SteelHouse: How Our Real-Time Switchover from Cassandra to ScyllaDB Saved the Day

SteelHouse, an Ad Tech platform, successfully transitioned from using Apache Cassandra to ScyllaDB to improve the performance and reliability of their globally distributed ad-serving system. The switch was driven by persistent timeout issues with Cassandra, which was unable to maintain the required service level agreements (SLAs) for latency-sensitive operations. ScyllaDB offered self-tuning capabilities, better performance, and reduced hardware needs, which simplified management and increased efficiency. The transition, though initially intense, resulted in significant improvements, including the elimination of timeouts, enhanced responsiveness, and smoother peak season operations during Black Friday/Cyber Monday, contributing to a record-breaking holiday season in terms of both technical stability and business performance. The migration saved the team substantial maintenance time, improving productivity by approximately 20%, and solidified confidence in ScyllaDB's ability to handle billions of monthly requests effectively.