Cassandra uses log-structured merge storage, so reads really _are_ slower than writes. (But still much faster than MySQL!) You can (usually) make reads faster

Cassandra uses log-structured merge storage, so reads really _are_ slower than writes. (But still much faster than MySQL!) You can (usually) make reads faster by throwing things like memcached at the problem. Writes are harder. So I think this is the right tradeoff for a modern system. /Cassandra dev