Open Source Insider

DataStax Astra DB widens the dream of the real-time stream 

Adrian Bridgwater
Adrian Bridgwater

Now self-styling itself as the real-time data company, enterprise open source database specialist DataStax has now come forward with its ‘change data capture’ (CDC) function for Astra DB,  a new capability for its multi-cloud database built on Apache Cassandra.

The new CDC offering for Astra DB is powered by advanced streaming technology built on Apache Pulsar. 

It processes database changes in real time via event streams, making real-time data available for use across data lakes, data warehouses, search, artificial intelligence and machine learning.

This integration of event streaming with the high-scale, high-performance Astra DB multi-cloud database enables ‘more reactive’ applications fueled by connected real-time data.

Despite the urgency for businesses to use real-time data for immediate action and intelligence, today only a fraction of real-time data is being leveraged due to the failure of legacy architectures to meet the performance and scale requirements of real-time data processing. 

As a result, data is often uploaded in batches, creating chronically stale data. 

According to the recent McKinsey report, “The Data-Driven Enterprise of 2025“, data that is processed and delivered in real time is one of the seven characteristics predicted to define data-driven enterprises, yet companies often must choose between speed and computational intensity, which can delay more sophisticated analyses and inhibit the implementation of real-time use cases.

 

According to Ed Anuff, chief product officer at DataStax, with CDC for Astra DB, organisations can now standardise on the massively scalable, zero-downtime Astra DB and any changes to the database are processed and delivered in real time to other parts of the data ecosystem with no trade offs between speed, scale and availability. 

This integration enables companies to activate their real-time data to derive incremental business value from areas including e-commerce, fraud detection, customer experience, sales and inventory and transportation and logistics.