Introduction to Apache Cassandra
Great Lakes Software Symposium
Chicago · October 14 - 16, 2016
About this Presentation
In this talk we will explore topology of cassandra cluster. We will explore how data is spread around a cluster in cassandra? Then we will look at snitches and launch Cassandra clusters using Docker. In the end we will look at nodetool commands to work with cluster.
We will explore replication strategies within Cassandra. In the end we will look at CQL (Cassandra Query Language), which is used for interacting with Cassandra. We will also explore how Cassandra is integrated with Datastax framework.
In this talk we will explore topology of cassandra cluster. We will explore how data is spread around a cluster in cassandra? Then we will look at snitches and launch Cassandra clusters using Docker. In the end we will look at nodetool commands to work with cluster.
We will explore replication strategies within Cassandra. In the end we will look at CQL (Cassandra Query Language), which is used for interacting with Cassandra.
Key takeaways for this talk will be for a developer and architect to understand how Apache Cassandra is one of the best solutions for storing and retrieving data. We will also explore how Cassandra is integrated with Datastax framework.
Director, AI & Data Architecture at Salesforce | Author | Enterprise AI
Rohit Bhardwaj is a Director of AI & Data Architecture at Salesforce, where he focuses on enterprise AI, agentic systems, cloud-native architecture, distributed systems, data platforms, security, and large-scale transformation.
Over his career, Rohit has designed and led complex enterprise platforms across AWS, Google Cloud, microservices, real-time data, API ecosystems, resilient distributed systems, and AI-enabled architectures. His work increasingly focuses on the challenges enterprises face as software evolves from deterministic services to AI-native and agentic systems—particularly around reliability, governance, evidence, security, observability, cost, and safe autonomy.
Rohit is the author of System Design with AI Interview Guide: Designing Scalable, Agentic, and Defensible Systems, published by Apress. The book presents a modern approach to system design covering scalability, distributed systems, AI architecture primitives, security, reliability, economics, agentic systems, and real-world architectures including e-commerce, ride sharing, payments, fraud detection, messaging, video streaming, file storage, and search. (Springer Link)
Book:
Amazon: https://a.co/d/09Zs1twa
Publisher / Springer Nature: https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/979-8-8688-2782-2
O'Reilly: https://learning.oreilly.com/library/view/system-design-with/9798868827822/
Rohit is also an O’Reilly instructor and a frequent speaker at technology conferences including No Fluff Just Stuff, UberConf, GIDS, and other international events. His talks focus on practical architecture lessons from building and operating complex systems, including AI control planes, trusted agents, inference at scale, evidence-first RAG, AI security, distributed-system failure, and AI-era software architecture.
As a trusted advisor and architecture leader, Rohit works at the intersection of business strategy and deep technical architecture—helping teams translate complex business problems into scalable, resilient, secure, and economically sustainable systems.
Rohit holds an MBA in Corporate Entrepreneurship from Babson College and graduate-level education in Computer Science from Boston University and Harvard University.
Connect with Rohit:
LinkedIn: http://linkedin.com/in/rohit-bhardwaj-cloud
X / Twitter: @rbhardwaj1