How many NoSQL databases does the world really need, and how easily would you switch your existing solution for a new one? Asking these questions before setting out to build a NoSQL database is a good thing. The people behind ScyllaDB did, and now Cassandra may be between a rock and hard place.

Cassandra is a poster child of the NoSQL world. Originally an open source project sprung out of Facebook, it has been adopted by the Apache Foundation and backed by an enterprise, DataStax, that also offers DataStax Enterprise based on Cassandra. Cassandra is among the top 10 database solutions according to DB-Engines.

That is precisely why it now has a potentially dangerous rival in ScyllaDB. ScyllaDB is a new kid on the NoSQL block aiming to offer a solution that is open source and API-compatible with Cassandra, but performs much better. The goal is to be a drop-in replacement for Cassandra, and when we’re talking about database #8 in the world, that’s kind of a big deal.

Dor Laor and Avi Kivity did not set out with this grandiose plan back in 2013. It was not for lack of ambition, but this just was not their thing. They both have backgrounds in hypervisors and were part of the team that built KVM and got acquired by Red Hat. Leaving Red Hat, their initial plan was to write a unikernel that would displace Linux from cloud servers. So no lack of ambition there.

They founded a startup called Cloudius, found investors, assembled a team and started working hard. At some point however they realized that their potential would not be reached for a number of reasons, and decided to pivot. And pivot they did, to add another NoSQL database to the never ending list, one that would be able to do what Cassandra does and then some.

Read the full article on ZDNet