What is ScyllaDB?

ScyllaDB is:

• A NoSQL wide-column database
• Fully compatible with Cassandra
• Built in C++ instead of Java → much faster & lower latency
• Auto-sharding (each node uses all CPU cores efficiently)
• Used for real-time, low-latency, high-write-throughput workloads

Used by: Disney+, Discord, Starbucks, Zillow, Grab, Expedia, etc.

When to use ScyllaDB?

✅ Real-time analytics ✅ High write-heavy workloads ✅ Time-series events ✅ microservices storing user/session data ✅ messaging, IoT logs, metrics

M0. Lets create a ScyllaDB Instance.

docker run --name scylla -d --hostname scylla \
  -p 9042:9042 scylladb/scylla:latest

Log into the ScyllaDB container using 'cqlsh'

docker exec -it scylla cqlsh

If required to check the Logs use:

docker logs -f scylla

M1. Setting up ScyllaDB

1. Creating a Keyspace

As ScyllaDB is based on Cassandra hence most of the features are very similar to what Cassandra offers.

CREATE KEYSPACE IF NOT EXISTS feed_service WITH replication = {'class': 'SimpleStrategy', 'replication_factor': 3};

2. Create Activity/Feed Table

USE feed_service;

CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS user_feed (
    user_id UUID,
    event_time TIMESTAMP,
    event_type TEXT,
    payload TEXT,
    PRIMARY KEY((user_id), event_time)
) WITH CLUSTERING ORDER BY (event_time DESC);

3. Insert some data into the table

INSERT INTO user_feed (user_id, event_time, event_type, payload)
VALUES (uuid(), toTimestamp(now()), 'LOGIN', '{"ip":"192.168.1.7"}');

4. Read back the Data Inserted

SELECT * FROM user_feed LIMIT 10;

M2. Setting up Spring Boot Project to Integrate with ScyllaDB

1. Run the following maven command to build the project.

mvn clean package -DskipTests