Learning Apache Cassandra - Second Edition

Challenges of modern applications

Before we delve into the shortcomings of relational systems to handle big data, let's take a look at some of the challenges faced by modern web-facing and big data applications.

Later, this will give an insight into how NoSQL data stores or Cassandra, in particular, help solve these issues:

• One of the most important challenges faced by a web-facing application is the ability to handle a large number of concurrent users. Think of a search engine such as Google, which handles millions of concurrent users at any given point of time, or a large online retailer. The response from these applications should be swift even as the number of users keeps on growing.
• Modern applications need to be able to handle large ...