The text discusses DataStax Astra, a multi-cloud Database as a Service (DBaaS) that offers a free tier. It highlights Stargate, an open source product by DataStax that provides REST, GraphQL, and document APIs for interacting with Cassandra databases. The author also introduces an authentication plugin for HTTPie, a tool designed for REST API interaction, which can be used to interact with Astra's APIs. Instructions are provided on how to set up the environment and use the plugin.