DataStax buys DataScale, plans to launch managed cloud service

Distributed database software vendor DataStax announced today that it had completed the acquisition of DataScale, a specialist in cloud-based management services for data infrastructure, paving the way for a fully managed version of DataStax’s offering in early 2017.

“There is a huge need for an always-on, distributed database,” says Martin Van Ryswyk, executive vice president of Engineering, DataStax. “Whether you’re in retail, transportation, the hotel business — everyone has to have an online presence. That has driven this need for this type of database we’ve built.”

“What happens in these technology shifts, when something gets really important and really hot at a certain time, you start to get a skills shortage,” he adds.

And that’s where the DataStax Managed Cloud, powered by DataScale’s technology, comes in.

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“There’s a serious gap in available folks with domain expertise,” says Peter Bakas, founder of DataScale. “As workloads evolve and people get more and more comfortable with the concepts of cloud, they’re looking for services that can manage it for them so they can focus on their core competency.”

Powering the big boys

The DataStax Enterprise (DSE) software platform, built on the open source Apache Cassandra project, powers the cloud applications of enterprises, government agencies and system integrators around the globe. Its customers include companies like Netflix, ING, Adobe, Target and eBay.

Van Ryswyk says the DataStax Managed Cloud will provide the full capabilities of DSE in a managed cloud service. Customers will be able to exploit their hybrid cloud datacenter plans, with DSE acting as a common data layer for cloud applications, whether deployed on-premise, in public cloud infrastructure or any hybrid configuration.

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Van Ryswyk says the new DataStax Managed Cloud offering will be a highly consultative, high-touch service that will include automated best practices and operations, monitoring by DataStax experts, automated and manual provisioning and scaling and custom system configuration and tuning to meet customers’ individual application and architectural requirements.

Both Van Ryswyk and Bakas stress that the new offering means customers will have the capability to choose flexible implementation and management models based on their requirements. They can self-manage DSE using its automated management services and OpsCenter product, or go with a comprehensive, cloud-based, DataStax managed solution with DataStax Managed Cloud. Between those extremes, Van Ryswyk says DataStax can provide a wide array of professional services expertise and packages.

Bringing flexibility to cloud infrastructure

“What we’re really providing is flexibility for our customers,” Bakas says. “Either way, by leveraging the offerings we offer across the board, it allows them to focus on the higher-level pieces of their business.”

DataStax plans to roll out the DataStax Managed Cloud in early 2017, and Van Ryswyk notes that demand is already high. He says his best ‘crystal ball’ prediction is that about 50 percent of DataStax customers will adopt the managed offering in the next three to five years.

In the meantime, he adds, DataScale also has a backlog of demand for its products, and DataStax intends to continue to support them.

“We’re going to take good care of DataScale’s customers and work with them,” he says.