site-content/source/modules/ROOT/pages/blog/Apache-Cassandra-Changelog-7-May-2021.adoc

= Apache Cassandra Changelog #7
:page-layout: single-post
:page-role: blog-post
:page-post-date: May 31, 2021
:page-post-author: The Apache Cassandra Community
:description: The Apache Cassandra Community
:keywords: 

image::blog/changelog_header.jpg[Apache Cassandra Changelog]
Our monthly roundup of key activities and knowledge to keep the community informed.

== Release Notes
=== Released

Apache Cassandra https://www.apache.org/dyn/closer.lua/cassandra/4.0-rc1/apache-cassandra-4.0-rc1-bin.tar.gz[4.0-rc1,window=_blank] (https://downloads.apache.org/cassandra/4.0-rc1/apache-cassandra-4.0-rc1-bin.tar.gz.asc[pgp,window=_blank], https://downloads.apache.org/cassandra/4.0-rc1/apache-cassandra-4.0-rc1-bin.tar.gz.sha256[sha256,window=_blank], and https://downloads.apache.org/cassandra/4.0-rc1/apache-cassandra-4.0-rc1-bin.tar.gz.sha512[sha512,window=_blank]) was released on April 25. This version is a release candidate and brings us much closer to the release of 4.0 GA. Please read the https://gitbox.apache.org/repos/asf?p=cassandra.git;a=blob_plain;f=NEWS.txt;hb=refs/tags/cassandra-4.0-rc1[release notes,window=_blank] and please let us know if you encounter any problems.

Note: As the docs are not yet updated, the bintray location for Debian users is now replaced with the https://apache.jfrog.io/artifactory/cassandra/[ASF's JFrog Artifactory location,window=_blank].

Downloads of source and binary distributions for the latest stable and older supported version are listed in our xref:download.adoc[download section,window=_blank]:

For the latest status of Apache Cassandra 4.0 GA read the latest https://lists.apache.org/thread.html/rcf883cc5c1fe87b80106e74092c9ed79127e5071883f194bc204b09a%40%3Cdev.cassandra.apache.org%3E[summary,window=_blank].

Join the Cassandra xref:community.adoc#discussions[mailing list] to stay up-to-date.

The release cadence for the Apache Cassandra project is changing. The community has agreed to one release every year, plus periodic trunk snapshots. The number of releases that will be supported in this agreement is three, and every incoming release will be https://lists.apache.org/thread.html/re15543b55e5d01245ad75f7ec35af97e9895d37c01562eab31963dd4%40%3Cdev.cassandra.apache.org%3E[supported for three years,window=_blank].

== Community Notes

_Updates on Cassandra Enhancement Proposals (CEPs), how to contribute, and other community activities._

=== Added

The PMC is pleased to announce that https://lists.apache.org/thread.html/r94208aa15921ba095f6f2a776533c06d1e557b0c7fd25f9547070764%40%3Cdev.cassandra.apache.org%3E[Dinesh Joshi,window=_blank] has accepted an invitation to become a PMC member, while https://lists.apache.org/thread.html/r481ae8152aca8d085b75cca1955859e9a3e1a7daeec620297de6dfb1%40%3Cdev.cassandra.apache.org%3E[Stefan Miklosovic,window=_blank] and https://lists.apache.org/thread.html/r3dbf414905ecbe470c8389a142056429f9a097ffe65ec4239e1e6d87%40%3Cdev.cassandra.apache.org%3E[Caleb Rackliffe,window=_blank] have accepted invitations to become project committers. Thank you to Dinesh for all the work you have done and welcome to Stefan and Caleb, and thank you for all your great contributions! 👏 👏

=== Added

We are pleased to welcome Abuli Palagashvili, who was selected to participate in Google Summer of Code (GSoC) on Apache Cassandra this year. He will be working primarily on https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/CASSANDRA-16451[CASSANDRA-16451,window=_blank].

=== Added

As the project looks to the future, we are adding a roadmap page to the new {site-url}[Apache Cassandra project website,window=_blank]. The community is also looking towards new features, and you can take a look at the features that developers plan to work on https://lists.apache.org/thread.html/r8e6eb9c855484d584d0dd2a74d60d9893c08bfc453c0321a901793b2%40%3Cdev.cassandra.apache.org%3E[here,window=_blank].

