DSE’s architecture allows any authorized user to connect to any node in any datacenter and access data using the Cassandra Query Language (CQL 3.4 + DSE enhancements). For ease of use, CQL uses a similar syntax to SQL. The most basic way to interact with DSE is using the CQL create keyspaces and tables, insert and query tables, plus much more. Other ways to interact with DSE are:

Apache Spark is an open source analytics project that provides a fast and general engine for large-scale data processing. DataStax Enterprise integrates Apache Spark real-time and batch analytics processing to more easily manage both database and analytics with a single operational system.

DSE is a distributed and highly available database that uses peer-to-peer communication. Data modeling in DataStax Enterprise is similar to relational databases while differing in key areas to provide blazingly fast interaction. Relational databases use joins between tables for relationships. DataStax Enterprise uses denormalization to achieve more robust querying.

The NoSQL term originally referred to a new generation of databases that shunned SQL for other interfaces. The term NoSQL has recently become a catch-all term for post-relational "not-only SQL" databases that use a method of storage different from a relational, or SQL, database.

See Migrating data to DataStax Enterprise. You can use the COPY command to read CSV data to DSE and write CSV data from DSE to a file system. The sstableloader provides the ability to bulk load external data into a cluster. However, before moving data to DSE, you need to consider how your client application will query the tables, and do data modeling first. The paradigm shift between relational databases and NoSQL means that a straight move of data from an RDBMS database to DSE will fail.

See Planning and testing cluster deployments for hardware requirements. The distributed nature of DSE can actively utilize multiple datacenters across several geographic regions, supporting highly available data under even the most trying circumstances.

You can install DataStax Enterprise in several ways, depending on the purpose of the installation, the type of operating system, and the available permissions. See Which install method should I use?.

This guide provides information including but not limited to:

The Upgrade Guide provides instructions for upgrading DataStax Enterprise. This guide also provides instructions on how to upgrade from Apache Cassandra to DataStax Enterprise.

DataStax drivers come in two types: DataStax drivers for DataStax Enterprise 5.0 and later, and DataStax drivers for Apache Cassandra™. The DataStax drivers for DSE are enhanced to ease the development of applications powered by DataStax Enterprise. These drivers support full functionality for DSE, including DSE Graph, unified authentication, and geospatial types.