Cassandra Managed Services
Last reviewed by Tyler Eastridge
AceMQ runs your Apache Cassandra ring for you: scheduled repair, compaction, node replacement, rolling upgrades, backups with restore tests and the pager. We work inside your data centre, cloud account or Kubernetes clusters (Tier 3) or on infrastructure AceMQ runs (Tier 4), with partner Cassandra specialists behind the engineers. It also covers DataStax Enterprise estates facing IBM's 31 December 2027 end of support. If Amazon Keyspaces, Astra DB or Instaclustr fits your workload better, this page says so.
Support quotes answered within 1 hour, by a senior engineer.
Planning a build, upgrade or migration instead? See AceMQ Apache Cassandra consulting and services.
Customers
Partners
What's Included
No add-on pricing for incidents. No per-ticket charges. One contract covers the whole surface.
Repair is a scheduled job, not a hope. We run it from a scheduler such as Reaper in subranges, sized so every table completes inside gc_grace_seconds (ten days by default) with margin, and we alert on the repair that did not finish, because a missed repair is how deleted data comes back.
Compaction strategy matched to each table's workload, pending compactions watched against throughput limits, and tombstone counts per read tracked against the warning threshold. Tables that generate tombstones faster than compaction can remove them are flagged with the data model change that fixes them.
A dead node is replaced and a new one bootstrapped one at a time, after a schema agreement check, with streaming watched to the end. Adding or retiring a datacenter follows a written runbook, so capacity changes are planned work rather than a reaction to an alert.
3.11, 4.0, 4.1 and 5.0 upgrades staged node by node and rehearsed on a clone first, because nodes on different major versions cannot stream to each other. No bootstrap, decommission or repair runs in the middle of an upgrade, and the way back is written down before the first node.
Snapshot and retention policy set against your recovery targets, with a restore into a scratch ring on a schedule and timed. A snapshot that has never been restored is a file, not a backup.
We manage the signals that predict Cassandra incidents: pending compactions, dropped messages, hint backlog, GC pauses, partition size and read and write latency percentiles per table. Then we take the pager, so an alert reaches an engineer who has your keyspaces and replication factors in front of them.
Why AceMQ
Run managed Cassandra in your own account, data centre or Kubernetes clusters (Tier 3) when residency and compliance keep the data in your boundary, or have AceMQ host it (Tier 4) when you want endpoints and no infrastructure to run. The operator is a Cassandra specialist under an AceMQ contract, not a generic hosting provider.
AceMQ holds the contract, the SLA and the escalation path, and brings partner Cassandra specialists in as the work needs them. An incident starts with an engineer who has your topology and runbooks in front of them. The 15-minute response is a response time, not a resolution time.
Most rings have a repair schedule. Fewer have evidence that every table finishes inside gc_grace_seconds. We report completion per table and alert on the run that did not finish.
Repair, replacement, upgrade and restore runbooks, topology documentation and monitoring configuration are maintained as yours. If you bring operations back in-house, or move a ring between your infrastructure and ours, there is a current handover pack.
Cloud, Kubernetes, bare metal, hybrid, and air-gapped — including environments where you can't give us outbound network access.
Provider comparison
Three ways to stop running Cassandra yourself. Amazon Keyspaces, Astra DB and Instaclustr are services: the vendor runs the platform and you work inside its limits. AceMQ's managed service is people: engineers who run standard Cassandra on infrastructure you own, or on ours. The right answer depends on the workload, so each row answers one question.
