Scylla is an open source drop-in NoSQL replacement for Amazon's DynamoDB (and Apache Cassandra) with lightning-fast throughput and ultra-low latency. Scylla provides a cost-effective (1/7th the TCO) alternative to Amazon’s DynamoDB that's deployable anywhere: on-premises, on any public cloud ( Azure GCP, AWS) or as a fully managed DBaaS.

2. Running a Cost-effective DynamoDB
Compatible Database on Managed
Kubernetes Services

3. Presenter
3
Moreno Garcia
Solutions Architect, Scylla
Moreno Garcia is a problem solver by talent and trade. He
has worked in IT for 17 years, the last seven as a solution
architect. An open source software enthusiast, Moreno
loves applying new technology to solve old problems, and
hates acronyms with a passion.

4. Agenda
4
+ Why Scylla?
+ Why and What is Alternator?
+ Why and What is Scylla Operator?
+ Demo with an interactive game of Tic Tac Toe
+ Q&A

5. 5
+ The Real-Time Big Data Database
+ Drop-in replacement for Apache Cassandra
and Amazon DynamoDB
+ 10X the performance & low tail latency
+ Open source, enterprise and cloud options
+ Founded by the creators of KVM hypervisor
+ HQs: Palo Alto, CA, USA; Herzelia, Israel;
Warsaw, Poland
About ScyllaDB

6. Lower Node
Count
Millions of OPS per node
of throughput reduces
the number of nodes
your application requires.
Why Scylla?
Predictable,
Low Latencies
Consistent single-digit
millisecond p99
latencies.
Less
Complexity
Smaller footprint,
self-optimizing,
works out-of-the-box
6
Cassandra/DynamoDB
Compatibility
Drop-in replacement,
requires no changes
to client code

7. Scylla Design Advantages
+ Efficient implementation for modern hardware
+ Throughput 10x higher than Cassandra
+ Linear scalability to many-core machines
+ Focused on modern fast SSDs
+ Compatible with Cassandra and its APIs (CQL, Thrift)
+ All things asynchronous
+ Built-in schedulers
+ Self-optimizing database (minimal configuration)

8. ▪ Simplified deployments
• Eliminated cache
▪ Reduced infrastructure
• 962 C* nodes → 78 Scylla nodes
▪ Performance improvements
• 95% better p99 latencies
8

9. A Match Made in Heaven
+ Great database
+ Requires operational
expertise
+ Great workload
management platform
Can we leverage Kubernetes to write a great management layer for Scylla ?
9

10. What is Alternator?

11. Scylla’s DynamoDB-compatible API
+ Scale-out system with complete observability
+ Deployment flexibility
+ On prem, multi-cloud, hybrid
+ Open source or Scylla Cloud
+ No vendor lock-in
+ Better performance and less expensive

12. Much Better Price Performance
Managed Scylla (“Scylla Cloud”)
Is 5 times less expensive
than DynamoDB.
See the benchmark
https://www.scylladb.com/product/benchmarks/dynamodb-benchmark/

13. Alternator Deployment Options
Install in Your Datacenter
➔ Scylla Open Source
➔ Scylla Enterprise
Install at a Cloud Provider
➔ Scylla Open Source
➔ Scylla Enterprise
Database as a Service
➔ Fully managed Scylla
clusters
➔ 24*7 maintenance
and support.
On-Prem Cloud Hosted Scylla Cloud
13

14. Alternator Support Level*
Fully Supported Mostly Supported No (yet) Supported
Table Operations ✓
Item Operations ✓
Batch Operations ✓
Scans ✓
Tags ✓
Secondary Indexes ✓
TTL ✓
Streams ✓
Transactions ✓
* Alternator: DynamoDB API in Scylla | Scylla Docs

15. Alternator Support Level*
Supported
Authentication ✓
Backup / Restore NC
Tracing NC
Monitoring NC
Alerts NC
* Alternator: DynamoDB API in Scylla | Scylla Docs

16. Alternator is GA, Try it now!
docker run --name some-scylla -d -p 8000:8000 scylladb/scylla:4.1.0 --alternator-port=8000
--alternator-write-isolation=always
aws --endpoint-url 'http://127.0.0.1:8000' dynamodb create-table --table-name MusicCollection
--attribute-definitions AttributeName=Artist,AttributeType=S
AttributeName=SongTitle,AttributeType=S --key-schema AttributeName=Artist,KeyType=HASH
AttributeName=SongTitle,KeyType=RANGE --provisioned-throughput
ReadCapacityUnits=5,WriteCapacityUnits=5

17. https://dynobase.dev/
Dynobase

18. Scylla on K8s

19. StatefulSet
Rack N, Datacenter M
...
Cluster (CRD)
Custom Resource
Definition
Member
Services
(Static IP)
Controller
communication through Labels / Annotations
Member
Services
(Static IP)
Member
Services
(Static IP)
writewatch
StatefulSet
Rack 1, Datacenter 1
StatefulSet
Rack 1, Datacenter 2
19

20. Sidecar - Controller
CRD + Controller + Sidecar
Sidecar,
Manager Agent
Pod
Sidecar needed to:
+ Setup config files
+ Install plugins at startup
+ Backup and Restore functionality
+ Future extensibility
Member
20

21. Operator = Controller(s) + CRD(s)
Controller
Observe
Calculate
Reconcile
write
Our Goal

22. Mapping of Abstractions
Member/Node Pod
Cluster
Rack
Datacenter
StatefulSet
StatefulSets
Cluster
Custom Resource
(CRD)
22

23. Demo
Interactive Tic Tac Toe game
23

24. Deployment
Deploy Scylla Operator
Deploy Scylla cluster
Deploy Scylla Monitoring Stack
Stress the Deployment
Common Procedures
Upgrade from 4.0.0 -> 4.0.1
Scale Down24
+ Deployment - GKE
+ Deploy Scylla Operator
+ Deploy Scylla cluster
+ Deploy Scylla Monitoring Stack
+ Stress the Deployment (Tic Tac Toe!)
+ Common Procedures
+ Scale Down
+ Upgrade from 4.0.0 -> 4.0.1
+ Demo Code Source: AWS docs
Demo

25. Status
25

26. Scylla Alternator
+ Production ready from Scylla Open Source 4.0
+ Docker, AMI, Scylla Cloud
+ Coming soon to Scylla Enterprise 2020.1.0
+ Scylla Alternator | Scylla Docs
26

27. Kubernetes Operator
Easy to get started: https://github.com/scylladb/scylla-operator
27

28. Scylla Operator - Supported
+ Topology Changes
+ Proper token ring initialization, with only one node bootstrapping at a time
+ Down scale
+ Out Scale
+ Cluster Management
+ Managed Configuration, including rolling update
+ Rolling Upgrades / Downgrades
+ Integrations
+ Prometheus / Grafana monitoring Stack using Helm Charts
+ Secured
28

29. Scylla on K8s - In the works!
+ Multiple Data Centers Support
+ Auto Scaling
+ CI/CD
+ Support CSR
+ Scylla manager integration (repairs, backups)
+ Performance benchmarks on EKS, GKS
+ Scylla as K8s Service
+ Helm packaging
+ Your Feature Here!
29

30. Resources
30

31. Stay in touch
31
moreno@scylladb.com

32. United States
2445 Faber St, Suite #200
Palo Alto, CA USA 94303
Israel
11 Galgalei Haplada
Herzelia, Israel
www.scylladb.com
@scylladb
Thank you