IBM plans to buy open source Cassandra wrangler DataStax

Big Blue eyes integration with its AI development studio

IBM plans to buy DataStax, the AI and data biz that supports and contributes to the open source Cassandra wide column database.

The intent post-acquisition is for DataStax to continue to work with the open source Apache Cassandra, Langflow, Apache Pulsar, and OpenSearch communities in which DataStax participates.

Big Blue expects the DataStax Cassandra database service AstraDB to improve the existing vector capabilities of IBM watsonx.data, IBM's data lake for AI and analytics. It also sees Langflow, the open source visual framework for building AI applications, adding middleware capabilities to IBM watsonx.ai, as its AI development studio.

"Businesses cannot realize the full potential of generative AI without the right infrastructure – open source tools and technologies that empower developers, harness unstructured data, and provide a strong foundation for AI applications," said IBM Software senior veep Dinesh Nirmal.

"DataStax possesses deep competency in this area and shares IBM's relentless commitment to simplifying and scaling generative AI for the enterprise," he claimed.

In a similar back slapping mood, Chet Kapoor, chairman and CEO of DataStax, said: "We've long said that there is no AI without data."

With its claims of speed, scalability, and fault-tolerance, Cassandra has attracted users in the software, retail, finance, and ecommerce sectors.

In 2021, Vinay Chella, engineer and cloud data architect at Netflix, told The Register how the greater efficiency in 4.0 would help the online media giant manage and reduce its cloud bills.

DataStax has had an up-and-down relationship with the open source community. In 2016, Datastax, the biggest donor to Apache Cassandra, drew back on its support for the database project, prompting criticism within the community.

By way of a peace offering, DataStax donated tools it developed in building its AstraDB database service to the community to help with deployments in Kubernetes, including Helm, the package manager for Kubernetes, Reaper, a tool designed to manage the maintenance and repair tasks for a Cassandra cluster, and Medusa, a way to back up and restore data.

"Like any good family, you're going to have fights," Patrick McFadin, Apache Cassandra and developer relations veep at DataStax, said at the time. An "airing of dirty laundry" in the community helped build bridges, he said.

IBM expects to close the transaction in the second quarter of 2025, subject to customary closing conditions and regulatory approvals. ®