| Question | AceMQ managed Cassandra (Tier 3 or 4) | Amazon Keyspaces | Astra DB and Instaclustr |
|---|---|---|---|
| Is it Apache Cassandra? | Yes. The Apache release or DataStax Enterprise version you run, from 3.11 to 5.0 and DSE 6.x. | No. AWS calls it Cassandra-compatible and documents support for the CQL 3.11 API. | Astra DB describes itself as a serverless, multi-cloud database service built on Apache Cassandra. Instaclustr's page names Cassandra 5.0 and 4.0. |
| Who runs repair, compaction and node replacement? | AceMQ engineers, on a schedule, with every run checked. | Nobody on your side. AWS lists compaction, read repair and gc_grace_seconds settings as not applicable. | The provider runs the platform. Instaclustr advertises 24x7x365 monitoring and expert support. |
| Where does it run? | Your data centre, cloud account or Kubernetes clusters (Tier 3), or infrastructure AceMQ runs (Tier 4). | AWS only. | The provider's platform. Astra DB describes itself as multi-cloud. |
| Features and limits | Whatever your Cassandra version supports, including secondary indexes, materialized views and user-defined functions where you use them. | AWS documents no CREATE INDEX, materialized views, user-defined functions, triggers or TRUNCATE. Check every statement your application issues. | Check the provider's CQL documentation for each feature you rely on. |
| What does it promise? | A 15-minute emergency response and a written RCA after every P1. It is a response time, not an availability guarantee. | AWS's service terms apply. | Instaclustr advertises availability SLAs up to 100% for LOCAL_QUORUM operations. Read the contract for the conditions. |
| Best when | You have an existing ring, need data to stay inside your boundary, use features a service omits, run DataStax Enterprise, or want one contract across several databases. | You are on AWS, your workload avoids the unsupported statements and you want AWS to run it. | You want a vendor to run the ring and your workload fits what the service allows. |
Sources: AWS documentation, Supported Cassandra APIs; DataStax documentation, Astra DB Serverless introduction; Instaclustr, Managed Apache Cassandra; all checked 4 November 2026. Vendor limits change, so check them before you commit.
DataStax Enterprise
DataStax Enterprise (DSE) is supported by IBM now. IBM's lifecycle page for DSE 6.x sets the calendar that decides how much time you have, and a managed service can operate the ring through the move.
IBM lists DSE 6.x as withdrawn from marketing on 31 October 2025, with end of support on 31 December 2027, when it moves to Extended Support, which ends on 31 December 2031 (IBM, page updated 13 February 2026).
From January 2026, DataStax's public repositories no longer carry DSE packages. They come from IBM Fix Central with an IBMid, and package installs need a local mirror. A managed service keeps that mirror and the install procedure as a runbook.
DataStax's migration page for its Hyper-Converged Database recommends cross-cluster migration with its ZDM tools. It lists what HCD does not support: DSE Search, Analytics and Graph, COMPACT STORAGE tables, Kerberos-only authentication and DSE-only drivers. Each one is a task to finish before you move.
Apache Cassandra ships none of the DSE-only workloads, so anything using Search, Analytics or Graph needs a replacement first. For tables and queries that use plain CQL, a rehearsed cross-cluster move to 4.1 or 5.0 is the usual path. AceMQ plans it, and never runs it in the same window as another change.
AceMQ is an independent provider: it is not an IBM or DataStax partner or reseller, gives no licensing advice, and the DSE licence terms stay between you and IBM. DataStax Enterprise end of support: your options
Tier 3 and Tier 4
Tiers 1 and 2 are AceMQ's Cassandra support: you hold the pager and we respond and review. Tiers 3 and 4 are managed services: we hold it. Both run the same operations. What differs is where the ring lives and who owns what underneath it.
AceMQ operates the ring in your data centre, cloud account or Kubernetes clusters, with system access and your change process. You keep the hosts, the data, the keys and the infrastructure bill.
AceMQ hosts and operates the ring on infrastructure it runs, sized to your ingest, with repair, backups and upgrades included. You get connection endpoints, not a server or an on-call rota. A DSE ring at Tier 4 runs on your own IBM licence: AceMQ does not supply DSE licences.
Most Cassandra pain starts in the partition key and the delete pattern. We say when the answer is a model change and a backfill rather than more nodes, and the application team makes that change with an engineer beside them.
A ring can start with support and a first review, then hand over operations once repair history, partition sizes and backups have been checked. Nothing about Tier 3 or 4 needs a big-bang handover.
Tiers 1 and 2 are set out on the Cassandra support page. 24/7 Apache Cassandra support
Choosing honestly
A Cassandra database service is the right answer for some workloads. These are the differences that decide it.
The application is on AWS and uses only the statements Keyspaces supports. You give up secondary indexes, materialized views and user-defined functions, and with them any tuning of compaction or repair.
