But it's not. Because SQL databases (strictly speaking any requiring strong consistency... which is mostly RDBMSes) are highly latency sensitive, where NoSQL d

But it's not. Because SQL databases (strictly speaking any requiring strong consistency... which is mostly RDBMSes) are highly latency sensitive, where NoSQL databases like Cassandra design around that by saying "hey, you could not see the most recent write for a few ms, unless you request a higher consistency level." And most apps are fine with that. As a bonus you get multi-datacenter replication with basically the same code, another place most RDBMSes are weak. It's a classic design hack -- redefining your goal as an easier problem.