DataStax stacks data – but what is a data stack?

The Computer Weekly Developer Network team is at DataStax Accelerate.

DataStax is a provider of a hybrid cloud database built on Apache Cassandra.

DataStax has built a set of technologies designed to provide an always-on distributed hybrid cloud database for real-time applications at scale… built on Cassandra.

But let’s go back to basics:

Q. Why is DataStax called DataStax?

A. Because data comes in stacks.

Q. What is a data stack?

A. Okay good, we’re glad you asked, let’s have a reminder.

Data comes in many shapes and forms (obviously), but two of its core ‘structures’ are stacks and queues.

Data elements in a stack and a queue differ by virtue of their order.

TechTarget’s own definition here states the following, “In programming, a stack is a data area or buffer used for storing requests that need to be handled. The IBM Dictionary of Computing says that a stack is always a push-down list, meaning that as new requests come in, they push down the old ones. Another way of looking at a push-down list – or stack – is that the program always takes its next item to handle from the top of the stack. (This is unlike other arrangements such as ‘FIFO’ or first-in first-out.)”

So we know that with a data stack, the last (i.e. oldest) element added to the stack is the first one to be removed for use (processing, deeper storage or perhaps to be used in some data analytics function)… so as data elements get added to the stack, the elements on top leave first – and this of course makes it a LIFO last-in-first-out model.

In a data queue, it’s a case of FIFO.

Data elements added to the top of a queue are the first to leave it… almost like a stack of fresh pancakes where you always take the freshest one first.