You want a serverless, consumption-billed service and your team accepts the provider's operating model. Read the CQL documentation for every feature you rely on before you commit.
The ring already exists, runs DSE, depends on features a service omits, or holds data that must stay inside your boundary. Also when one contract should cover Cassandra and the databases around it.
Partition design, consistency levels and the cost of a wide partition remain with whoever owns the workload. On a service that is your team. At Tier 3 or 4 an AceMQ Cassandra engineer owns them with you.
A move between Cassandra platforms is a migration project, scoped and rehearsed on its own. Cassandra pricing and alternatives
Price drivers
AceMQ does not publish a price list for managed services. A managed Cassandra quote is built from these inputs, and the written quote returns within 1 hour of your request.
How many nodes and datacenters, how much data each holds, and how heavy the write and read rate is.
Replication factors and the consistency levels your applications use, which set how much repair and streaming work a node replacement involves.
From business hours to 24/7 on-call with the 15-minute emergency response.
At Tier 3 you pay your provider for infrastructure and AceMQ for operations. At Tier 4 the infrastructure is part of the AceMQ quote.
Not a fit for
We would rather say so up front.
If you want to click to provision a database with no contract and no engineer, buy Keyspaces or Astra DB from the vendor.
AceMQ does not resell DSE licences, negotiate with IBM or give legal advice on your agreement. Your reseller, your contract or your counsel does.
A data model change is shared work, but rewriting the application that issues the queries is yours.
One healthy three-node ring run by someone who knows it may need only a health check and a restore test.
Running other databases too? One contract can cover PostgreSQL, Oracle and more. Managed PostgreSQL services
Escalation Path
Every tier reaches a senior Apache Cassandra engineer. There is no tier-1 triage layer to get through.
P1 escalation path
A replay of one P1, from the first page to the written root-cause analysis
15-minute P1 response, 24/7.
A response time, not a resolution time.
P1 opened, on-call engineer paged
Phone, email or Slack reaches the on-call senior engineer directly, whether the incident is in RabbitMQ, Kafka, Redis, PostgreSQL or Kubernetes. No web form, no tier-1 queue.
Senior engineer on your bridge
A senior engineer who already knows your environment joins a live bridge, so nobody has to re-explain your topology.
Specialists across the stack join
When an incident crosses components, the engineers who know each one join. For RabbitMQ, the path runs to the core team.
Written root-cause analysis
Root cause, the fix applied and the prevention steps, delivered after every P1.
Typical engagements
Typical Cassandra engagements from AceMQ. Each card links to the full write-up: the ring, what the engagement assesses or changes, and what it delivers.
Connected Vehicle Telematics Provider
Resolving read timeouts caused by tombstone accumulation on queue-like partitions where deletes outpaced compaction and gc_grace_seconds.
Apache Cassandra
Kubernetes
Prometheus
LinuxGlobal Payments Processor
Ongoing support for anti-entropy repair that never completed within gc_grace_seconds, leaving the cluster exposed to deleted data resurrecting.
Apache CassandraReaperPrometheusKubernetesPublic Sector Agency
Assessment covering topology, replication and consistency configuration, JVM and garbage collection behavior, compaction health, and growth headroom.
Apache CassandraLinuxPrometheusKubernetesTelecom Platform Team
A typical engagement: AceMQ takes over operations of a telecom platform's Apache Cassandra ring on infrastructure the customer owns, with repair and compaction runbooks that are checked, not just scheduled.
Apache CassandraKubernetesDigital Identity Services Provider
Redesigning partition keys and clustering order to eliminate unbounded partitions and remove secondary index queries that were hitting every node.
Apache CassandraKubernetes
KafkaPrometheusSupport options
AceMQ offers Cassandra cover in four options, each handing more of the day-to-day work to AceMQ: 24/7 support and incident management for rings your team runs, proactive monitoring that finds wide partitions, tombstones and missed repairs first, managed Cassandra on your own infrastructure, and fully managed Cassandra on AceMQ infrastructure. Cassandra 3.11 to 5.0 and DataStax Enterprise are covered in all four.
