a next-generation performance management and monitoring tool for DataStax Constellation and DataStax Enterprise. Insights is built from the ground up to optimize on-premises and cloud deployments with intelligence that allows novices to tune their clusters like seasoned professionals. It includes:

• Recommendation Insights - Leverages artificial intelligence (AI) to identify and provide recommendations that solve cluster issues. 
• Application Insights - Provides a comprehensive view of the customer's Cassandra data models, driver connections, and slow queries. Highlights the anti-patterns that likely degrade application responsiveness and require immediate attention.
• Performance Insights - Identifies the performance bottlenecks in a cluster and pinpoints the most problematic data centers, nodes, and partitions.
  

The initial offering of Insights will support DataStax Apache Cassandra as a Service as well as DataStax Enterprise on-prem and in the cloud, followed by support for DataStax Distribution of Apache Cassandra on-prem and in the cloud at a later time.

Early Access Program

DataStax will be running an early access program this summer. To stay informed about the launch of Constellation or sign up for the early access program, please go here.

Availability

DataStax plans to make Constellation, Insights, and DataStax Apache Cassandra as a Service available on Google Cloud Platform in Q4 2019; Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure will follow.