Deployment Overview¶

This page explains the key decisions you need to make before and during cluster creation. The ScyllaDB Cloud wizard will guide you through the steps, but understanding these choices in advance helps you plan your deployment.

Overview¶

Every ScyllaDB Cloud cluster requires several decisions:

Cloud Provider - AWS or GCP
Account — Deploy under a ScyllaDB-managed account, or bring your own cloud account (BYOA).
ScyllaDB API — Which API your applications will use to access the cluster (CQL or Alternator).
Network access — How your applications will reach the cluster.
Availability Zones — Which AZs the cluster nodes are distributed across.

Step 1: Choose Where to Deploy¶

By default, ScyllaDB Cloud deploys and manages the cluster infrastructure on its own cloud accounts. This is the simplest option and requires no additional setup.

If your organization requires data to stay within your own cloud account — for compliance, cost management, or architecture reasons — you can use Bring Your Own Account (BYOA). With BYOA, the cluster runs in your AWS or GCP account while ScyllaDB Cloud manages the database software.

Note

You must decide whether to use BYOA before creating the cluster. This setting cannot be changed after the cluster is deployed.

Step 2: Choose a ScyllaDB API¶

Another important decision is which API your applications use to access the cluster. ScyllaDB Cloud supports two APIs:

CQL Compatible (default) — the Cassandra Query Language (CQL) interface. Choose this for new applications or when migrating from Apache Cassandra.
Alternator (Amazon DynamoDB compatible) — a DynamoDB-compatible API that lets you run existing Amazon DynamoDB applications with little or no code changes.

See Use ScyllaDB for more about working with the CQL and Alternator APIs.

Step 3: Choose a Network Access Option¶

You must decide how your applications will connect to the cluster. This choice is made during cluster creation and cannot be changed afterward.

ScyllaDB Cloud supports three options:

VPC Peering (AWS or GCP) — creates a private connection between your VPC and the cluster. Traffic stays within the cloud provider’s network. This is the recommended option for most production workloads.
AWS Transit Gateway (TGW) — connects multiple VPCs or AWS accounts to a single cluster through a shared Transit Gateway hub. Choose this when you need more than one VPC or account to reach the cluster.
Direct (public internet) — the cluster is accessible over the public internet with TLS encryption and an IP allowlist. Suitable for evaluation and development only; not recommended for production.

See Network Access Options for a full comparison and setup guides.

Step 4: Configure Availability Zones¶

ScyllaDB Cloud distributes cluster nodes across Availability Zones (AZs) within the region you select. By default, nodes are spread evenly for high availability. You can customize which AZs are used if your architecture requires it.

See Configure Availability Zones for details.

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