Astra DB from DataStax is a vector database for developers that need to get accurate Generative AI applications into production, fast.
N/A
Cloud BigTable
Score 8.5 out of 10
N/A
Google's Cloud Bigtable is a fully managed, scalable NoSQL database service for large analytical and operational workloads with up to 99.999% availability.
We know Astra is built on Cassandra / Kubernetes / Stargate and can work on any cloud. The competitors we reviewed are cloud specific and create a lock in. We also have the option to run Cassandra / Stargate ourselves if we wanted to. The competitors don’t give that option.
We use Astra DB to improve our management systems. Storing data has become hassle-free and quite simple. When launching a Cassandra-based cloud application, Astra DB is exactly what you need. In addition to the standard training programs and videos, the extended support and training require significant additional effort to activate and cover which I feel is a bit more tedious task.
Google Bigtable is ONLY suited for massive data sets which scale PetaBytes and TerraBytes. Anything under this can easily be done via dedicated VMs and open source tools. Google Bigtable is expensive and shall be used wisely. It should be utilised only where it is well suited else you would simply be wasting dollars and not utilizing its full benefits.
Analytics: is at Google's heart. No on can beat Google in this space and BigTable is one of its implementation of this. The insights you gain from BigTable are simply usable in your day to day activities and can help you make real difference.
Speed: Processing TBs and PBs of data under minutes needs real efficient platform which is capable of doing much more than just processing data. All this data cannot be processed by a single machine, but rather huge pairs of machines working in conjuction with each other. BigTable's implementation is one of the finest and allows you achieve great speeds!
Interface: is great. Google has segregated required task under logically placed buttons which takes no time by users to understand and get habituated.
The support team sometimes requires the escalate button pressed on tickets, to get timely responses. I will say, once the ticket is escalated, action is taken.
They require better documentation on the migration of data. The three primary methods for migrating large data volumes are bulk, Cassandra Data Migrator, and ZDM (Zero Downtime Migration Utility). Over time I have become very familiar will all three of these methods; however, through working with the Services team and the support team, it seemed like we were breaking new ground. I feel if the utilities were better documented and included some examples and/or use cases from large data migrations; this process would have been easier. One lesson learned is you likely need to migrate your application servers to the same cloud provider you host Astra on; otherwise, the latency is too large for latency-sensitive applications.
User interface's responsiveness: I understand so much is going on under the hood, but laggyness is acceptable if a workload is running or being processed. In case their is not workload being process, GUI should work blazing fast. I have faced this at times, and this becomes frustrating as well.
Nothing other than this - BigTable is quite efficient platform and does exactly what it is built for.
For big IT firms like us, data is very important and it only holds its value if it can make sense to us. Therefore, Bigtable's usability is priceless when it comes to decision making based on data.
Their response time is fast, in case you do not contact them during business hours, they give a very good follow-up to your case. They also facilitate video calls if necessary for debugging.
We know Astra is built on Cassandra / Kubernetes / Stargate and can work on any cloud. The competitors we reviewed are cloud specific and create a lock in. We also have the option to run Cassandra / Stargate ourselves if we wanted to. The competitors don’t give that option
As per my experience, I never faced issues of scalability with Astra DB. We don't have at the moment a use case with millions of requests or users, so I can't give full score because of my limited use case.
The high availability capabilities of Astra DB can assist in reducing downtime, which is crucial for revenue-generating applications.
The developer-friendly features of Astra DB, as well as support for known query languages, can help expedite development, save development time, and minimize labor costs. This can result in a shorter time to market and a higher ROI.
