Coming in Cassandra 1.2: binary CQL protocol

The first version of Cassandra Query Language (CQL) was introduced in Cassandra 0.8 as an alternative to Thrift API. CQL has been using Thrift as a network transport due to its convenience and speed, but it is not tied to Thrift for the transport. In Cassandra 1.2, a new binary protocol will be introduced that is specifically tailored for CQL3. This protocol offers features such as asynchronicity and notifications. To use this new protocol, users need to have a version of Cassandra 1.2, activate the binary protocol server in cassandra.yaml, and use a client driver that supports the new protocol. DataStax has open-sourced a Java Driver for this purpose.