What is the primary function of Compaction Strategies in Cassandra?

The primary function of Compaction Strategies in Cassandra is to manage how SSTables are merged. Compaction is a crucial process that helps maintain the performance of the database by organizing and consolidating the data stored in SSTables (Sorted String Tables). Over time, as data is written to Cassandra, multiple SSTables can accumulate, leading to fragmentation and potential inefficiencies during read operations.

Compaction improves read performance by merging these SSTables into new files, eliminating deleted data, and updating records where necessary. This process also helps reclaim disk space and ensures that the data storage remains optimized. Different compaction strategies can be applied depending on the specific use case, such as SizeTieredCompactionStrategy, LeveledCompactionStrategy, and TimeWindowCompactionStrategy, each designed to handle data in distinct ways to optimize for either read or write performance based on the workload.

The other options do not address the core functionality of Compaction Strategies. While backing up data and encrypting it are essential features of database management, they do not directly relate to the merging of SSTables. Additionally, simplifying schema design pertains to database structure rather than data management and performance optimization through compaction.