You run it, we back you up
Best for: Teams that run Cassandra themselves and need senior cover when the ring misbehaves at 3am.
You run it, we watch it with you
Best for: Teams that want the wide partition or the missed repair found in a review, not in an outage.
We run it in your cloud or data centre
Best for: Regulated estates that must keep Cassandra inside their own boundary.
We host it and run it, as a service
Best for: Teams that want Cassandra without owning repair schedules and node replacement.
| Who does what | Tier 1 24/7 support | Tier 2 Proactive monitoring | Tier 3 Managed, your infrastructure | Tier 4 Fully managed by AceMQ |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Who runs Apache Cassandra day to day? | Your team | Your team, with AceMQ reviews | AceMQ | AceMQ |
| Where does it run? | Your infrastructure | Your infrastructure | Your cloud account or data centre | AceMQ infrastructure |
| 24/7 incident response | 15-minute P1 response | 15-minute P1 response | 15-minute P1 response | 15-minute P1 response |
| Health checks and CVE alerts | On request | Scheduled | Included | Included |
| Patching and upgrades | Your team, AceMQ advises | Planned with AceMQ | Done by AceMQ | Done by AceMQ |
| Monitoring and on-call | Your team | Your team | AceMQ | AceMQ |
| Data, keys and accounts | Yours | Yours | Yours | Your data, hosted by AceMQ |
Every Tier can start as an ad hoc engagement or an annual partnership, and you can move up or down a Tier as your team changes.
One partner for Apache Cassandra
Support is one part of what AceMQ does for Apache Cassandra. The same engineers deliver consulting, health checks, migrations and end-of-life cover, and support the systems that usually run next to it.
FAQ
Still have questions about Apache Cassandra? Email an Expert
Managed Cassandra from AceMQ means engineers operate a standard Apache Cassandra ring for you: scheduled repair, compaction, node replacement, rolling upgrades, backups and the pager. The ring runs in your environment (Tier 3) or on infrastructure AceMQ runs (Tier 4). Amazon Keyspaces and Astra DB are database services run by AWS and DataStax. They remove operations, and with them some control: AWS documents that Keyspaces has no secondary indexes, materialized views or user-defined functions.
Yes for your own data centre, virtual machines in your AWS, Azure or Google Cloud account, and Kubernetes or OpenShift clusters (Tier 3), or on infrastructure AceMQ runs (Tier 4). Amazon Keyspaces, Astra DB, Azure Managed Instance for Apache Cassandra and Instaclustr are run by their vendors, so Tiers 3 and 4 do not apply to them. Ask us about support for the data model and query work around them.
IBM lists DSE 6.x end of support as 31 December 2027, when it moves to Extended Support, which ends on 31 December 2031. You can keep operating DSE through that window, move to DataStax's Hyper-Converged Database, or move to Apache Cassandra. Each path needs the DSE-only workloads (Search, Analytics, Graph) and COMPACT STORAGE tables handled first. AceMQ can operate the ring during the move and plan each step. DSE licensing is a matter between you and IBM.
At Tier 3 the data, keys, hosts and any licences stay yours, and access follows your change process and is logged. At Tier 4, the ring runs on AceMQ infrastructure and data protection terms are written into the quote. Apache Cassandra is Apache 2.0 licensed, so there is no licence fee for it. AceMQ does not resell DataStax or IBM licences or give licensing advice.
Yes. AceMQ works on Apache Cassandra in two ways: ad hoc engagements for a defined piece of work, such as a health check, an upgrade or an incident, or an annual contract that covers 24/7 support and proactive reviews. Many teams start ad hoc and move to an annual contract once the first engagement is done.
Managed Apache Cassandra is quoted per scope, with no list price: the price depends on the number of environments and nodes, the SLA, whether AceMQ runs Apache Cassandra on your infrastructure (Tier 3) or on ours (Tier 4), and the access and change process you need. Request a quote and AceMQ replies within 1 hour.
Let's talk
Reactive cover, proactive reviews, or AceMQ running Apache Cassandra for you on your infrastructure or ours. A senior engineer scopes it with you, and quote requests are answered within 1 hour.
Production incident right now?Email an Apache Cassandra Architect
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