=== Added

If you weren’t able to make the Cassandra World Party, we have uploaded a https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZNrTlIazA0&list=PLqcm6qE9lgKLi4TD3azt3soaCjfXte32m[playlist,window=_blank] of all the recorded lightning talks, which include such gems as Making Cassandra Easy, Raising the Bar on Q&A, which covers all the testing and CI we do on the project, and why Target chose Cassandra and the key takeaways from that move.

=== Added

We anticipate announcing ARM platform support for the release of 4.0 GA and are looking into how to create https://lists.apache.org/thread.html/r2a19b235d281f0f3569701428fb7477eabadfc2b5a02c578a04b8ade%40%3Cdev.cassandra.apache.org%3E[ARM-specific releases,window=_blank] in a way that enables the project to store GPG private keys that complies with https://infra.apache.org/release-distribution.html#sigs-and-sums[ASF Release Distribution Policy,window=_blank].

Huawei Cloud has provided six arm64 servers, which have been instrumental in getting the build and tests running on arm64. This is a huge contribution to the community and the PMC would like to say a big and public "thank you" for the initiative from all of us.

=== Released

On May 11, Grafana released https://grafana.com/grafana/plugins/hadesarchitect-cassandra-datasource/[Apache Cassandra Datasource for Grafana,window=_blank] for visualizing time-series data.

== User Space

=== Grubhub

When Grubhub and Seamless merged, the company set out to build a new platform. One of those important decisions was deciding to use Apache Cassandra as the primary persistent data store for Grubhub’s backend services: “Our goal was to build a highly scalable, highly available system that could scale to meet traffic, handle various network and infrastructure outages as well as our growing business needs.” - https://bytes.grubhub.com/cloud-infrastructure-at-grubhub-94db998a898a[William Blackie,window=_blank]

=== Home Depot

Home Depot has been on an accelerated digital transformation through the pandemic, moving to an architecture that connects logistics, delivery, supply chain, customers, digital channels, and associates. One key effort involved using Apache Cassandra to stand up curb side apps quickly. “Some of the tenants of that One Home Depot journey has been creating a set of common services, a common API, a common compute environment. There will be shared decisions between all our different channels. As we've developed these common services, we have been able to really reconcile what a customer sees online, what an associate gets to see in store, and how to connect it all together.” - https://www.zdnet.com/article/how-home-depot-navigated-a-demand-boom-during-covid-19/[Fahim Siddiqui,window=_blank]

_Do you have a Cassandra case study to share? Email mailto:cassandra@constantia.io[cassandra@constantia.io]_.

== In the News

Container Journal: https://containerjournal.com/topics/cassandra-kubernetes-sig-picks-cass-operator-for-k8s/[Cassandra Kubernetes SIG Picks Cass Operator for K8s,window=_blank]

The Stack: https://hackernoon.com/heres-why-big-tech-bets-big-on-apache-cassandra-an-interview-with-vinay-chella-of-netflix-n2l34lt[Cassandra 4.0 RC lands in a major milestone for the open source distributed database,window=_blank]

Hacker Noon: https://www.zdnet.com/article/microsoft-ignite-data-and-analytics-roundup-platform-extensions-are-the-key-theme/[Here's Why Big Tech Bets Big on Apache Cassandra - An Interview With Vinay Chella of Netflix,window=_blank]

== Cassandra Tutorials & More

https://opensource.com/article/21/5/apache-cassandra[A Beginner's Guide for Contributing to Apache Cassandra,window=_blank] - Ekaterina Dimitrova

https://thelastpickle.com/blog/2021/04/29/apache_cassandra_continuous_integration_systems.html[Apache Cassandra's Continuous Integration Systems,window=_blank] - Mick Semb Wever

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wezbMP1uBkU[Installing Apache Cassandra 4 on Linux,window=_blank] - Programming with Dr. Hayes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mD6H5CMEKrg[Apache Cassandra - Loading Data into Databases Tables,window=_blank] - Rafael Queiroz Gonçalves

image::blog/changelog_footer.jpg[link="{site-url}_/community.html"]