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DBMS > Apache Cassandra vs. FoundationDB vs. Google Cloud Spanner

System Properties Comparison Apache Cassandra vs. FoundationDB vs. Google Cloud Spanner

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Editorial information provided by DB-Engines
NameApache Cassandra  Xexclude from comparisonFoundationDB  Xexclude from comparisonGoogle Cloud Spanner  Xexclude from comparison
Created as commercial project in 2013, FoundationDB has been acquired by Apple in March 2015 and was withdrawn from the market. As a consequence, the product was removed from the DB-Engines ranking. In April 2018, Apple open-sourced FoundationDB and it therefore reappears in the ranking.
DescriptionWide-column store based on ideas of BigTable and DynamoDB infoOptimized for write accessOrdered key-value store. Core features are complimented by layers.A horizontally scalable, globally consistent, relational database service. It is the externalization of the core Google database that runs the biggest aspects of Google, like Ads and Google Play.
Primary database modelWide column storeDocument store infosupported via specific layer
Key-value store
Relational DBMS infosupported via specific SQL-layer
Relational DBMS
Secondary database modelsVector DBMS infostarting with release V5
DB-Engines Ranking infomeasures the popularity of database management systemsranking trend
Trend Chart
Score106.65
Rank#11  Overall
#1  Wide column stores
Score0.96
Rank#189  Overall
#32  Document stores
#29  Key-value stores
#86  Relational DBMS
Score2.71
Rank#93  Overall
#50  Relational DBMS
Websitecassandra.apache.orggithub.com/­apple/­foundationdbcloud.google.com/­spanner
Technical documentationcassandra.apache.org/­doc/­latestapple.github.io/­foundationdbcloud.google.com/­spanner/­docs
DeveloperApache Software Foundation infoApache top level project, originally developped by FacebookFoundationDBGoogle
Initial release200820132017
Current release5.0-rc1, July 20246.2.28, November 2020
License infoCommercial or Open SourceOpen Source infoApache version 2Open Source infoApache 2.0commercial
Cloud-based only infoOnly available as a cloud servicenonoyes
DBaaS offerings (sponsored links) infoDatabase as a Service

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Implementation languageJavaC++
Server operating systemsBSD
Linux
OS X
Windows
Linux
OS X
Windows
hosted
Data schemeschema-freeschema-free infosome layers support schemasyes
Typing infopredefined data types such as float or dateyesno infosome layers support typingyes
XML support infoSome form of processing data in XML format, e.g. support for XML data structures, and/or support for XPath, XQuery or XSLT.nono
Secondary indexesrestricted infoonly equality queries, not always the best performing solutionnoyes
SQL infoSupport of SQLSQL-like SELECT, DML and DDL statements (CQL)supported in specific SQL layer onlyyes infoQuery statements complying to ANSI 2011
APIs and other access methodsProprietary protocol infoCQL (Cassandra Query Language, an SQL-like language)
Thrift
gRPC (using protocol buffers) API
JDBC infoAt present, JDBC supports read-only queries. No support for DDL or DML statements.
RESTful HTTP API
Supported programming languagesC#
C++
Clojure
Erlang
Go
Haskell
Java
JavaScript infoNode.js
Perl
PHP
Python
Ruby
Scala
.Net
C
C++
Go
Java
JavaScript infoNode.js
PHP
Python
Ruby
Swift
Go
Java
JavaScript (Node.js)
Python
Server-side scripts infoStored proceduresnoin SQL-layer onlyno
Triggersyesnono
Partitioning methods infoMethods for storing different data on different nodesSharding infono "single point of failure"ShardingSharding
Replication methods infoMethods for redundantly storing data on multiple nodesselectable replication factor infoRepresentation of geographical distribution of servers is possibleyesMulti-source replication with 3 replicas for regional instances.
MapReduce infoOffers an API for user-defined Map/Reduce methodsyesnoyes infousing Google Cloud Dataflow
Consistency concepts infoMethods to ensure consistency in a distributed systemEventual Consistency
Immediate Consistency infocan be individually decided for each write operation
Linearizable consistencyImmediate Consistency
Foreign keys infoReferential integritynoin SQL-layer onlyyes infoby using interleaved tables, this features focuses more on performance improvements than on referential integrity
Transaction concepts infoSupport to ensure data integrity after non-atomic manipulations of datano infoAtomicity and isolation are supported for single operationsACIDACID infoStrict serializable isolation
Concurrency infoSupport for concurrent manipulation of datayesyesyes
Durability infoSupport for making data persistentyesyesyes
In-memory capabilities infoIs there an option to define some or all structures to be held in-memory only.nono
User concepts infoAccess controlAccess rights for users can be defined per objectnoAccess rights for users, groups and roles based on Google Cloud Identity and Access Management (IAM)
More information provided by the system vendor
Apache CassandraFoundationDBGoogle Cloud Spanner
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More resources
Apache CassandraFoundationDBGoogle Cloud Spanner
Recent citations in the news

IBM plans to buy open source Cassandra wrangler DataStax
25 February 2025, The Register

Best practices for running Apache Cassandra with Amazon EBS
8 November 2024, AWS Blog

New Apache Cassandra 5.0 gives open source NoSQL database a scalability and performance boost
6 September 2024, VentureBeat

IBM to buy Cassandra specialist DataStax
25 February 2025, The Stack

Apache Cassandra survey highlights growing adoption for AI workloads
11 November 2024, Blocks and Files

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Apple Acquires Durable Database Company FoundationDB
24 March 2015, TechCrunch

FoundationDB Record Layer: A Multi-Tenant Structured Datastore
25 July 2020, Apple Machine Learning Research

FoundationDB team’s new venture, Antithesis, raises $47M to enhance software testing
13 February 2024, SiliconANGLE News

A Cautionary Open Source Tale, Apple Buys And Shutters FoundationDB
25 March 2015, Forbes

Apple Acquires FoundationDB
24 March 2015, blogs.wsj.com

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Google Cloud Introduces HDD Tier for Spanner Database, Cutting Cold Storage Costs by 80%
22 March 2025, InfoQ.com

Google Cloud Spanner gets dual-region configuration option
23 July 2024, InfoWorld

New features make Google's Spanner a database for AI
1 August 2024, TechTarget

Google Cloud expands its database portfolio with new AI capabilities
1 August 2024, TechCrunch

Google's Cloud Spanner Now Spans Continents … Like It's Supposed to Do
31 May 2024, Data Center Knowledge

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