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DBMS > Apache Cassandra vs. Microsoft SQL Server vs. ScyllaDB

System Properties Comparison Apache Cassandra vs. Microsoft SQL Server vs. ScyllaDB

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Editorial information provided by DB-Engines
NameApache Cassandra  Xexclude from comparisonMicrosoft SQL Server  Xexclude from comparisonScyllaDB  Xexclude from comparison
DescriptionWide-column store based on ideas of BigTable and DynamoDB infoOptimized for write accessMicrosofts flagship relational DBMSCassandra and DynamoDB compatible wide column store
Primary database modelWide column storeRelational DBMSWide column store
Secondary database modelsVector DBMS infostarting with release V5Document store
Graph DBMS
Spatial DBMS
Key-value store
DB-Engines Ranking infomeasures the popularity of database management systemsranking trend
Trend Chart
Score108.05
Rank#11  Overall
#1  Wide column stores
Score774.89
Rank#3  Overall
#3  Relational DBMS
Score3.70
Rank#69  Overall
#5  Wide column stores
Websitecassandra.apache.orgwww.microsoft.com/­en-us/­sql-serverwww.scylladb.com
Technical documentationcassandra.apache.org/­doc/­latestlearn.microsoft.com/­en-US/­sql/­sql-serverdocs.scylladb.com
DeveloperApache Software Foundation infoApache top level project, originally developped by FacebookMicrosoftScyllaDB
Initial release200819892015
Current release5.0-rc1, July 2024SQL Server 2022, November 2022ScyllaDB Open Source 6.2.0, October 2024
License infoCommercial or Open SourceOpen Source infoApache version 2commercial inforestricted free version is availableOpen Source infoOpen Source (AGPL), commercial license available
Cloud-based only infoOnly available as a cloud servicenonono
DBaaS offerings (sponsored links) infoDatabase as a Service

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Implementation languageJavaC++C++
Server operating systemsBSD
Linux
OS X
Windows
Linux
Windows
Linux
Data schemeschema-freeyesschema-free
Typing infopredefined data types such as float or dateyesyesyes
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.noyesno
Secondary indexesrestricted infoonly equality queries, not always the best performing solutionyesyes infocluster global secondary indices
SQL infoSupport of SQLSQL-like SELECT, DML and DDL statements (CQL)yesSQL-like DML and DDL statements (CQL)
APIs and other access methodsProprietary protocol infoCQL (Cassandra Query Language, an SQL-like language)
Thrift
ADO.NET
JDBC
ODBC
OLE DB
Tabular Data Stream (TDS)
Proprietary protocol (CQL) infocompatible with CQL (Cassandra Query Language, an SQL-like language)
RESTful HTTP API (DynamoDB compatible)
Thrift
Supported programming languagesC#
C++
Clojure
Erlang
Go
Haskell
Java
JavaScript infoNode.js
Perl
PHP
Python
Ruby
Scala
C#
C++
Delphi
Go
Java
JavaScript (Node.js)
PHP
Python
R
Ruby
Visual Basic
For CQL interface: C#, C++, Clojure, Erlang, Go, Haskell, Java, JavaScript, Node.js, Perl, PHP, Python, Ruby, Rust, Scala
For DynamoDB interface: .Net, ColdFusion, Erlang, Groovy, Java, JavaScript, Perl, PHP, Python, Ruby
Server-side scripts infoStored proceduresnoTransact SQL, .NET languages, R, Python and (with SQL Server 2019) Javayes, Lua
Triggersyesyesno
Partitioning methods infoMethods for storing different data on different nodesSharding infono "single point of failure"tables can be distributed across several files (horizontal partitioning); sharding through federationSharding
Replication methods infoMethods for redundantly storing data on multiple nodesselectable replication factor infoRepresentation of geographical distribution of servers is possibleyes, but depending on the SQL-Server Editionselectable replication factor infoRepresentation of geographical distribution of servers is possible
MapReduce infoOffers an API for user-defined Map/Reduce methodsyesnono
Consistency concepts infoMethods to ensure consistency in a distributed systemEventual Consistency
Immediate Consistency infocan be individually decided for each write operation
Immediate ConsistencyEventual Consistency
Tunable Consistency infocan be individually decided for each write operation
Foreign keys infoReferential integritynoyesno
Transaction concepts infoSupport to ensure data integrity after non-atomic manipulations of datano infoAtomicity and isolation are supported for single operationsACIDyes infoAtomicity and isolation are supported for single operations
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.noyesyes infoin-memory tables
User concepts infoAccess controlAccess rights for users can be defined per objectfine grained access rights according to SQL-standardAccess rights for users can be defined per object
More information provided by the system vendor
Apache CassandraMicrosoft SQL ServerScyllaDB
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