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DBMS > Cassandra vs. Google Cloud Spanner vs. InterSystems IRIS vs. Snowflake

System Properties Comparison Cassandra vs. Google Cloud Spanner vs. InterSystems IRIS vs. Snowflake

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Editorial information provided by DB-Engines
NameCassandra  Xexclude from comparisonGoogle Cloud Spanner  Xexclude from comparisonInterSystems IRIS  Xexclude from comparisonSnowflake  Xexclude from comparison
DescriptionWide-column store based on ideas of BigTable and DynamoDB infoOptimized for write accessA 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.A containerised multi-model DBMS, interoperability and analytics data platform with wide capabilities for vertical and horizontal scalabilityCloud-based data warehousing service for structured and semi-structured data
Primary database modelWide column storeRelational DBMSDocument store
Key-value store
Object oriented DBMS
Relational DBMS
Relational DBMS
Secondary database modelsVector DBMS infostarting with release V5
DB-Engines Ranking infomeasures the popularity of database management systemsranking trend
Trend Chart
Score98.83
Rank#12  Overall
#1  Wide column stores
Score2.84
Rank#100  Overall
#51  Relational DBMS
Score3.54
Rank#84  Overall
#14  Document stores
#10  Key-value stores
#1  Object oriented DBMS
#45  Relational DBMS
Score130.36
Rank#8  Overall
#5  Relational DBMS
Websitecassandra.apache.orgcloud.google.com/­spannerwww.intersystems.com/­products/­intersystems-iriswww.snowflake.com
Technical documentationcassandra.apache.org/­doc/­latestcloud.google.com/­spanner/­docsdocs.intersystems.com/­irislatest/­csp/­docbook/­DocBook.UI.Page.clsdocs.snowflake.net/­manuals/­index.html
DeveloperApache Software Foundation infoApache top level project, originally developped by FacebookGoogleInterSystemsSnowflake Computing Inc.
Initial release2008201720182014
Current release4.1.3, July 20232023.3, June 2023
License infoCommercial or Open SourceOpen Source infoApache version 2commercialcommercialcommercial
Cloud-based only infoOnly available as a cloud servicenoyesnoyes
DBaaS offerings (sponsored links) infoDatabase as a Service

Providers of DBaaS offerings, please contact us to be listed.
Astra DB: Multi-cloud DBaaS built on Apache Cassandra.
Implementation languageJava
Server operating systemsBSD
Linux
OS X
Windows
hostedAIX
Linux
macOS
Ubuntu
Windows
hosted
Data schemeschema-freeyesdepending on used data modelyes infosupport of semi-structured data formats (JSON, XML, Avro)
Typing infopredefined data types such as float or dateyesyesyesyes
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.nonoyesyes
Secondary indexesrestricted infoonly equality queries, not always the best performing solutionyesyes
SQL infoSupport of SQLSQL-like SELECT, DML and DDL statements (CQL)yes infoQuery statements complying to ANSI 2011yesyes
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
JDBC
ODBC
RESTful HTTP API
CLI Client
JDBC
ODBC
Supported programming languagesC#
C++
Clojure
Erlang
Go
Haskell
Java
JavaScript infoNode.js
Perl
PHP
Python
Ruby
Scala
Go
Java
JavaScript (Node.js)
Python
.Net
C++
Java
JavaScript (Node.js)
Python
JavaScript (Node.js)
Python
Server-side scripts infoStored proceduresnonoyesuser defined functions
Triggersyesnoyesno infosimilar concept for controling cloud resources
Partitioning methods infoMethods for storing different data on different nodesSharding infono "single point of failure"ShardingShardingyes
Replication methods infoMethods for redundantly storing data on multiple nodesselectable replication factor infoRepresentation of geographical distribution of servers is possibleMulti-source replication with 3 replicas for regional instances.Source-replica replicationyes
MapReduce infoOffers an API for user-defined Map/Reduce methodsyesyes infousing Google Cloud Dataflownono
Consistency concepts infoMethods to ensure consistency in a distributed systemEventual Consistency
Immediate Consistency infocan be individually decided for each write operation
Immediate ConsistencyImmediate ConsistencyImmediate Consistency
Foreign keys infoReferential integritynoyes infoby using interleaved tables, this features focuses more on performance improvements than on referential integrityyesyes
Transaction concepts infoSupport to ensure data integrity after non-atomic manipulations of datano infoAtomicity and isolation are supported for single operationsACID infoStrict serializable isolationACIDACID
Concurrency infoSupport for concurrent manipulation of datayesyesyesyes
Durability infoSupport for making data persistentyesyesyesyes
In-memory capabilities infoIs there an option to define some or all structures to be held in-memory only.nonoyesno
User concepts infoAccess controlAccess rights for users can be defined per objectAccess rights for users, groups and roles based on Google Cloud Identity and Access Management (IAM)yesUsers with fine-grained authorization concept, user roles and pluggable authentication
More information provided by the system vendor
CassandraGoogle Cloud SpannerInterSystems IRISSnowflake
Specific characteristicsApache Cassandra is the leading NoSQL, distributed database management system, well...
» more
InterSystems IRIS is a complete cloud-first data platform which includes a multi-model...
» more
Competitive advantagesNo single point of failure ensures 100% availability . Operational simplicity for...
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Typical application scenariosInternet of Things (IOT), fraud detection applications, recommendation engines, product...
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Key customersApple, Netflix, Uber, ING,, Intuit,Fidelity, NY Times, Outbrain, BazaarVoice, Best...
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Market metricsCassandra is used by 40% of the Fortune 100.
» more
Licensing and pricing modelsApache license  Pricing for commercial distributions provided by DataStax and available...
» more
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