Why Cassandra Doesn’t Need Vector Clocks

Amazon's Dynamo paper introduced the use of vector clocks for conflict resolution in key/value databases like Voldemort and Riak. However, systems such as Cassandra and DynamoDB avoid using vector clocks in favor of finer-grained updates. The main problem with a key/value database is that it can lead to data loss when using last-write-wins conflict resolution. Vector clocks solve this issue by allowing the database to push conflict resolution back to the client, but they have limitations. Cassandra addresses this problem by breaking up documents into columns that can be updated independently, offering improved performance and simpler application design.