The Apache Cassandra NoSQL distributed data store continues to accumulate features that mimic traditional databases, with the newly released version 2 of the open source software offering triggers, lightweight transactions and an updated query language similar to SQL. "A lot of our development is driven [to dissolve] the pain points that our users are feeling the most distress over," said Cassandra vice president Jonathan Ellis, about the release of Cassandra 2.0, which is managed under the Apache Software Foundation.