Actions and words, code and advocacy. DataStax is changing strategy, re-engaging with the Apache Cassandra open source community, and releasing some interesting technical advancements while at it, too.

Leading with code to drive Cassandra ubiquity. This is the key message DataStax is putting forward on the occasion of releasing its open-source Kubernetes operator for Cassandra, alongside improved data streaming and graph queries.

In these tumultuous times for both open-source software (OSS) at large, and DataStax as a database vendor built around core open source Apache Cassandra, this is something worth exploring. ZDNet connected with Patrick McFadin, DataStax VP Developer Relations, to discuss the ins and outs.

As we’ve highlighted on Big on Data, data is moving to the cloud. This is happening using OSS, and Kubernetes, too. So the fact that DataStax has chosen Kubernetes to highlight its contribution to the Apache Cassandra community should come as no surprise.

With the Cassandra Kubernetes operator, DataStax claims enterprises and users will have a consistent scale-out stack for compute and data. The question is: Where exactly is this coming from. Has it has been developed by DataStax, and then donated to the community as a tangible sign of a new approach?

DataStax recently recruited a number of executives to renew its leadership. Chet Kapoor and Sam Ramji, the new CEO and CSO, respectively, are both ex-Googlers. In a recent interview, Ramji highlighted some key areas: Reconnecting with the OSS community, emphasizing services and support, making life easier for developers.

“We are embracing open source again,” McFadin affirmed. McFadin’s role in bringing about the Kubernetes operator was instrumental, both on the technical and the social level. Kubernetes is seeing a rapid update. According to a 2019 Cloud Native Computing Foundation Survey, 78% of respondents are using Kubernetes in production, compared to 58% last year.

This means that different organizations have been working on getting Kubernetes to work with Cassandra, which is among the top 10 most popular databases in the world, according to DB Engines. This was the backdrop against which McFadin worked.

On the one hand, as he noted, having many implementations of the same thing means that people may be on the same page, as far as what is important to work on is concerned. On the other hand, integration is a balancing act, both technically and socially.

DataStax has been working with Sky, Orange, Netflix, Target, and many other teams in the Cassandra community to improve and advance the operator. McFadin, who has a long-standing involvement in OSS, pointed out the obvious: Each of those teams is focused on solving the problems that matter most to them.

The way DataStax is approaching this, as per McFadin, is not by dumping code on GitHub and expecting the community to adopt it as the singular way to work with Kubernetes. DataStax has been developing more than an operator — there’s also a Kubernetes sidecar and management API. DataStax is using this to develop its own cloud, and now it’s available for all to use.

Read the full article on ZDNet