What is Apache Cassandra primarily used for?

Apache Cassandra is primarily used for managing large amounts of structured data across many servers, which makes it particularly well-suited for applications that require high availability, scalability, and fault tolerance. Its distributed architecture allows data to be spread across a cluster of nodes, maintaining performance and avoiding single points of failure. This is essential for organizations that have to process large volumes of data and need the capability to scale out seamlessly by adding more servers.

Cassandra excels in environments where write and read scalability is crucial, such as in social media analytics, recommendation systems, and real-time data processing applications. This design choice fundamentally distinguishes it from systems that may be better suited for smaller, centralized datasets or that require complex querying capabilities. Its optimal use case is in settings where data distribution and resilience to failures are paramount, reinforcing the choice of managing large amounts of structured data across many servers as its primary purpose.